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