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.
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....
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.
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
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