Bonjour, hope you are well.
Summer is pleasantly rolling on here in Provence. After so much traveling over the last four months it has been really nice to stay in the one place for a while, and what a place to stay, Martin and Roxanne's grand old house in the countryside. They left for a holiday in Greece and invited us to stay on here, we feel so fortunate. This has enabled us to see the Tour de France for a second time, enjoy the summer sights and festivities of Provence, enjoy relaxed country living, see some gorgeous lavender fields and take some more trips like our drive to the summit of Mount Ventoux (as shown below), which was impossible in winter because of the snow.
The drive to Mount Ventoux takes you through the Sault Plateau where there are many lavender fields like the ones shown below.....
Here is Connor earlier that day, the morning sun was shining bright...
The lavender fields hum with the sound of bees...
After passing many cyclists we were close to the summit. This was about as far as we got last winter. That's a rice cake in Connor's hand, he refused to give it up for the photo...
So Mount Ventoux is usually included in the Tour de France route and is a mecca really for the cycling world. Compared to the French Alps it's not huge (Soph and I reached a height more than double Mount Ventoux when we caught a cable car to Aiguille du Midi at 3,844m near Mount Blanc), it's more that it majestically stands well above the surrounding area. Here is a cyclist flying down the northern side, Connor on the right, playing with rocks ofcourse.
Here are the kids jumping at the summit, the Luberon valleys and mountains below them...
Heading back from Mont Ventoux I took this photo of Sault (pronounced "soul"), with the late afternoon sun shining on the town, a lavender field below, storm clouds above.....
Here is another lavender field we saw on the way home, a lone tree capturing the early evening sun....
So after scouting the route a couple of times previous to the big day we found an ideal spot to watch the Tour de France. A year ago, we dreamt about watching it a second time, wow, we did it! Below shows the "caravan" which is a large procession of marketing vehicles that roll by about an hour or so before the peloton arrives. They throw out freebies like hats, shirts, lollies, crackers,..... needless to say this was the kids' favourite part of the day.
The first cyclists to arrive were the two breakaways, a Kiwi and a Swiss guy, they were determined to win a stage....
And it felt like about five minutes later, the peloton arrived. They fly past. I mean a took a couple of photos and they were practically gone! How they keep up that speed for so long is way beyond me. This particular stage, Stage 15, was 222km! I read that evening the peloton caught up with the two break away riders just 50 metres from the stage finish! Our poor Kiwi mate was relegated to 10th.
Here I am moving some wood with the 1968 Renault tractor that Martin trained me up on before he left, move over farmer Joe .....
This is the view out our bedroom window of the pool below. I was singing out to Jane and the kids who were enjoying a dip....
Here is Martin giving Connor (on his lap) and Soph and Nepheli (both on the back as shown below) a joy ride down their gorgeous long tree lined driveway, the two dogs tagging along...
How's this for pressure. I cooked a dinner including a large serving of duck for Martin and Roxanne and their relatives who were down from Lyon, and it was Bastille Day! Despite the duck, I think, being slightly over done, the dinner went well and they were very appreciative. The timing with duck is crucial, better underdone then over.
Here is a close up...., he wants to be farmer Joe one day too by the looks of it.
Nepheli and Sophie are good mates, they spent hours and hours playing together, talking French ofcourse, and getting up to all kinds of mischief.....
Martin knows how to do things in style. For the soccer world cup he rigged up this outdoor screen, using a bed sheet and two large rods. Out comes the movie projector which he connected to the TV set box, and here we are having our first beer, the big game just starting....
My early morning walks have been fantastic, the scenery glorious. I took the camera one day and here's one of the photos.... vineyards in the foreground, the mountains near Rustrel in the background, colours intensified by the early morning sun....
And another photo from that morning's walk......
From the outside dining table I snapped this one of Connor, in the hammock, deep in thought, contemplating the world.......
Connor and the white dog, "Agape" shown above and below, have become good mates. Below shows them both playing in the fountain which is fed by a natural, drinkable spring and it sits just below the house....
And below shows Alkioni hanging out with Agape and the other dog (I forget her name). As you can see the two dogs (two girls) are good mates too.
One morning, a few days after Martin and Roxane and their kids left for Greece, Agape simply disappeared. Days went past, the other dog looked sad, we were sad, why had she left, where did she go? We didn't want to tell the guys about it as we didn't want them worrying on their holiday, it was a real mystery........
One day Martin asked me to come along for a drive with him to visit a potential project which would involve the stabilization of a very old stone building in the middle of the spectacular Gorges de Vernon. I'm glad I said yes. We met with a council official, and below shows them looking down at the small building way below. We proceeded to walk down a track towards the site.
.....And came across an avalanche which had destroyed part of the track. Martin and the lady made it across, I wasn't so sure. I mean one tumble and it's bye, bye. Martin kept saying it's dangerous, it is "really dangerous", that was enough for me. I gave it a miss, determined to get back to Australia in one piece, I enjoyed a leisurely walk back up to the car park, taking in the stunning views.
Here is a photo of one magnificent part of the Gorge taken from the side of the road.. The river below which carved out this great gorge is a brilliant bright blue....
Speaking of bright blue water, we made it down to the Mediterranean one day. We picniced on the beach at one of the calanques (large inlets amongst the rocky cliffs) near Cassis. Here's Roxanne cuddling her two girls, Nepheli (left and Sophie's good mate) and Alkioni (right and Connor's good mate).
Here are all the girls, snoozing in the sun, Martin a little further on playing with Alkioni and Connor....
We then drove along the Route des Cretes towards Cassis and stopped along the way to admire some breath taking views like this one .....
A little further along we were able to look down on Cassis. I now wanted to go for another swim in that gorgeous blue water, but we had to head back towards Aix, ...we have to get back to the Mediterranean before we go, we must!
We have enjoyed strolling through the nearby towns here in Provence, towns that are bustling with much more colour and people compared to when we last visited them. We saw Happy Feet on Martin's movie projector a few days ago; here are Soph and Connor dancing, Happy Feet style, in nearby Apt one evening ...
A few days ago I went to the Courses Carmague in Arles again, this time with my mate Mike from Rustrel. It's spectacular to watch and has been a real highlight. Importantly, the bulls are not killed. The runners, the "razeurs", are really the ones that risk their lives here.
I took this photo of Kookla, the cute little kitten that lives here. She's always trying to bite our ankles, creep over us in our beds at night, jump up onto us using her tiny sharp claws, and suckle at our necks making us laugh. We love her heaps!
On Saturday morning just passed guess who turned up..... After a big storm the night before Sophie ran upstairs excitedly to tell me there was a surprise outside, I was hoping it was Agape. I ran downstairs and there she was! We were all so happy. This final photo shows Connor and Agape, together again.
Summer is pleasantly rolling on here in Provence. After so much traveling over the last four months it has been really nice to stay in the one place for a while, and what a place to stay, Martin and Roxanne's grand old house in the countryside. They left for a holiday in Greece and invited us to stay on here, we feel so fortunate. This has enabled us to see the Tour de France for a second time, enjoy the summer sights and festivities of Provence, enjoy relaxed country living, see some gorgeous lavender fields and take some more trips like our drive to the summit of Mount Ventoux (as shown below), which was impossible in winter because of the snow.
The drive to Mount Ventoux takes you through the Sault Plateau where there are many lavender fields like the ones shown below.....
Here is Connor earlier that day, the morning sun was shining bright...
The lavender fields hum with the sound of bees...
After passing many cyclists we were close to the summit. This was about as far as we got last winter. That's a rice cake in Connor's hand, he refused to give it up for the photo...
So Mount Ventoux is usually included in the Tour de France route and is a mecca really for the cycling world. Compared to the French Alps it's not huge (Soph and I reached a height more than double Mount Ventoux when we caught a cable car to Aiguille du Midi at 3,844m near Mount Blanc), it's more that it majestically stands well above the surrounding area. Here is a cyclist flying down the northern side, Connor on the right, playing with rocks ofcourse.
Here are the kids jumping at the summit, the Luberon valleys and mountains below them...
Here is another lavender field we saw on the way home, a lone tree capturing the early evening sun....
So after scouting the route a couple of times previous to the big day we found an ideal spot to watch the Tour de France. A year ago, we dreamt about watching it a second time, wow, we did it! Below shows the "caravan" which is a large procession of marketing vehicles that roll by about an hour or so before the peloton arrives. They throw out freebies like hats, shirts, lollies, crackers,..... needless to say this was the kids' favourite part of the day.
The first cyclists to arrive were the two breakaways, a Kiwi and a Swiss guy, they were determined to win a stage....
And it felt like about five minutes later, the peloton arrived. They fly past. I mean a took a couple of photos and they were practically gone! How they keep up that speed for so long is way beyond me. This particular stage, Stage 15, was 222km! I read that evening the peloton caught up with the two break away riders just 50 metres from the stage finish! Our poor Kiwi mate was relegated to 10th.
Just before Martin and Roxane left for Greece a big truck rolled up and dumped 10 stairs (10 cubic metres) of wood which the guys had purchased. I said I would be happy to stack it while they were away. So I've been using the tractor to move it up to the other side of the house, and thoroughly enjoying it.
Here I am moving some wood with the 1968 Renault tractor that Martin trained me up on before he left, move over farmer Joe .....
This is the view out our bedroom window of the pool below. I was singing out to Jane and the kids who were enjoying a dip....
Here is Martin giving Connor (on his lap) and Soph and Nepheli (both on the back as shown below) a joy ride down their gorgeous long tree lined driveway, the two dogs tagging along...
How's this for pressure. I cooked a dinner including a large serving of duck for Martin and Roxanne and their relatives who were down from Lyon, and it was Bastille Day! Despite the duck, I think, being slightly over done, the dinner went well and they were very appreciative. The timing with duck is crucial, better underdone then over.
One day we were having lunch outside and I turned around to see that Connor had, by himself, jumped up onto the tractor, .....I grabbed the camera...
Here is a close up...., he wants to be farmer Joe one day too by the looks of it.
Nepheli and Sophie are good mates, they spent hours and hours playing together, talking French ofcourse, and getting up to all kinds of mischief.....
Martin knows how to do things in style. For the soccer world cup he rigged up this outdoor screen, using a bed sheet and two large rods. Out comes the movie projector which he connected to the TV set box, and here we are having our first beer, the big game just starting....
My early morning walks have been fantastic, the scenery glorious. I took the camera one day and here's one of the photos.... vineyards in the foreground, the mountains near Rustrel in the background, colours intensified by the early morning sun....
And another photo from that morning's walk......
From the outside dining table I snapped this one of Connor, in the hammock, deep in thought, contemplating the world.......
Connor and the white dog, "Agape" shown above and below, have become good mates. Below shows them both playing in the fountain which is fed by a natural, drinkable spring and it sits just below the house....
And below shows Alkioni hanging out with Agape and the other dog (I forget her name). As you can see the two dogs (two girls) are good mates too.
One morning, a few days after Martin and Roxane and their kids left for Greece, Agape simply disappeared. Days went past, the other dog looked sad, we were sad, why had she left, where did she go? We didn't want to tell the guys about it as we didn't want them worrying on their holiday, it was a real mystery........
One day Martin asked me to come along for a drive with him to visit a potential project which would involve the stabilization of a very old stone building in the middle of the spectacular Gorges de Vernon. I'm glad I said yes. We met with a council official, and below shows them looking down at the small building way below. We proceeded to walk down a track towards the site.
.....And came across an avalanche which had destroyed part of the track. Martin and the lady made it across, I wasn't so sure. I mean one tumble and it's bye, bye. Martin kept saying it's dangerous, it is "really dangerous", that was enough for me. I gave it a miss, determined to get back to Australia in one piece, I enjoyed a leisurely walk back up to the car park, taking in the stunning views.
Here is a photo of one magnificent part of the Gorge taken from the side of the road.. The river below which carved out this great gorge is a brilliant bright blue....
Speaking of bright blue water, we made it down to the Mediterranean one day. We picniced on the beach at one of the calanques (large inlets amongst the rocky cliffs) near Cassis. Here's Roxanne cuddling her two girls, Nepheli (left and Sophie's good mate) and Alkioni (right and Connor's good mate).
Here are all the girls, snoozing in the sun, Martin a little further on playing with Alkioni and Connor....
The guys left before us with the plan being to meet up in Aix for dinner. So the four of us went to a really nice café there, "Calanque de Figuerolles", which had lovely views out over the glistening calanque, and boasted Ernest Hemingway as one of their famous past guests. I took this photo with the mobile as we were leaving....
We then drove along the Route des Cretes towards Cassis and stopped along the way to admire some breath taking views like this one .....
A little further along we were able to look down on Cassis. I now wanted to go for another swim in that gorgeous blue water, but we had to head back towards Aix, ...we have to get back to the Mediterranean before we go, we must!
We have enjoyed strolling through the nearby towns here in Provence, towns that are bustling with much more colour and people compared to when we last visited them. We saw Happy Feet on Martin's movie projector a few days ago; here are Soph and Connor dancing, Happy Feet style, in nearby Apt one evening ...
A few days ago I went to the Courses Carmague in Arles again, this time with my mate Mike from Rustrel. It's spectacular to watch and has been a real highlight. Importantly, the bulls are not killed. The runners, the "razeurs", are really the ones that risk their lives here.
I took this photo of Kookla, the cute little kitten that lives here. She's always trying to bite our ankles, creep over us in our beds at night, jump up onto us using her tiny sharp claws, and suckle at our necks making us laugh. We love her heaps!
So Mondello Beach, Palermo, Sicily will go down as where Sophie first swam assisted, ie with floaties, and the little farm here in Provence will go down as where she swam for the first time unassisted! She did it! She is so excited about it, and we are too. So it's swims everyday now. This photo shows Sophie on the day I saw her swim for the very first time.
On Saturday morning just passed guess who turned up..... After a big storm the night before Sophie ran upstairs excitedly to tell me there was a surprise outside, I was hoping it was Agape. I ran downstairs and there she was! We were all so happy. This final photo shows Connor and Agape, together again.
A bientot, bye for now,
best wishes,
Jane, Sophie, Connor, et moi
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