A fete day in Provence,

I just love it when I have something special to look forwards to !

Most of my life is fairly ordinary, general housework, gardening, my walks .... all the usual sort of things. So, an excitement is very welcome !!

One day which I enjoyed very much was the fete day at the campsite outside Roussillon when we were on holiday there this year.




The judgement !

It started off with a day-long boules tournament with teams of campers and locals battling it out !!


This is a game which we play occasionally but I don't seem to have too much of a competitive spirit and a few hours slugging it away didn't tempt me at all.

But, I went to watch awhile and admire the skill and intensity of involvement..

They all seemed to be having a great time and the competitions seemed quite fierce.......

I was actually much more interested in the swimming pool as it was a humid, scorcher of a day and I needed to cool off and what better way than a few lengths in an unheated pool and a quick shower.

By the end of our stay at the campsite the pool was lovely and almost too warm for cooling off in !!

When the competition was eventually over I again went to watch the prize giving ceremony - all very light hearted and fun with goodies handed out to almost all it seemed.

In the morning I had been to visit a fellow brit at the campsite - Cecille was quite an elderly lady (an anglican priest) who had lived in an anglican community in Provence for 25 years but had now returned to Devon to enjoy her 'almost' retirement.

She had been coming to this campsite for years and had a caravan permanently stored here.

Cecille

She had actually taken the ferry to Bilbao and then driven over by herself, taking a few days with overnight stops en route.

Very spirited.





We arranged that she would come to the fete with us, and were to pick her up just before 7 pm when it all kicked off proper !!



Well, most of the time we had been in Provence we had had fantastic weather but today it was fickle and by the early evening there were clouds rumbling by and showers of rain now and then.



When the boules competition was eventually over we went to watch the prize giving ceremony - all very light hearted and fun with goodies handed out to almost all it seemed.

local vintner

We then all trooped down into the games room for glasses of wine supplied by the local vintner while the staff decided if the whole event could carry on indoor or outdoors.

We had in fact sampled  quite a few of his delicious wines already !

Thankfully it was decided that it was all systems go and we wandered down to the party area - which was all set up with tables and chairs (in rows) and music speakers with a dj and we could also smell the delicious chicken paella.

We take our place and the festivities begin.




Jugs of wine and bottles of water are placed in front of us and we we queue up in turn to be served our supper - we'd had to book our place and the charge for the whole evening was 15 Euros each.

 A bargain as it turned out.


Luckily for us we sat opposite the most funny happy-go-lucky chap I've ever met - he had a big wide grin and was full of jollity all night long and best of all I later found out that he loved to dance too !!

 He was actually Dutch and so he and his wife spoke excellent English, thank goodness. Also she didn't seem to mind me monopolising him for dancing !!!

One of the best things about the continental festivals for me is the dancing that follows and the fact that most of the people there will at one stage or another over the evening be up on the dancefloor enjoying themselves !!!

So un-british-like but such good fun, well for me at least.

To my husband it is an endurance test, although it does rather depend how many beers he's had !!


The were all sorts of dance styles that night - rocknroll, salsa, ce rock, the conga (a few times !!) and whatever you felt like doing really. Simply fun.


Cecille retired fairly early but we stayed on till the bitter end and by then Phil had actually danced a few times with me even and especially the slow smoochy number at the end ! A real trial for him but so appreciated by me.



 A lovely huggy number to round the evening off and even after ever so many years of marriage it is still blissful.





Dancing queen ????

    I awake the next morning to tweaks and creaks in my back    and hips - oh dear, the toll is felt by the body having been whirling and twirling all night long.

Still, no pain, no gain is what they say and I reckon it was worth it for all the joy I felt when dancing.

Can't wait for next time now....!.

　


A little uplifting ?

To start with I wasn't sure what to call this little episode but I think the title is quite apt really...as you'll see .....

We were on our way from Provence over to the French Pyrenees to attend another of hubby's orienteering events, this one being the French 5 days. We'd packed the caravan and set off fairly early as we'd hoped to arrive early to mid-afternoon. It is always more comfortable if we can get settled in at the new campsite and have time for a quick shuftie around the place and then a shower before supper etc.

Life at a leisurely pace is our aim on the whole these days and that was our intention this day too.

We'd gone about 15 miles along the main route towards Avignon when all of a sudden there was quite a loud 'pop' - the sort of noise the car usually makes when driving over a plastic drinks bottle ! but we'd not noticed one on the road and so were a trifle puzzled.

We carried on driving, nothing untowards had happened but we felt uneasy and so decided to slow down just in case and then it became obvious that something was wrong. Hubby figured out that maybe we'd had a puncture on the caravan ?

 So we began turning into the nearest exit which happened to be the entrance to a farm and also a small fruit packing factory unit. Here we came to literally grinding halt - the noise was awful in fact but at least we were out of the way of the traffic.



There was quite a slope off the road and as we turned in hubby had been able to look back and see what had happened - it is a very rare occurance that he swears but he exclaimed - bollocks ! I just knew that it was serious.


A tyre had punctured, and was shredding as we were driving into the parking area - in fact we were now on the rim and just had to stop once we were safely off the main road.

The spare tyre is got out from under the caravan, and I would not let hubby use the little jack as we were on a slope downwards and sideways and I had visions of the caravan sliding or doing something equally horrendous !!

I suggested that he go down to the fruit farm whose drive we were on and see if they had a big trolley jack we could borrow.

He trots off and to my great surprise comes back with the farmer driving of all things a small fork lift truck !! They'd gone into the packing factory and picked it up. 

It was so funny to see but was perfect for the job !!

The farmer drives up to the caravan, slides the forks under the side and gently, gently, lifts it up so the wrecked tyre can be taken off !!


 It's an amazing sight. The spare tyre is popped on and Bob's your uncle - all done and dusted, and safely too, which was my main concern.


We thank the farmer profusely for his help and he trundles back on down to the factory. We wend our way on to Avignon to try and find a new tyre which proved to be quite difficult in fact.

We eventually find a place open and they fix us up with 2 new tyres - and promptly close for a 2 hour lunch. We'd just managed to catch them in time. We resume our journey.



We arrived at Matemale (a ski resort in fact), ever so high up in the Pyrenees early evening in the end. The last 30 km stretch up the mountains was a marathon of hairpin bends and ever so slow going, as it was all uphill and ended up taking us about 2 hours !

Who ever said travel is quick and easy these days should just try taking some of the more obscure roads in Europe, and especially with a caravan in tow !!

The views had been absolutely amazing though, so worth the journey.

Phew it had been an exciting, exhausting day and I was ready for bed.

              Thank goodness the bed in the caravan is amazingly comfortable !