Year: 2011

Aigues-Mortes, France

If it rained every day from now on we’d feel that we have been quite lucky with the weather. The weather has just been glorious with temperatures in the late 20s day after day – very much great holiday weather.

This morning Gray and I headed off to Aigues-Morte, a fascinating place nearby. After successfully finding a good park, we walked into town, had coffees then went into the walled town which was nothing like what we had expected!!!

We imagined it would be empty, but people actually live here and the tourism industry is thriving!

We hopped onto the little train and although the commentary was in French, we were given an English translation, so were able to understand some of the history.

The ramparts were begun in 1245 and took many years to build. They are 6 metres wide at the bottom – they must have had strong horses back then if they thought they could ram a building that thick!!!

We ate lunch in the shade and headed back home.

We slothed out for a while, went to the supermarket, found a fabulous hardware/kitchen shop where that had really nice things, including Le Creuset ware.

A candle-lit dinner at home tonight.

La Grande-Motte, France

We slept really well!

After breakfast we headed out for a coffee, then to the Wifi place to check emails etc

We decided to have lunch at home, then in the afternoon we took a boat trip to Port Camargue and Le Grau-du Roi. It was another hot, sunny day, but we were able to keep out of the sun but still enjoy the views.

Chris, I checked out the Real Estate. What do you think?

I figure that Brian could be kept busy with boat maintenance; just need to find work for Gray!!!
Sorry there are no garages, just space for the boat!!

Walking back home, we chose where we’d eat and later enjoyed a lovely meal altogether.

We thought of you today, Graeme and Robin. We hope that you had a very happy anniversary.

Bon nuit!

La Grande-Motte, France

No sleep last night. The flat is lovely and so is the bed, so no excuses really.
Dawn had planned for us to join her friends for lunch, but because we felt so tired, we declined the invitation and had a very quiet morning at home.
We did pop out to the market for a short while. There were so many people buying and the stall holders were in full flight with their sales banter.

Luckily Dawn had filled the fridge so we tucked into lunch, had a short nap then headed out again to wander about. It is still very hot. Whilst out we tried the free Wifi outside the tourism office.

Had a marvellous dinner out having chosen a place earlier, only to discover it was closed at 7pm. Many places are open during the day, but not the evening. Dawn headed out to join us, but because we were not where we said we would be, she missed us.

However, we had a big catch up when we got in.

And hopefully a good nights sleep!

La Grande-Motte, France

It was another blue dome day as we drove out of Auriol on our way to La Grande Motte, Languedoc.

The trip went pretty smoothly until we came across stopped cars around a bend on a motorway. Fortunately we stopped and no-one piled into us. We crawled along for simply ages until we came across the cause – a shocking accident.

We arrived at the apartment at lunchtime. It is great to see Dawn again.

After a large lunch, we chatted until the early evening when we went for a walk around the town, enjoying the atmosphere of families and friends in cafes and on the beach. We stopped for a drink before heading back to the apartment.

Supper.
Heaps more chat, then off to bed.
Bon nuit!

Auriol, France

It’s hard to believe that two weeks have gone by since we arrived in Provence! What an experience it has been. It has dispelled some previously held myths re – the people, food… We will cherish our memories for a very long time.

After a coffee and some hard work in town we’ve headed back for lunch – purchased from the boulangerie, of course.

This afternoon, after the washing has dried, we’ll begin packing.

Tomorrow morning we head off to La Grande Motte, in Languedoc, to stay in Dawn and Mandy’s apartment. We haven’t seen Dawn since we were in England in 2002, so we are excited to catch up with her again.

We may find it a little difficult to work on the net there, so blogs may not appear as regularly as they have in the past.

So it’s au revoir Auriol!

Auriol, France

It is always lovely to walk into our cool cottage, out of the heat of the midday sun.

Going to Trets became more and more difficult to plan, so this morning we decided to explore our own medieval village. After parking in our usual car park (thank goodness most people drive grey Renault Clios) we walked into town along the road.

When we got to the bank Gray decided to change some money as he only had large notes in his wallet and we needed a coffee. So into our bank we strode, but where were the tellers? This bank has a hole in the wall and people who arrange bank loans etc, but no tellers. As soon as Gray explained to the woman, we needed smaller denominations in order to buy much needed coffees, she sprang into action,
She rushed outside to the hole in the wall, withdrew money from her account then she and Gray swapped notes! We have been overwhelmed by the kindness and friendliness of the people here.

So off to our coffee place, then we planned our trip through the streets. Both of us snapped madly, our biggest challenge to get good images minus power lines! I guess there will be a bit of Photoshopping when we get home.

On our travels we found another boulangerie, so bought lunch. However, the biggest find was a wine shop that only sells wine from local growers. They, themselves make wine. We bought a rose – thanks Becs and Liam for introducing rose to us.

We walked back to the car along the pathway along the river and took more photos.

This afternoon is working on more stuff for Liam – after a Nana nap!

Marseille, France

We’ve not long been home from a busy day in Marseille. This time we did manage to get further than the railway station.

We headed down to the old port and quickly came across the Miramar restaurant that serves the best bouillabaisse according to my little book about Provence at home. We’d checked its website before we left to be horrified that for the privilege it’d cost $100 per person. So only a photo!

However, we did find the Marsellais where as a lunch option, I was able to have it at a more reasonable cost – and it was amazing!!! Super yum.

The port was an interesting place with the usual tourist tours being offered alongside the locals buying their fish. There are no modern high rise building blotting the landscape.

We did lots of shopping, enjoying the lovely small shops and the larger department stores.

It was a lovely sunny day and we really enjoyed the city.

A quiet night at home, tonight. We have some Marcel Pagnol DVDs here, but we are far too tired to cope with translating tonight. We’d been quite excited when we saw that they had subtitles – but in French!!

Cheers.

Aix-en-Provence, France

In future I’m not going to announce our plans for tomorrow, for invariably we change our minds!

This morning, after a fairly wakeful night, we decided that instead of driving to Trets we’d bus and train to Aix en Provence. It was a beautiful day, so we enjoyed the views and took a more relaxed approach to our travels.

Look, we found a park!!! We then had time to call in for a noisette and espresso! Crazy what these Claytons find to celebrate.

Aix is a bustling, but very pretty place. Gaugin was born there, where his father was a local hatmaker – as I’m sure you already knew! There is a large exhibition of Gaugin’s work starting tomorrow!

We lunched under the trees, then headed to a cafe for coffees.

We got back to Aubagne right on 4pm, so had the delight of sharing our ride to Auriol with about 100 school kids! We could have been in any country. The teenage boys were showing off with their poorly developed macho ways and the girls shrieked and giggled! We did manage to get seats for about half the trip.

As we arrived in Auriol, we spotted some boules teams playing in the town square (where the markets are) and we wondered if it is a regular occurrence. The men were playing, very seriously, and families were scattered around the cafe, watching.

We collected our beautifully parked car, and both confessed to each other that we had worried if we’d been there too long and would therefore be clamped etc, but all was well.

A quick trip to the supermarket to buy some duck and cognac – I’m attempting magret du canard tomorrow! Just a ham and vege omelette tonight to use up the scraps. Plus a good chateau picon!

Au revoir!

Auriol, France

The countryside is very dry and dusty so when we awoke to rain this morning we were not upset. We’d planned to drive to Trets for a photo day. When we first started talking about our 2 weeks in Provence, we discovered this medieval village called Trets, that really appealed to us. However, we were unable to find any cottages for rent so expanded our search out a little further thus ending up in Auriol.
With the poor weather and light, we thought we’d head into Aubagne and try to find some wifi, so I could download some apps onto my iPad.
First Rae, remember the iPad!!!

Oh well, another day!

There was a huge market in Aubagne, so we wandered around, buying some more yummy ham from Josy. The lady at the information centre was really helpful re- the wifi places. She didn’t speak a word of English. Gray speaks French like a native and I’m amazed how much I am understanding.

We found a little cafe for lunch. My salmon salad was lovely, Gray’s chicken and chips significantly less impressive.

Whilst we were eating we could hear a parade with a band approaching. They are celebrating the feast of St John and I gather have been doing so for the past 80 years. There were not many of them, parading but it was different from eating lunch on a Sunday in a cafe in Hamilton or Cambridge.

Since we’ve been home Gray has been trying to work out train timetables as we are quite keen to head back to Marseille for a really good look round, out of the railway station!

So hopefully Trets tomorrow and Marseille, Tuesday.

Auriol, France

This morning we headed into town for the Saturday market, parked at the super market and walked into town. I think that everyone in town goes to this market. The atmosphere was great and the produce is much better than in Aubagne. There were fruit, vegetables, flowers, cheeses, meats, seafood, clothes, bags, toys etc, etc.

But first it was coffee in the cafe next to the market. The smokers sit outside, so we headed inside only to see the pre-match build up on the big screen. The local old guys looked at me with great disdain when I enthused over Dan Carter!

We devised our plan for the market……
1. A general recce
2. Gray take photos whilst Rae has a more serious look
3. Shop together

It worked a treat. By the time we met up again, I’d planned the next few meals, seen a cardy I wanted from a lady with whom I’d had a very successful conversation with my pidgen French and her pidgen English and lots of gesturing and giggles.

Laden down with our purchases we walked back to the supermarket and headed home for a simple lunch of fresh bread, ham, tomatoes and yummy cheese. And a ripe, juicy peach.