Our time with Jill in Provence

Well here we are again after a long absence. The good thing is that our next place as of next week will have WiFi, so we will be able to get back to more regular posts.

Since our last post we have continued to live an absolutely blissful existence here in our little hamlet in the Luberon. It is hard to describe a more perfect place than Provence. The climate is idealic, with most days now offering perfect blue skies (unlike we have experienced in many of the other places we have been on this trip) and perfect hot dry heat. Most of the time we feel like reptiles lapping up the endless heat rays and simply ooohing and aaahing at the glorious beauty of this place. Like we have probably said many times before, Provence has all the important things for a good quality life: a great climate, unbelievable food (wine, cheese, bread . . .) , stunning old buildings everywhere, and gorgeous scenery - what more could one ask for?

Currently I am sitting at our neighbour Phillipe's computer, and it is slow as hell! The French keyboards are different and so typing is a very arduous process. I am, as a result, going to make this blog more about pictures and less about words.
Our lovely friend Jill joined us ten days ago, and we have had the best time with her taking in all the sights. She loves life and has really appreciated the stunning offerings of Provence.
The above two pictures were taken on an outing we did to Aix-en-Provence. Our general pattern has been to alternate our days between having an outing day and then having a local day in between to relax and enjoy the good life.
These pictures above and below pretty much capture the local days. Lots of reading, hanging out in the sun, swimming and going on local walks. We are surrounded by beautiful mountains and glorious vineyards to enjoy!
Recently we went to Apt to take in the local Jazz Festival. There were tons of eccentric French acts to enjoy. The French are not afraid to be "out there" and some how pull it off without seeming pretentious. This was a performance art piece that had us all quite mesmerized!
Kai and Pippin were very fascinated by all of these odd characters and we all had a good laugh at their crowd-stopping antics.
All around town there were all these open air performances taking place, all for free! This group below was doing a performance inspired by and dedicated to Jackson Pollock. It was very out there but also quite engaging at the same time.
Here we are having a picnic under the Montagne St. Victoire, made famous by being painted so many times by Cezanne. It is a stunning arid landscape filled with the aromas of Provencal herbs growing everywhere.

The flower markets are sooo beautiful in France!
Despite being here for three weeks already, the poppy fields just keep blooming and we continue to ooh and aaah at them all over the place.
The kids are happy to run around in the fields and enjoy them as much as we do.
The local Luberon villages are almost beyond description. Always tucked on hill tops, they are always gorgeous, and we have visited as many as possible in our time here. This one is called Menerbes.
We are just beginning to enter the Lavender season here with fields in bloom everywhere.
This is our local road going to our village of Loumarin. We often hop on the bikes or walk into the local market or the bakery in the morning.
Our neighbour Phillipe has quite the amazing antique collection. Here he is showing us his collection of chamber pots.
Well, that is where we will sign off for now. Until our next blog entry from the Lot region, we hope this finds you all well!
Until next time . . .

Skye, Ronato, Kai and Pippin

Lazin' in Lourmarin

Hello, at long last! Sorry about the longer times between blogs but we are having some real challenges finding reliable internet sources here in Provence. It is the first time on our trip that we have struggled to find WiFi and we would be blogging so much more, given the stunning local scenery and the amazing local historical sites we are seeing everyday. To accommodate this lack of services, our plan will be to make our entries longer and have more space between each of them.

Since our last blog, we have done lots of little daily trips in the car -- we head off in various directions to check out different villages and various local food and craft markets. We intersperse these days with 'rest' days where we spend more time in and around Les Lointes Bastides (our hamlet) and the local, larger village. The kids are often content just to kick around our local hamlet, riding bikes, playing games, carving sticks with their new French Opinel pocket knives (a current favourite,) and exploring the grape vines and fields.

We pretty much know the neighbours by now and have seen many of them come and go from their various city locations to this little retreat. It is quite the eclectic mix of people. To our one side is Beatrice and Vincent-Charles, a retired Belgian/French-Dutch couple who have been wonderfully hospitable and gracious to us since our arrival. They come and go between here and Holland/Belgium on a regular basis, but we were lucky enough to have them here for some time. We were invited to their place for afternoon drinks and got a tour of their place which was amazing, given the age of these homes. With each visit we get a little more information about the history of the local area and the village.
On our other side is Marie-Christine a very warm eccentric French woman who has a stunning place (also part of the hamlet.) She lives partially in Monaco and London, when not here in Lourmarin. She is married to a Zimbabwian fellow who we have not yet met, and he obviously makes a good salary at something in Europe to support their lifestyles. She is a serious New Ager and I know that Ma would get on with her like a house on fire. Within minutes of meeting her, she was taking about the coming “age of enlightenment,” and making constant references to the energy and love of the universe. She has a huge heart and has been bestowing gifts on us constantly, including a cake for Skye’s birthday, a huge bottle of high end French wine (that was over 13 years old), and she has been passing on books for reading and play items for the kids. We could not be made to feel more welcome. What a sweetheart!
Then there is a retired French gentleman by the name of Phillipe, who introduced himself to us very soon after our arrival. He lives just in front of us, and he is a quintessential French intellectual sort who is a wealth of information about all things Provencal. He has been very warm, invited us over for drinks, and he has hooked his 11 year old son (Tarik) up with our kids for playtime which has been fantastic. He would probably be described as somewhat of an old playboy. Having gone through many relationships and many divorces, he is still good humoured about it all and often laughs about his complex financial situation as he tries to support his various spouses from over the years. He is proving to be a daily visitor, and we are enjoying his company a lot. On a recent visit with him he shared some of his own local family history with us and pulled out some old photographs from the 1930’s that his parents had taken of this little hamlet. It was amazing to see how little it had changed. His great grandfather originally bought the property in the 1840’s. He has a been a wealth of information about local history which is nice to know, given how long we are staying here.
The little loop surrounding the hamlet is perfect for biking (helmets are not the norm here!)
There is also another older gentleman who lives in one of the local homes, but he speaks only French and is quite shy. He has also been hospitable and very soon after our arrival, he passed on his bicycle for the kids to use. He does his daily walks past us and always gives a friendly nod in our direction. Unfortunately the language limitations do not allow for much more than that.
Much like Turkey, the cats in Provence provide daily company. Here "Pierre" the cat is showing off his manliness.

After a few day of inclement weather last week, the Provencal sun is shining again, and it is as glorious as ever -- truly there is no greater paradise than this place. As we sit here and write this, we are sitting under an arbour covered by a delicate grape that is sprouting little grape clusters, there are baaing sheep ahead of me, and shouting children jumping into a freezing cold pool behind me. This is something we could truly get used to.
Right now, we are over visiting the sister of Francoise (who we are renting our little house from). She has graciously invited us to come over whenever we want to go for a swim or to hang out with the animals (they also have two donkeys, besides all the sheep), and the kids have been keen to take her up on it.
With the return of the sun, we thought we should christen the newly-opened-for-the-season pool. With every jump into the pool come shrieks and laughter, then it is off to run around playing some sort of game or another before another jump into the pool. All of this is interspersed with the most hilarious sounding baas from the very friendly and full-of-personality sheep and lambs. One of rams sounds like he is belching every time he baas, it makes us all laugh. Even farther in the background, crickets chirp and on the breeze, the scent of mint, thyme, rose and barnyard mingle together and adds to the whole appealing scene. Bliss.
The 11-year-old son of the neighbour, Tarik has been somewhat of a regular playmate for Kai and Pippin over the last week.. Halleluja! Someone to play with, and someone the same age -- this is exactly what Kai has been wishing for! On the first day when Tarik returned from his tennis lesson, the kids were all introduced, and after a few shy minutes where they all kind of looked at their feet while stealing little looks, the ice was broken, and they were off and away riding bikes and chattering away (in French) having a great time. To allow for a solid conection to develop on the first day between the kids, a smaller contingent of us decided to set forth on an expedition -- We headed to Apt just 16 km away. Apt is a much larger center than Lourmarin, but still has some good age to it, at least in the centre. We did a little window-shopping and wandering around, and had a fabulously flavoured boule de creme glacee (and they are petite, but oh-so-tasty) before hopping back in the car to head onwards to Banon -- a place known for its cheese.

Driving through the countryside here exposes one to beautiful landscapes with small old oaks crowding the hillsides, lots of farmland covered with vineyards and many twisting roads through old towns on hillsides, and the occasional crumbling chateau. We spend vast amounts of our time exclaiming about how incredibley beautiful it is here in Provence. The kids keep saying we are like broken records! Oh well . . . it just can’t be said enough.

A constant and beautiful feature here right now is the enduring red poppy. Every field, roadway, nook and cranny are filled with these little beauties.
Here is a picture of John and Pippin in Vaison la Romain, standing by a bridge built in 100BC by the Romans -- cars still drive over it today!
John, Bay and Nancy left us on Saturday -- they are off to Italy for a few weeks. We are continuing with our quiet routine here, and our lovely friend Jill joined us as of Monday. The coming weeks will involve lots of visits to the local market towns and generally just enjoying this beautiful place called Provence.
For now, we will sign off. Despite our poor access to reliable internet sources, we will keep trying. Don't give up on us.
With love . . .

Skye, Ronato, Kai & Pippin

Glorious Provence

After a long day’s journey, we have made it down to the stunning little village of Lourmarin, just north of Aix-En-Provence. The day started early on Saturday morning, and with far too much luggage in tow -- with it, we first waded through Paris on the Metro and RER train to get to Orly Sud Airport. We were going there to pick up our car which we are leasing for the remainder of our time here in Europe. After a significant amount of physical exertion with our heavy luggage (thanks to all our camping gear), we made it to the car lease place and picked up our Citroen Berlingo. Both kids immediately got into the car and made themselves at home, knowing that the car would be our home of sorts for the coming two and a half months. With some trepidation, we then drove out of Paris, heading south, thinking we would need to camp in the evening to break the journey. Skye was an absolute trooper and negotiated the French roads like a star and took us out into rural France quickly and efficiently -- all the while enjoying being behind the wheel in our speedy new vehicle.
By five in the evening we realized we could easily make it to our destination by sunset, and so we decided to push on. The drive became progressively more stunning the further south we got with vast expanses of farm land, valleys, rivers, mountain ranges, and the odd castle on a hilltop all around us. Thanks to the late evening light (the sun goes down now at 9 pm) we were able to take the last part of the journey quite slow as we hit Provence proper.
We were completely bowled over by the beauty as we got closer to the Luberon region. Even though we cycled through this region 12 years ago, our memory had gotten a little foggy about the stunning rugged beauty of Provence (that said, Skye kept remembering little stops and locations we’d been through oh so long ago). Being springtime, the whole region is covered with wild flowers in every direction, and the quality of light and fragrant scents makes one feel like one has died and gone to heaven. We can honestly say that it is by far one of the most beautiful places we have ever been to. We (the adults, that is) feel like we could live here and never leave again. We wish we could share this time with all our close friends and family out there . . . well in a way that has happened, because we arrived at the village to find John, Bay, and Nancy waiting for us.
So guess who just turned forty?! That’s right, Skye turned 40 on Monday!!! She knew about John and Bay meeting us, but not about her lovely Auntie Nancy. It was a major surprise and she really was thrilled! She shrieked so loudly that she nearly broke down the walls when she first saw Nancy, never mind nearly giving all the neighbours heart attacks. It really was a fabulous surprise.

So, once in Lourmarin, we got settled into our amazing place. There are no words to describe how stunning this place is! For one, the house we are staying in for the next three weeks is part of a larger hamlet that dates back over 800 years. It is old and offers all the charm one expects of a place in rural Provence. The narrow cobbled streets, the old stone houses, the flowers everywhere, the vineyards, the birds . . . etc etc. I will let the pictures speak for themselves.
After our first day of settling in and enjoying the local scenery, we woke up on Monday to Skye’s big day. We went to some other villages close by for a celebratory birthday lunch and for some time to amble around. The drive to Bonnieux from Lourmarin takes one through the local Luberon mountain range which is rugged and ancient looking. We spent the first part of our day in Bonnieux, where we walked around taking in the beautiful old character of the village, and then we had a great lunch at a small outdoor restaurant to celebrate Skye turning forty.
The very tasty meal had by some!
Then we were off to another village close by called Lacoste. As we said before, we had been to this region twelve years ago when we cycled through Southern France. It is amazing to come back years later and witness some of the changes made over that time. For one thing, all of these villages have definitely been swept up by the property boom of the last decade in that they are way less rugged and much more “Guccied up,” as Grandpa John likes to say. Many of the old run down places have been bought up and fixed up to suit retirees, or holiday makers -- everything looks very kept, as a result. In some ways it is good because the dilapidation we saw years ago has slowly be reversed and these stunning places have been made to last for years to come. There is also an urban hipness in the shops, cafes and markets that makes it all very appealing. In a nutshell it has been gentrified. On the downside, some of the previous rustic-ness and old Provencal culture is not so prevalent anymore. Oh well, the future is not the past and frankly, it is still absolutely gorgeous!
Kai and Pippin are in their element being settled for a while and having all this room to just be kids in and roam about in. It is really good for them after all that time constantly moving from place to place. They are loving being with their grandparents in this amazing place, as well. Having Auntie Nancy here just adds that much more fun to the whole experience. To make this whole experience even more complete -- our good friend Jill arrives after the weekend, and we are all really looking forward to sharing this piece of heaven with her as well.
Skye and John on her birthday night with something that fell out of the Sky!

We will leave you with a few images of all the lovely lunches we have been having here on the patio overlooking the vineyard. Life is good!

Until next time . . .

Skye, Ronato, Kai and Pippin.

We love Paris in the spring time . . . (especially the food)

Hello again! Brace yourself for a very long blog. We are here in the beautiful city of Paris. We left Holland on Tuesday morning and lugged all our stuff (with Ian's help) to catch a train to Rotterdam for a connection to Paris. The train to Paris was quite something -- it was very fast. At 300 km per hour we made it to Paris in just over two and a half hours. It felt very modern. After putting some of our belongings into storage at the central Paris train station, we struck out into the Paris hubbub -- we had to make it from the Gare du Nord to the Eastern side of the city where our friends Eve and Francois (who we met in Thailand) live. It took some work to figure out how to get on the Metro at first (it is a little different from London's Underground and we had just a few bags), but we did finally find ourselves in the right place and a short while later we were able to let ourselves into the apartment. Since our friends were not going to be home until the evening, we decided to settle in for a little rest before heading out for a lovely walk through their neighborhood. Our friends live in the 20th arrondissement which is located near the famous Pere Lachaise graveyard where Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde are buried. It is an interesting area with amazing ethnic diversity which is both up-market to one side, and then full on projects on the other.

Here we all are on the first night with Francois, Eve, Amphelise and Celestin. They have been wonderful, kind, and extremely hospitable hosts. It is really enjoyable to reconnect in a totally different context.
Francois and Eve prepared a wonderful authentic French meal for us on the first night. Before starting the dinner preparation, we first went to the local markets and picked out all the amazing ingredients, after which we came home and cooked all together. The small "gastronomie shops" were nothing short of spectacular. Being French, it is all organized with quality as the main concern and the aesthetic layout of everything is to die for. This vegetable market looked like an artist's palate. It was as if every fruit and vegetable had been hand picked and laid out with meticulous attention to detail.
Next came the cheese shop -- it was a universe in itself. Francois told us about all the different cheeses and then picked out about five different ones for the after dinner cheese plate. It was great to have a local lead us through the process. I think we would otherwise have been like deer in headlights.
Then Francois proceeded to buy and prepare some Foie Gras -- talk about a fat-fest! The Foie Gras (this is force-fed duck or goose liver, barbaric we know!) was made complete with delicious thinly sliced apples gently sauteed in a buttery pan. This French delicacy was a little challenging for our Anglo palates, but all the meat eaters made some good attempts at finishing what was on their plates.
Here is the final result on the plate. What a treat!
On Wednesday Francois and family took the day off to be with us, and they took us around to some beautiful Paris sights. Here is Eve and Skye in a typical Parisian lane with lovely trees providing shade.
We had a picnic in the big square in front of Centre Pompidou which had the modern art exhibits of Kandinski and Calder on show -- we would have liked to go to this, but alas, not enough time. Instead we got to do some good people watching in the square while having our lovely picnic. It is easy to eat so well here - fresh baguettes, cheese, some good fruit and vegetables and the rest is history.
Then some wonderful drooling in front of the shop windows. An absolute feast for the eyes!
An obligatory trip to the Notre Dam Cathdral landed up being very special. Even though we had been there before many years ago, one forgets how incredibly stunning this building is. Built 800 years ago, one walks in and is filled with awe at the marvel of the building. Even Kai and Pippin who aren't so keen on churches were quite taken with this place.
The tall majestic domed ceilings really do show how great their faith in God was when building this structure. It took 100 years to build to completion.
It is still a church that is actively in use today. Here are candles being lit by worshipers.
Then off we went in search of a particular creme glacee shop -- to get there we had to get back into "gi-gi" Paris with all its very high end shops. Attention to detail is the order of the day.
All the courtyards between Paris' old buildings are also fun to explore. They all have these lovely entrances that make one think of some romantic French period piece. One expects to see horses and carriages with people dressed in velvets and feathers to come prancing through them at any moment.
Aaaah, at last! We found the creme glacee shop. Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum! They had flavours such as orange sanguine (blood orange), fraise de bois (wild strawberry), caramel au beurre sale (caramel and salted butter -- this was unbelieveably delicious, it tasted like the caramel on caramel corn, without the corn flavour), fruite de la passion (passion fruit -- Kai's particular favorite), and of course framboise (raspberry), to name a few.
Here is Amphelise with her raspberry cone, which is the same as Pippin had. Pippin asked for more than one 'boule' when she saw the tiny size, but we had to tell her that in France "small means better!" Once she had a bite, she knew that that is indeed true here. This particular stop was enjoyed by all!
One thing that we love here are all of the different and amazingly intricate doors.
Now Paris wouldn't be "Paris-in-the-Springtime" without some great street acts. After marching up the stairs to the Basilique du Sacre Couer (to the soundtrack from Amelie, which was being played on the carousel at the bottom), and traipsing around the Montmartre neighborhood we came upon this lovely quintet belting out jazzy tunes -- they were very good, and gave us alittle pick-me-up before heading down into the Metro on our way to the Eiffel Tower.
All day the kids had been wanting to get to the Eiffel Tower, and here we were at last. They were both practically levitating out of their skin at the sight.
To get up the tower to the second stage, we opted to take the stair route -- all 696 of them! We could have taken a lift to the top (well, almost the top), but we all felt this was high enough. What a view and we had the perfect viewing weather! This was the first time any of us had been up the Eiffel Tower.
For our final full day in Paris, we decided to first check out the Pere Lachaise cemetary since we were staying so close. This was quite the amazing cemetary -- there are over one million people buried here, and lots of famous ones. We had a map to try to find some of the more famous people buried here -- we couldn't find Chopin, despite looking and looking, but we did see Jim Morrison's grave, Victor Schoelcher's grave (he was one of the people responsible for the abolition of slavery in France and the Carribean Islands), and . . . Oscar Wilde!
Oscar Wilde's monument/gravestone was quite something -- besides being covered in lipstick kisses, there were burning candles at the base, notes left, and fresh flowers. You can't see it in this picture, but above his name a little higher up is an enormous art-deco style winged angel. Clearly he still has quite a following.
By our last day, we felt like pros on the Metro, jumping from line to line to get to where we needed to go. Note the gorgeous street lamps over the Metro sign. So Parisian!
Here is Kai at the Musee du Louvre. Both Kai and Pippin have been hankering to see the Mona Lisa, so at last we made it. Despite having seen many museums up until now, the Louvre proved to be the one that left the kids with the most staying power. We got here a little later than planned, but had quite a stint inside -- both the kids weren't quite ready to leave when they were ushering us out at closing time (which turned out to be earlier than usual, since it was a public holiday -- we seem to have a knack for hitting these museums on holidays.)
Even though there was such an uproar about the glass pyramids when they first were installed, they have become a real fixture of the Louvre. They really are quite something. The whole entryway to the Louvre is quite a treat with lots of natural light.
The renovation done in 1989 substantially increased the gallery spaces and they particularly did a wonderful job with the lighting for the exhibits. Most of the lighting is natural and it really enhances one's experiences of the exhibits.
Interestingly, the kids really got into looking at all the huge paintings depicting various historical and allegorical scenes. The sizes of canvases and the detail encompassed in each painting drew them both in and left them with many questions. It was a pleasure to be with them experiencing this for the first time. The Louvre is said to be the biggest museum displaying art work in the world. One is left feeling that one could spend a whole week and still not see all the exhibits. Both Kai and Pippin said that they would definitely like to come back another time -- finally opening the door to potential future travel.
Paris would be a fantastic place to come stay for a month. Our short stay here did nothing but whet our appetites. On we go tomorrow (Saturday) by car down to Provence to meet up with John and Bay in Lourmarin, just north of Aix-en-Provence. We pick up our brand new Berlingo vehicle which will be with us for the rest of our time in Europe. It will be interesting learning to drive in Europe. The kids are excited to have our own car and to be able to go where we want. This will be a different kind of travel than we have done so far on this trip.
We leave you with sweet thoughts until our next blog entry. Bon Nuit!

Until next time . . .

Skye, Ronato, Kai and Pippin