Tuesday 14th August
Today was kids' day. It started with some fun buying our weekly fruit and vegetables from the town's market (the kids actually enjoy selecting their own fruit), then we headed off to St Didier for some train fun. It was a model railway in a backyard and a lot of fun. A guy had rented some council land and received permission to start a model railway business, so he set to work, built it, and one year later he was up and running. It was very cool and Callum had a ball running up and down the track counting carriages. When it got hot we headed for the shaded shed where the owner had set up several tables of wooden trains for the kids to play with. The other piece of entertainment that was provided was when entering you were given a list of things to spot within the model, like "woman carrying 2 buckets", "an eagle", "2 white rabbits" etc Needless to say the kids quickly lost interest in the search and went and played trains, however I continued the search with the rest of the adults. Only the "peacock" and "postman" eluded me. On the way home we went the scenic route via the Gorge de Nesque. It wasn't the deepest gorge, with a river at the bottom and lush forest, but was rocky hills with low hardy bushes growing in rock and gravel. Quite amazing. Along the gorge I loved that bushes on the side of the road had been topiaried into side barriers. They really added a sense of formality to the drive, although not much use other than being pretty.
The gorge road that had been cut into the side of the hill and every now and then in arches through the cliffs with a short tunnel cut through the rock. It was a barren but pretty drive. The road took us out around Sault which is usually covered in rolling hills of purple lavender. I have been on the hunt and Neil had come across one on his morning cycles. Trust my luck to come to Provence to see the typical scenes of fields of lavender and to arrive the week of the lavender festival, the biggest event of the year in the lavender circle. Every bush has been cut to an inch of its life, probably to decorate floats in the parade at tomorrow's festival and sell for tourist prices. We shall see tomorrow when we attend (it should at least be a calming event). Anyway, we stopped by this beautiful sea of purple for me to get some photos only to be greeted by a strong hum of bees. With every bit of courage I had, and with the calming smell of lavender, I entered slowly and took a couple of photos. I think it was worth it and the family in the car got a kick out of Mummy acting like a tulip, judging by the very bad bee jokes on the way home.
Another lovely day in Provence. No real estate agents yet, however we did pass a fabulous house with potential that was for sale today. Heather didn't like it as it was "broken". I admit that it was missing a roof and only had 2.5 walls, nothing that a trip to the French version of Bunnings couldn't fix. Lavender festival tomorrow.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad