Bonne journee,
Hope you are well, and if you are Down Under hope you're enjoying all that sunshine! As I write this it's just after 11am in the morning and about 2 degrees outside. But we are keeping nice and snug, and enjoying the novelty of it all. It finally snowed again yesterday. It was beautiful. We had the fire on all day and I made pizza for the very first time from scratch, ie starting from yeast, flour, and water, and it was a success! Here I am reading to the kids with the snow falling outside.
I am in the process of buying two cubic meters of firewood so we'll be keeping warm that's for sure. Here was the view out the front of the house yesterday.
Connor staring out at the snow as it settles on the car....
The day before I cooked up my first rabbit stew, very happy with that result too. Below is a photo of Buggs just before he went into the pot......yum!
I went for a another great walk the other day with my neighbor Jean-Pierre and one of the walking club members, Bridgette. It was over near the village of Lioux which is at the bottom of an amazing cliff formation. This photo shows the two of them, and six metres to the right is a about a 100 metre drop to the village below...
A bit further along there was an overhang in the cliff and you could look through a gap and see one the village roads below, that's 100 metres below!
And after we came off the cliff we walked through this lovely, serene valley with lavender fields running along one side as shown below...
Sophie went to her very first French birthday party. It was her good friend Nepheli's birthday. Connor got a surprise guest pass so he didn't miss out. Here they both are on the left with their faces painted watching the blowing out of the candles....
Martin and Roxanne offered to look after Sophie and Connor one Saturday night so Jane and I headed out to this cool little music venue, " La Fabuleuz" where we saw the "Ioanes Trio", a folk/jazz/rock band from Forcalquier, a nearby town. It was a very French experience, and it was really nice to you go on a date with my beautiful wife :).
And here we are with Martin and Roxanne and Beth, our dear friend who came to stay with us recently. We saw so much of Beth when we were up in The Lot so it was great to catch up. We had duck that night. Beth brought down two duck breasts marinated in cepes, all the way from The Lot, she knew it was our favourite, thanks Beth!
Beth had not been to the Luberon Valley before so I was more than happy to show her around. We visited Rousillon, one of the most picturesque villages you will ever see. It sits on a spectacular ochre hill and the whole village is painted in ochre red.
Here is one of the many beautiful path ways in Rousillon....
Here is Rousillon's mairie or town hall....
And a mural painted on a door way....
I took Beth to the hill top town of Lacoste where this photo was taken. In the distance you can see Bonnieux, another gorgeous hill top town...
In Bonnieux we came across a fountain and a plaque next to it that showed a very old photo of the spot. The grand house on the immediate right was the old village post office...
And here was a photo taken that day from roughly the same spot, hasn't really changed much right...
Here is a photo of the Pont Julien, an impressive Roman bridge built in 3BC. It was part of the Via Domitia, an important ancient road that linked Italy to it's Roman colonies in France and Spain. It was used by cars right up until 2005, that's two thousand years of continual use!
Here is Beth and the kids pulling Shirley Temple faces for the camera. This was taken only last week and shows how beautiful some days are, even in the midst of winter. We miss you already Beth.
We visited Lourmarin, a gorgeous little town about a half an hour from here. It's where Peter Mayle of "A Year in Provence" fame lives. Below is a photo of Soph playing around one of the town's fountains. Interestingly there is a protestant church in Louramin, the first one I have seen in France. It's all catholic churches. The town has a tragic history. In 1545, the whole town was burned and the population massacred by Catholic troops because most of the town folk were Waldensian Protestants. The French Religious Wars went on for a large part of the 16th century.
Here is a photo of Connor running towards me with the Renaissance Chateau of Loumarin in the background.
Well, no snow so far today, but it's still about 2 degrees outside and tomorrow the forecast is that it will reach -1 degrees in the morning, crikey! Time to stoke up the fire.
Hope you are well, and if you are Down Under hope you're enjoying all that sunshine! As I write this it's just after 11am in the morning and about 2 degrees outside. But we are keeping nice and snug, and enjoying the novelty of it all. It finally snowed again yesterday. It was beautiful. We had the fire on all day and I made pizza for the very first time from scratch, ie starting from yeast, flour, and water, and it was a success! Here I am reading to the kids with the snow falling outside.
I am in the process of buying two cubic meters of firewood so we'll be keeping warm that's for sure. Here was the view out the front of the house yesterday.
And looking out the back window towards the mountains....
Connor staring out at the snow as it settles on the car....
The day before I cooked up my first rabbit stew, very happy with that result too. Below is a photo of Buggs just before he went into the pot......yum!
I went for a another great walk the other day with my neighbor Jean-Pierre and one of the walking club members, Bridgette. It was over near the village of Lioux which is at the bottom of an amazing cliff formation. This photo shows the two of them, and six metres to the right is a about a 100 metre drop to the village below...
A bit further along there was an overhang in the cliff and you could look through a gap and see one the village roads below, that's 100 metres below!
And after we came off the cliff we walked through this lovely, serene valley with lavender fields running along one side as shown below...
Sophie went to her very first French birthday party. It was her good friend Nepheli's birthday. Connor got a surprise guest pass so he didn't miss out. Here they both are on the left with their faces painted watching the blowing out of the candles....
Martin and Roxanne offered to look after Sophie and Connor one Saturday night so Jane and I headed out to this cool little music venue, " La Fabuleuz" where we saw the "Ioanes Trio", a folk/jazz/rock band from Forcalquier, a nearby town. It was a very French experience, and it was really nice to you go on a date with my beautiful wife :).
And here we are with Martin and Roxanne and Beth, our dear friend who came to stay with us recently. We saw so much of Beth when we were up in The Lot so it was great to catch up. We had duck that night. Beth brought down two duck breasts marinated in cepes, all the way from The Lot, she knew it was our favourite, thanks Beth!
Beth had not been to the Luberon Valley before so I was more than happy to show her around. We visited Rousillon, one of the most picturesque villages you will ever see. It sits on a spectacular ochre hill and the whole village is painted in ochre red.
Here is one of the many beautiful path ways in Rousillon....
Here is Rousillon's mairie or town hall....
And a mural painted on a door way....
I took Beth to the hill top town of Lacoste where this photo was taken. In the distance you can see Bonnieux, another gorgeous hill top town...
In Bonnieux we came across a fountain and a plaque next to it that showed a very old photo of the spot. The grand house on the immediate right was the old village post office...
And here was a photo taken that day from roughly the same spot, hasn't really changed much right...
Here is a photo of the Pont Julien, an impressive Roman bridge built in 3BC. It was part of the Via Domitia, an important ancient road that linked Italy to it's Roman colonies in France and Spain. It was used by cars right up until 2005, that's two thousand years of continual use!
Here is Beth and the kids pulling Shirley Temple faces for the camera. This was taken only last week and shows how beautiful some days are, even in the midst of winter. We miss you already Beth.
We visited Lourmarin, a gorgeous little town about a half an hour from here. It's where Peter Mayle of "A Year in Provence" fame lives. Below is a photo of Soph playing around one of the town's fountains. Interestingly there is a protestant church in Louramin, the first one I have seen in France. It's all catholic churches. The town has a tragic history. In 1545, the whole town was burned and the population massacred by Catholic troops because most of the town folk were Waldensian Protestants. The French Religious Wars went on for a large part of the 16th century.
Here is a photo of Connor running towards me with the Renaissance Chateau of Loumarin in the background.
Well, no snow so far today, but it's still about 2 degrees outside and tomorrow the forecast is that it will reach -1 degrees in the morning, crikey! Time to stoke up the fire.
Bonne sante et a bientot,
Jane, Soph, Connor, and moi
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