Sophie's birthday party, and a bientot Provence

Bonjour!

Hope all is well.

We had a birthday party for our Sophie. She doesn't turn five until the 5th of May, but we thought it would be nice to have one with her friends before we left for Italy. I took this photo of her recently in Forcalquier, our little girl is growing up! The title of this blog includes "a bientot Provence" which basically means "see you later Provence". We love this place and we're already looking forward to coming back.

Jane had done a fantastic job of making cakes and a host of other sugar packed nibbles for the wee ones. I took the photo below of some of the goodies just as Connor had decided to do some taste testing.

Here's the party in full swing with a game of musical chairs underway....

 

Sophie was a star performer with musical chairs, making it to the last two...

 

Here's Soph, amongst some of her French friends around the time of the candle blowing. There's the birthday cake that Jane had made, front and centre, absolutely delicious it was. Interestingly the fruit platters were in high demand..

 

Below was taken at Martin and Roxanne's place one night recently. We were having dinner and the kids were watching a movie that was projected onto the lounge room wall above the fireplace. The kids had a ball.

 

Every Saturday morning we have headed off to the popular markets at Apt, a town about 20km from here. I wanted to take some photos of the markets before we left. The shot below shows one section of Apt markets that winds through many of the streets of the "old town". You can see the Church of Saint Anne in the back ground.

 

Here is a photo of the Arab section of the markets where we would frequently buy our fruit and veg. The quality and range of produce was impressive and it was cheap too.

 

 

Here I am taste testing some of the cheese a lady was selling that morning. You can see Connor hanging precariously in the line of foot traffic in the backpack. You can also see the medieval clock tower in the back ground along with the beautiful rustic yellow facades of the old town houses. I went with the sheep's cheese, a real favourite these days. 

We recently visited Arles. What an action packed day. When we first arrived we noticed police every where and saw signs saying there was a "manifestation" on that same day. It looked like Arles was in for protests of some sort. Anyway that was not going to stop us from visiting some of Arles' amazing Roman sights. We started with the ruins of the Roman Theatre as shown below.

 

As we walked out I noticed that Connor had in his hand what looked like a little piece of the Roman Theatre! We couldn't keep it, so Jane, very honestly took it back. The people working at the Theatre had a laugh and pretended to shield there eyes and said "take it, take it, souvenir" - Jane couldn't and left it there.   Below you can see some of the police hanging around in their riot gear, what was going on we were wondering...... 

We then headed to the Roman Arena, wow what a sight, another huge impressive construction by the Romans undertaken nearly 2,000 years ago. Back then the gladiators and chariot races held centre stage. Now days large crowds gather there for the bullfighting during the Festival of Arles, and during summer the weekly bull running, and concerts and plays.

After the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century the Arena become a shelter for people and eventually it became almost a town in itself with 200 houses, a public square in the middle and two chapels. Below shows what the Arena looked like in the 18th century....

Showing the grandeur of the Roman Arena here is a shot of  Connor running under the outer main arches....

The things you can find at the bottom of the Rhone River! Below is a life size marble bust archeologists believe to be the oldest (around 46 BC) known representation of Julius Ceasar. It's the star attraction at the Arles Antique Museum. Divers discovered it at the bottom of the Rhone River at Arles in 2007.

 

In the same area divers also found this Roman barge which sank about 2,000 years ago...

Heading back to the centre of Arles I found this cute little shop. With a name like " Le Monde de Sophie" or in English "The world of Sophie" I just had to take a photo...

After dinner and whilst heading back to the car park we found out what was going on, the farmers were protesting! I think it was over a proposed new tax. The photo below shows some tractors which they had driven into the heart of the city to block traffic. You can see Jane, and the kids on the left. We were starting get a little concerned about whether we were able to drive home. Luckily the road out of the car park was not blocked.

On the way out of Arles, I've never seen anything quite like this before, on the other side of the road we estimated there was about twenty-five kilometres of semi-trailors parked across two lanes blocking all traffic. We felt sorry for the many people in their cars stuck in between those trucks.

Now this was another unusual experience. I thought it would be nice to go to mass here in the village. It only occurs once a month. The photo below shows the kids and I rolling up to this small 900 year old church. I looked in the door and there was just the priest and one lady who was the priest's assistant. I asked if mass was about to start and they said yes, yes or "oui, oui". We went to sit in the middle row and she said no, no, come right up the front. She asked if we were on "vacances", "oui" we replied. She had a chat to the priest and mass begun. We looked around and no one else was there! We sat there for a full mass, in French, just us, in the front row,the kids playing up, and that lady looking at me when each hymn started up to encourage us to sing. So I sang along in French as much I could. Talk about feeling special. How nice of them to do that just for us. After the mass the lady said that it was unusual because being the first week of holidays a lot of families were out of town.

Here is Soph and I hanging out in a café in Forcalquier, making the most of some sunshine on a late winter's day.....

One day I headed up the mountain behind us here with my mate, Mike, an English guy who lives here in the village. Interestingly, his wife, Shelagh, commutes by train all the way to London each week for her job. The photo below was taken from inside a cave, with our village below.

 

 And here we both are after gladly making it to the summit of " Point Tu"....

 

 

And still on the subject of mountain climbing, our neighbor here, Jean-Pierre, who is also a member of the walkers club, stood up half way through a walk one day and said "who would like to join Michael and myself to climb Mount Saint Victoire", in French of course. He knew that it was on my wish list whilst in Provence. A bunch said yes, and so we were off that following Sunday.  

 

As a reminder, it's this majestic looking mountain that sits about 20km outside of Aix-en-Provence and the mountain that Cezanne painted over 60 times. This was a photo I took of it from Aix when we stayed there in November last year.

Below is a photo I took that Sunday, looking up at the "Croix de Provence" which sits on the peak of Mount Saint Victoire. You can see a bunch of people around the "Croix", the views were amazing.

And this is a photo of us standing just a few metres from the Croix de Provence. It was a memorable day -  thanks so much Jean-Pierre for making it happen.

Sophie's school had organized a fancy dress parade through the streets of the village. The spectacular old ochre mines nearby are called the "Colorado" and there is a real interest here in American native Indians. So the younger class, which Sophie is in, dressed up as Indians, as shown below.  The kids helped paint their own outfits.

Here is Jane and Soph right up the front of this colourful procession. The guy on Sophie's left looks like a Ninja on some kind of a mission, right?  In the background, crisp blue skies, the ancient village church, and blossoming almond trees, just perfect.

 

 

From there the kids walked down the old main street. The locals were coming out of their houses to say hi and wave to the kids.  

 

 

And then the proceedings took an interesting turn. All the kids and parents sat or stood in a horse shoe on a nearby paddock. In the middle, upfront, was a dummy sitting on a chair. The kids then had turns walking up to the dummy and saying what the dummy had done wrong. For example, one child said in French " you killed my dog", or like "you stole my horse" or "you ate my lollies", there was a lot of laughing going on. My mate, Martin said it was like watching a group therapy session. Below shows Soph and Nephelie walking back after telling the dummy what he had done wrong to them.  Anyway, after the kids had vented their anger and a declaration by one of the teachers dressed up as a clown, poor Mr. dummy was set a light!      

 

 

Here he is, burning away, ...... as an eerie silence fell on the crowd. As you would say in English and in French, "bizarre". But hey, it was harmless and the kids had a ball.

 

 

Below shows Jane and the kids relaxing in a lovely little courtyard in the old part of Forcalquier, a statue of St Michael adorning the fountain..

We had Gilles and Louise around for dinner on Thursday, it was a lovely night. They own the house here. Thanks so much guys for allowing us to stay in this beautiful house and for all your help and friendship whilst we have been here, a bientot.

So we say good bye to our little village which we called home for five months, there at the bottom of the mountains on the edge of the Luberon Valley in amazing Provence. Thanks for the memories!

Tomorrow we're on the road again, with no fixed abode and Italy waiting for us on the other side of the Alps. Ahh, the freedom!

Parler bientôt de l'Italie (talk soon from Italy)

Jane, Sophie, Connor et moi

 

 

La Camargue, Avignon, and French movies

Bonjour

Hope you are well. It definitely feels like winter is over. It was a breeze really, we enjoyed it. Apparently it was the warmest winter in close to 100 years, I'm glad I didn't buy all that extra firewood! The birds are chirping, migrating birds are flying north, flowers are appearing and there's more people out and about.

A few days ago we finally got down to La Camargue. It's this fascinating protected nature reserve covering 85,000ha across the Rhone delta. It's also home to the Camargue black bull which they use in the French bull fights and festivals (from what I know in most cases they don't kill the bulls in France, it's more about the bulls chasing people), a tough breed of white horses that are basically native to the area, and many birds, including the legendary pink flamingoes.

Our first stop was the beach at Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer as shown below. It's the first time we've seen the ocean (if you include the Mediterrnean that is) in close to seven months! That has to be some sort of record for me. It was lovely to see.

After having a picnic on the beach and dodging the sand that Connor was throwing everywhere we headed into the heart of this quaint sea side town. Here we found this 900 year old fortified church which I'd read you can go to the top of. Jane insisted that just I go up and have a look. Well I went up the spiral staircase to the top and wow, what a view, and I couldn't believe that people were actually climbing up the roof of the church to gain an even better view, as you can see below. I've never sat on the roof of a church before.

After coming back down I said to Jane, "you have to see this". So we all went up, and climbed the roof. Jane was a bit nervous, understandably, I was too, the kids weren't, it was safe and what an amazing experience.

We then headed off to see some more of this intriguing area. Here is one of the Camargue black bulls.....

And here are the white horses that roam across these flat lands that are interspersed with marshes.

 

Towards the end of the day we were starting to loose hope of finding some pink flamingoes. At that point we had only seen them in the distance. And then, just as the sun was setting we saw them, we couldn't believe it. There they were, two of them, a couple, so peaceful. It was like the ending to our day was written into a script.

I took this just after the sun disappeared behind the lake. Those lines are from the jet streams the planes leave behind. They tend to linger in the sky forever.

We had some friends of ours come down from The Lot, all of about six hour drive away, for the weekend. It was fantastic to see them again and we had a great time. We really appreciated their visit. It was funny, in that we were showing them, our French friends, around Provence. Here we are with Celine, Denis, Gabriel, and sweet little Romane, at the old ochre mines in Rousillon.

Gabriel is about the same age as Sophie and Romane the same with Connor, so they really enjoyed hanging out together, very cute...

On the Sunday, after a few drinks the night before, Jane's lasagna went down very well for lunch. It was a perfect day, not a cloud in the sky....

 

We took the guys to Mernerbes, one of our favourite villages. Here is Soph and Gabriel in front of a big old door.

And all four kids, hand in hand, strolling through the picturesque streets of Menerbes.

Whilst looking at the old church, Celine suggested they take a family photo of us knowing the opportunity may not come up too often. She was right, and here is the result, I'll treasure this photo....

For something different, one day we visited the chandelier maker, Mathieu Lustrerie, in Gargas a little town not far away. His customers come from all over the world. Mathieu has a big collection of antique chandeliers which we were able to see.  The photo below shows us watching a chandelier actually being made.

Here is a photo of Lacoste, another gorgeous hill top village in the Luberon. What's really interesting is the chateau you can see at the top of the village is where the fashion designer Pierre Cardin lives, well at least when he's on vacation. It's also where the Marquis de Sade lived back in the 1770's. That's where the word "sadism" came from. He got up to all kinds of mischief, he saw "the pursuit of pleasure as the highest calling, regardless of morality or laws", and consequently he spent a lot of time in jail.

Here is a photo taken from up behind the partially restored chateau and a shows an abstract statue of the Marquis de Sade....

 

We recently visited Avignon for a better look around. This was the "Vatican" for about 70 years during the 14th century. Seven popes reigned here during that time. I took the photo below from Villeneuve-les-Avignon, looking across the Rhone River at Avignon, with the Popes Palace clearly seen.

We then headed over the river and visited the Palace. Here is Soph and Connor exploring one of the grand rooms where the Popes once resided...

Here is a old painting of what it once looked like just outside the entrance to the Palace. See that grand building on the left...

Here it is today with our little Soph and Connor standing in front .... I'd say it was one of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen, the sculptures built into the façade were so detailed.

Here is Jane and the kids enjoying Avignon....I think that was just after I said to the kids it was time to buy an ice cream.

Below is another photo I took in Villeneuve-les-Avignon looking over at the original fortified chateau. Those blossoming trees in the foreground are almond trees and they, along with cherry trees that look similar, are blossoming everywhere in Provence at the moment, it's a sight to see.

I took this close up of some of the almond tree flowers with a bee busy collecting pollen. You can hear the buzzing of countless numbers of bees when you stand nearby. We have a couple on our back yard here.

Have you ever seen the French movie "Jean de Florette" and its sequel "Manon des Sources"? If not, you should, they are great. They're based on a novel by Marcel Pagnol. As an aside, interestingly France has received the most Nobel Prizes in Literature out of any country. Anyway, these two movies are set in the Provence country side. Below is the movie poster for the Manon des Sources. That girl in the poster is Manon, played by the stunning Emmanuelle Beart.

And below is an important scene from Manon des Sources where a man comes running up to tell the village folk the main spring for the village has run dry. The fountain just behind the men runs dry as well.

And, here is Soph and I in that same spot. It's in a little village called Mirabeau about an hour from here. You can see that distinctively shaped house in the distance in both shots.

Not long before I took the photo above a group of locals walked past and this little girl ran out to the fountain and started playing with Connor. Her parents called out to her, and you would not believe it, her name was Manon! "Manon, Manon", her father called - it was one of those "pinch yourself" moments. One I can tell Connor about when he's old enough and seen the movie.

We waited for the Café de la Fontaine to open which is just across from the fountain above and is seen in the movie. We chatted to the lady behind the bar about the movie and she brought out some photos that the locals took of the making of the movie in the village, including a few of Gérard Depardieu (he's in the first movie), chilling out between shoots. Here is Jane leaving the Café after having a chat to a few of the locals.

One Sunday we headed to the weekly markets at L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue. It was a gorgeous day. This beautiful town is set on a network of canals and its well known for its huge number of antique shops. We spent most of our time in a park enjoying the sun and people watching.  

That same day we decided to head to Vaison-la-Romaine about an hour north and on the way drive through the scenic Dentelles de Montmirail mountain range. We took this photo along the way - not a bad place to live hey.

Below is a photo of the Roman made bridge in Vaison-la-Romaine. The Romans knew how to build bridges, it has been in use for close to 2,000 years. It survived a German bombing in WWII and a flash flood in 1992 that caused severe damage in the town and killed 41 people.   

Towards the end of a day of sight seeing the kids start to get tired and Sophie jumps into the pram and Connor in the back pack, sometimes asleep. Here is Jane doing the hard yards pushing Soph though the ancient streets of Vaison-la-Romaine. Jane says she enjoys the exercise, so do I.

 

This is a photo of Black Betty on the trip home that day. You can see the evening light shining through that blossoming almond tree in the center. There's still no sign of new leaves on the grape vines you can see in the distance. It was another memorable day in Provence.

When possible I like to stop the car when the sun is going down, get us all out and watch the sun slowly disappear for another day....

Only two and a half weeks left before we head to Italy. Sad to be leaving this beautiful part of the world, but we're excited about our next adventure.

A bientot et nous vous souhaitons tout le meilleur

(speak later and we wish you all the best) 

Jane, Sophie, Connor, er moi