"Guten tag" from Austria

Guten tag (good day)!

We're in Austria right now in a beautiful little village called Mauterndorf which is in a valley about an hour south of Salzburg. We've come here to find a house that my Austrian ancestors lived in. It is very scenic around here, huge mountains everywhere. This first photo shows a stunning view of a lakeside village we came across just south of the Italian/Austrian border. Now that was a marathon drive. We left Verona, Italy at about 11am and after a couple of major traffic jams along the highway and deciding to take a detour through the mountains which close to doubled our driving time (well worth it though) we arrived here at about midnight. Before Verona we were sunning it on the gorgeous Cote d'Azur of Provence. So we managed to get in a couple more Mediterranean swims before we leave. Swimming in the Med alone is worth coming back for, we'll return before too long, I hope!    

Gee we lucked it with the accommodation here. We're staying at a really nice and cozy ski chalet. Below shows a photo of the foyer with Soph and Connor picking from a bowl full of lollies. The house was built in 1550 and believe or not the couple who own it spend their winters in Australia, near Seal Rocks!

This photo shows Connor at our front door here in Mauterndorf. We even have a 10th century castle at the end of road, as shown below. The village was built from the proceeds of a toll that was paid by traders travelling for centuries between Vienna and Venice. And interestingly Herman Goring, the head of the German Luftwaffe in WWII, spent his childhood at this castle and tried unsuccessfully to flee there at the end of the war.

The night after we arrived in Mauterndorf we headed down to the village "vollmondnacht" or "full moon night" party. Below shows "Teja & Gunther" playing some tunes and those two blurs in front of them are Soph and Connor dancing away, much to the guy on the right and a bunch of local's delight. Sophie even asked me (for the very first time) for a dance, I was chuffed. It was a lovely, memorable night.

So this is where my ancestors, the Gernhoefer family lived, as shown below. It's now a guest house and that's me with Soph and Connor in the front yard. My great, great grandmother was Anne Gernhoefer. In 1732 the family, who were Protestant were told amongst many others to either become Catholic or leave. They left and walked through a winter to East Prussia, present day Poland. From a google search I did on Salzburg....

"In early 1732 King Frederick William I of Prussia accepted 12,000 Salzburger Protestant emigrants, who settled in areas of East Prussia that had been devastated by the plague twenty years before" .

The Gernhoefers were a part of that very brave group of 12, 000 people.

  

We drove up a nearby mountain to look down at the lush green valley where the Gernhoefers lived. The house is situated close to the middle of the photo.

This is where we stayed in Nice. It was a charming ground floor apartment with really high ceilings, in a late 18th century mansion built by a Russian family. Below shows Jane next to Black Betty, who was fully packed, with us ready to head off to Verona, Italy.......

We took the coastal road from Nice to Monaco, it was stunning. I took this picture looking back at Monaco. It's amazing how much is built into this tiny little country....

And when we arrived in Verona, our overnight stopover on route to Austria, we excitedly took our bags up to our B&B, showered and headed out to explore this beautiful city. I took this photo as we walked over a bridge into the "old town", it shows the "Ponte Scaligero" which is attached to the "Castelvecchio" ...

Here's a photo of an interesting wall in the 14th century Castelvecchio. I took it with the iPhone whilst on my morning walk the next day...

Back to that night, here is Connor and I in front of the ancient Roman gate to the city, the "Porta dei Borsari"....  

A bit further on I snapped Sophie taking a snap of me with the "Torre dei Lamberti" tower and a full moon in the background.....

And here is the full moon again shining above Verona's grand Roman Amphitheatre. They have opera every night here during summer, save that one for next time... 

This is the window of the butcher shop across the road from where we stayed in Verona, obviously not shy about the culinary delights of horse meat.....

This was taken on the day of our last swim (this time around) in the Mediterranean. Those pebbles on the beach there at Nice are not that easy to walk on.....

 

 

But it's definitely worth it, the water is so blue and inviting. Here is Soph and I having a swim, Soph becoming more and more confident in deep water, catching little waves into shore....

We finally made it to Saint Paul de Vence a well known village just inland from Nice. Ok there were tourists everywhere but it is still definitely worth it, kind of perfect in a medieval hill top village kind of way. Here it is with the blue sea of the French Riviera in the distance.....

As we walked into St Paul some people were having a game of boules next to a bar, a classic French scene....

As a reminder of how old St Paul is I snapped this old stone sign above one of the doorways.  Way back in 1224, The Count of Provence Raymond Bérenger V came to thank Saint-Paul de Vence for its loyalty and stayed in the original "keep" or castle tower of the village.

Connor saw me drinking from a fountain there so up he hopped to take a drink himself...

Jane and Soph in one of St Paul's little character filled alleyways, Connor's hat featuring at the bottom of this photo....

Soph and Connor playing in what looked like some sort of medieval setup for grinding grain maybe ??

After a morning walk I'll typically do some stretches. This morning in Nice Sophie decided to do some stretches with me, as shown below. This was taken just after Connor jumped on me, as he tends to do when I'm stretching...  

We had a lovely drive one day all the way south along the coast to Cannes. It was a real eye opener, so much wealth, so much natural beauty, and at the same time it has all that history! This photo shows Antibes across the bay with it's ancient town walls and towers.

We had an afternoon swim at Cannes, and when in Rome do as the Romans do....., so we went to a beach club and enjoyed the glitzy atmosphere, it was fun!

Here is Jane and I relaxing together in our deck chairs, for about fifteen seconds before kid duties called us off to the water's edge, we didn't mind at all though :)

On the way to Nice, just after we left Martin and Roxanne's (M&R) place, we drove through a favourite little stretch of ours lined with plane trees, very French....

 

And also on the way to Nice we made a point of visiting the well known Gorges du Verdon. Below shows the pretty little village of Moustiers-Saint Marie you drive through as you approach the Gorges from the west....

This is the entrance to the Gorges de Verdon with the Lac de Sainte-Croix in the foreground, what a sight it was....

The Gorges are absolutely spectacular, this is a must see if you are in this part of France....

Picnic time, and what a place to picnic, one of the best...

This photo shows one of the viewing platforms at the Gorges, the blue waters of the Verdon river way, way below....

 

And this is another gorgeous little village, "Trigance" which sits on the eastern side of the Gorges.... 

 

Before we left The Luberon we enjoyed catching up with our friends we met when we were living there through winter. This included our Apt walking club buddies pictured below. Maite (bottom right) had invited us around for aperitifs and then invited a few other walkers around so they could catch up with us too, it was a really nice night...    

And before we left we also visited some of our favourite villages included Saint Saturnin-les-Apt pictured below. It reminded us how nice it was to be here during winter when we kind of felt like we had the place to ourselves. There were heaps of tourists in Saint Saturnin that evening but the beauty of Provence in summer is exceptional and there are so many places where you can still feel like you're the only ones there,..... like M&R's place for example.  

Speaking of M&R's place, we are going to miss their grand maison and its huge kitchen, pictured below, with windows that overlook the little green valley below. I think I was just about to whip up some pancakes for breakfast, Sophie showing off her "Ariel" princess doll...

And here is another of our favourite little villages, Villars, which is about 8km from where we lived in Rustrel. That's the Grand Luberon mountain in the distance..

Arles is one of our favourite cities in all of France. We got to see a show in the Arles Roman Amphitheatre about life in the Carmague. This Rhone River delta area has its own distinct culture with its wild white houses and black bulls as shown below, it's fascinating....

And here is Soph and I after the show in front of the 2,000 year old Arles Amphitheatre, definitely one of the finest examples of Roman architecture we've seen on our "Grande Vacance"......

"Auf wiedersehn" or bye for now. Looking forward to our first wiener schnitzel, I think tonight's the night!

 

Hope all is well with you, best wishes from

Jane, Sophie, Connor and me.

 

 

 

Mount Ventoux, lavender, and enjoying country life

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.

 

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