Bonjour,
Hope you are well. Well it feels like winter is coming to an end. I just noticed outside the buds appearing on some of the trees, you can feel the temperature heading north, and there's now only slight remnants of snow on the Luberon mountain. Either that or Spring is having a false start, would not be surprised, it feels like it's just a bit too early.
Sophie is loving school. She is speaking French with her preschool buddies, it's so cute to see, and her French accent is impeccable. Every so often, when I talk a bit of French she will say "That's not how you say it Daddy...., it's .....", and I'll say "oh, ok" and repeat it the way she told me, it brings a big smile to my face every time.
Last week we made the most of Sophie's day off school and great weather to visit Les Baux-de-Provence. This place is amazing. I've probably said that about a few places, but that's, well, France for you. But really this village is up right up there and to have seen it on such a perfect day, without the crowds, was fantastic. When we arrived we headed up the mountain behind it and found this perfect picnic spot as pictured below...
From this spot we could look down at Les Baux-de-Provence, us as shown below. You can see the ruins of the castle on the ridge just to the left of Sophie.
They've found evidence of human habitation at Les Baux dating back to 6000 BC, the Celts used it as a hill fort around 200 BC, and during the Middle Ages the Lords of Les Baux ruled over 79 surrounding villages. This photo below was taken from the top of the castle ruins. Unfortunately after a revolt the castle was destroyed by King Louis XI in 1483.
After strolling through the ruins of Les Baux, Jane started to get way out of hand for no reason at all, we had no choice, see below...... and it makes the holiday just that bit more complete with a photo of one of us in stocks.
This was another photo I took from the top of the castle. It shows the picturesque view to the east over olive groves, farm land and a limestone mountain range called the Alpilles.
And this photo shows the view south with the Mediterranean in the distance, and some medieval catapults on the village plateau in the foreground.
With the recent run of warmer days, we were all keen to make the most of it, including Connor. I saw him outside by himself one morning lying on the sunbed with a book on French history.....chip off the ole block hey...
It wasn't so long ago that I was running around trying to buy some firewood, and has soon as we got in the door after an outing I would start making the fire. Here is Soph below warming herself up one evening. We've really enjoyed having the fire and it creates a nice atmosphere in the house. We don't want winter to end in some ways, it's just been so cozy and so different to life back in Australia.
I mean like it's not often you can pick up a big chunk of ice from the side of the road, as shown below, and have some fun with the kids by throwing it into a creek and watching it float along and gradually melt away at the same time, what a hoot, ...ah it's the simple things in life hey.
And here we are walking through another part of this mysterious place. This section had been carved out of the rocks and shows tombs on the left and right probably where some of the monks were put to rest.
I took this photo of Connor showing his new Spiderman matching beany and scarf, which Jane cleverly purchased and which he loves.
The other day I went for a drive to a little village called St-Michael-l'Observatoire where our friend Martin is doing some restoration work on a 12C church. On the way there I came across this Roman road marker, erected close to 2000 years ago!
Here is Martin and his "economiste" (the guy would does the sums on who much it will cost to do the work), looking at some suspected fire damage. After talking with an historian Martin thinks the church was set fire to during the Religious Wars in the 16th century.
From the top of St-Michael-l'Observatoire I took this photo of a fascinating mountain in the distance which has been severely mined at some stage. A lot of mining went on in the Luberon valley during the last couple of centuries, tin, orchre, phosphorous, limestone for building....What was really interesting here, after I took a closer look at the photo, was that half way up the mountain you can just see a little church and at the top there is what looks like the ruins of a castle. Despite the carnage on the landscape they at least knew when to stop.
Our friend Maite invited us around for lunch the other day with our neighbor Jean-Pierre. I caught Soph's attention here whilst Jane was in deep discussion, ....we spoke and listened mostly in French that day. A most enjoyable, truly French experience and the food, "tres, tres bonne" (very, very good), cheers to the chef Maite!
Hope you are well. Well it feels like winter is coming to an end. I just noticed outside the buds appearing on some of the trees, you can feel the temperature heading north, and there's now only slight remnants of snow on the Luberon mountain. Either that or Spring is having a false start, would not be surprised, it feels like it's just a bit too early.
Sophie is loving school. She is speaking French with her preschool buddies, it's so cute to see, and her French accent is impeccable. Every so often, when I talk a bit of French she will say "That's not how you say it Daddy...., it's .....", and I'll say "oh, ok" and repeat it the way she told me, it brings a big smile to my face every time.
Last week we made the most of Sophie's day off school and great weather to visit Les Baux-de-Provence. This place is amazing. I've probably said that about a few places, but that's, well, France for you. But really this village is up right up there and to have seen it on such a perfect day, without the crowds, was fantastic. When we arrived we headed up the mountain behind it and found this perfect picnic spot as pictured below...
From this spot we could look down at Les Baux-de-Provence, us as shown below. You can see the ruins of the castle on the ridge just to the left of Sophie.
They've found evidence of human habitation at Les Baux dating back to 6000 BC, the Celts used it as a hill fort around 200 BC, and during the Middle Ages the Lords of Les Baux ruled over 79 surrounding villages. This photo below was taken from the top of the castle ruins. Unfortunately after a revolt the castle was destroyed by King Louis XI in 1483.
After strolling through the ruins of Les Baux, Jane started to get way out of hand for no reason at all, we had no choice, see below...... and it makes the holiday just that bit more complete with a photo of one of us in stocks.
This was another photo I took from the top of the castle. It shows the picturesque view to the east over olive groves, farm land and a limestone mountain range called the Alpilles.
And this photo shows the view south with the Mediterranean in the distance, and some medieval catapults on the village plateau in the foreground.
With the recent run of warmer days, we were all keen to make the most of it, including Connor. I saw him outside by himself one morning lying on the sunbed with a book on French history.....chip off the ole block hey...
It wasn't so long ago that I was running around trying to buy some firewood, and has soon as we got in the door after an outing I would start making the fire. Here is Soph below warming herself up one evening. We've really enjoyed having the fire and it creates a nice atmosphere in the house. We don't want winter to end in some ways, it's just been so cozy and so different to life back in Australia.
I mean like it's not often you can pick up a big chunk of ice from the side of the road, as shown below, and have some fun with the kids by throwing it into a creek and watching it float along and gradually melt away at the same time, what a hoot, ...ah it's the simple things in life hey.
The photo above was taken at a lovely spot we came upon one day we went for a drive east of here. There was a fascinating 12C priory there, the Prieure de Carluc, hidden away in a little valley. Below shows Jane and Connor with the priory church behind.
And here we are walking through another part of this mysterious place. This section had been carved out of the rocks and shows tombs on the left and right probably where some of the monks were put to rest.
I took this photo of Connor showing his new Spiderman matching beany and scarf, which Jane cleverly purchased and which he loves.
This photo shows the view down the Grand Luberon valley as we started heading home. The scenery is beautiful, with the old village of Cereste in the distance and snow speckled across the mountain.
The other day I went for a drive to a little village called St-Michael-l'Observatoire where our friend Martin is doing some restoration work on a 12C church. On the way there I came across this Roman road marker, erected close to 2000 years ago!
Here is Martin and his "economiste" (the guy would does the sums on who much it will cost to do the work), looking at some suspected fire damage. After talking with an historian Martin thinks the church was set fire to during the Religious Wars in the 16th century.
From the top of St-Michael-l'Observatoire I took this photo of a fascinating mountain in the distance which has been severely mined at some stage. A lot of mining went on in the Luberon valley during the last couple of centuries, tin, orchre, phosphorous, limestone for building....What was really interesting here, after I took a closer look at the photo, was that half way up the mountain you can just see a little church and at the top there is what looks like the ruins of a castle. Despite the carnage on the landscape they at least knew when to stop.
Our friend Maite invited us around for lunch the other day with our neighbor Jean-Pierre. I caught Soph's attention here whilst Jane was in deep discussion, ....we spoke and listened mostly in French that day. A most enjoyable, truly French experience and the food, "tres, tres bonne" (very, very good), cheers to the chef Maite!
Below shows the wash house in the little village of Saignon that overlooks nearby Apt. It's fed by a natural spring and is where the village people would come to do their washing.
Here we are down at the village park. Always a great way to get the kids out of the house, just mention "park", and we're off. During summer that restaurant you can see on the left would be busy. As you can see in the photo there is not a soul in sight. That's been really nice for us, to experience Provence during this quiet time of the year. You feel just that little bit more like a local and we've been able to see the sights at our leisure without the crowds.
Bonne santé et meilleurs voeux à vous
(Good health and best wishes to you)
A bientot (bye for now)
Jane, Sophie, Connor, et moi
