Provence: part deux

The next day, we headed down some twisty mountain roads to a little village which I have forgotten the name of. This is not the village, but another village on the way (very large bird cages seem to be the style in a lot of the villages)


The village we walked from (which I will find out the name of when Jim is around) was perched up on top of a hill, surrounded by grape vines and with a river running along the bottom. It was very quiet and beautiful.


When we arrived, people were riding horses.


We walked into the village, noted a creperie, and then headed off on our one and only real hike of the trip (it started raining the next day).


There was a lot of talk in the walking book that we were using about wild boars. Apparently in the fall there is much hunting of the boars happening in the area where we were walking. We didn't see any boars, but we did see one hunter and we checked out this boar roasting station that was early in our walk. I think that the Pigfest set up rivals this.


Figuring that wild boars weren't that interested in cold pizza, we stopped for a picnic in a pine grove.


Jim in the vineyards:


Evie's grapes, stolen from the vineyard (we tasted them and they were good!):


When we got to the river at the end of our walk, Jim couldn't resist wading in. It was rocky so not the most comfortable experience.


Evie and I stayed on shore.


It was a beautiful river, which was rushing in some parts and calm in others.


This was a very old (can't remember how old, of course) and significant bridge. We drove over it to get back to our house and it was also very narrow and significantly scary. Fortunately there were not cars coming from the other direction!


After our walk, we just couldn't resist the call of a crepe (and ice cream). It was the best crepe we have ever shared. Sadly for her, Evie slept through it.


But when she woke up, we played a really fun game that involved me running towards her. It was, she thought, the funniest thing ever. So it made up for missing out on the best crepe ever.


Jim and Evie next to the old and significant bridge.


The next day: Avignon!


When we got there, we carried Evie up a lot of stairs so that we could wander around a park. Then we realized that we could have just rolled her up, if we had approached from the other end. Live and learn!

At the top of the park overlooking another old and significant bridge (I remember that this one got destroyed by a big ice storm or something and they never built it back. There is also a nursery song about this bridge, but I don't think I know it. My lack of knowledge of historical events is not surprising, but I'm usually an expert at nursery rhymes!)


Actually, it was kind of rainy and we were kind of tired so I didn't take very many pictures of Avignon. There was a big beautiful church because the vatican moved there at some point in history and it was the first place in Provence that we visited which seemed really touristy (also the first place we saw other Americans). So we kept our visit brief.

Avignon had a very happy parking garage.


This is a picture of what it was like driving with Jim all over France. I'm the driver and the hysterical person in the passenger seat is Jim.



Stay tuned for Uzes (again) and Arles.

In the mean time....

As usual, I am VERY behind on my blog. But here are a few videos of the fabulous Evie to tide you over until I have a chance to finish blogging about France and start blogging about Halloween!

Watch out world...I'm exhausted after chasing Evie and her wagon of toys around:


Evie wows with her master climbing skills:


There was no stomping on this little roach. She was too cute!

Previews in Video--Provence

At some point I will finish my Provence blog, but until then here are some video snippets (mostly of Evie) from our Provence trip.

One disgruntled rat:


Evie talks to the rain:


A favorite game, anywhere in the world:


Evie, dubbed "Hombre" by some random man, demonstrates her 'bull' style of crawling in the garden. She was very dirty at the end of each day of play in the garden.


Jim gracefully makes his way out of the river, into which he waded on our one and only hike before the rain started.


Stay tuned for a more detailed account of our adventures in France.

En Provence-part un

And off to France we went...

I think the highlight of the whole trip for Evie was when she got to play in the soft play airplane at Gatwick.


We flew in to Marseille, via Easy Jet. It was a great week for quality family time, starting with the flight over. That look that Jim is giving me is the 'don't ruin the moment' look.


We drove from Marseille to the village that we stayed in--Montaren--stopping on the way for late lunch in another village called St. Remy. St. Remy was full of beautiful shops and ancient drainage systems.


I was not in the mood to be photographed at the slightly posh pub-style restaurant where we were the last people to eat lunch.


Most of the roads in Provence are lined with these beautiful trees, which only is a problem when an 18 wheeler is taking up most of the road...


We were staying at the home of a very nice woman named Arlette. She lived in half of the house and we rented the other half. In her garden, Arlette has pet turtles ranging from very young to 13 years old. Evie was very happy playing in Arlette's garden, watching the turtles and pursuing the cat, Plume, who was not very interested in being pursued. I would like to take this moment to praise Finchley for his patience with and tolerance of Evie.



First things first--la supermarche! We had a large supermarket near us and Evie was thrilled to be able to drive her own car during our shopping excursions.


Evie is obsessed with stairs, so we had to develop an elaborate stair blocking system. This picture is just to give the Grandparents a heart attack. Mostly she wasn't climbing up and down the treacherous stairs.


The bathtub situation was a vast improvement on Venice. In her tub, Evie happily played with rubber duckies and splashed around.


Morning in our French home:


Better food was to be bought at the market in St. Quentin-la-Poterie (famous for its many potters) and we headed there on our second day.

We bought a giant bread!


My most major purchase at the market was a 10 Euro bright orange fleece (the only color option). It was cold and I spent the rest of the trip looking like I was going deer hunting, but it was worth it.

Something happened in France on the 4th of September, but so far I haven't figured it out. Jim just thinks they are having an international celebration of his birthday in all the cities of France. Fair enough.


There was much exploring to be done in Arlette's garden. While the weather was nice (and cold)we went out and played in the afternoons.

The swing was not baby friendly. I thought maybe it would be easier for Evie to swing on her stomach, but that resulted in a face plant (not fun). It worked out better when Jim was swinging her (fun).

She also perfected standing in the garden. She had a great hunter spotting her efforts.

We searched for gold in the back yard, but our most exciting find was unripe olives.

With Arlette's directions, we took a walk near our house. Montaren from above:


Hiking with my favorite accessory:

When we were heading down the hill and through the woods, we heard a huge crashing noise coming behind us. Figuring we were about to be attacked by a mountain lion or something, we took off running (like you're not supposed to do)...and then a mountain BIKER rounded the corner. We felt like such idiots and my running jostled Evie awake, which made her mad. It was pretty funny.

Provence is a lot like Tuscany, in that there are tons of olive trees and grapevines. Jim picked an olive,

scrambled up some rocks,

marveled at the sheer number of rosemary bushes growing on the side of the road,

and explored ancient stone structures:


The next day we decided to lock Evie up and go out on the town by ourselves. Just kidding! Really she was happily watching me hang the clothes on the line from her prison cell/the living room.


We went into Uzes, which was 4 KM from Montaren and has a great Saturday market, where they sell fruits and vegetables, meats, cheeses, fish and other stuff (hats, jewelry purses, toys, clothes).


Evie enjoyed a cookie and then some bread (she takes after her mama!) She had an audience throughout our lunch. People just are nicer when you have a cute baby around.


After lunch she taught me how to drive a truck:


And we had a wild ride on a see-saw.


When we got back to the garden it was time for a break!


The next day I woke up with some funk so despite the beautiful weather, we skipped going for the walk we had planned and, instead, went into Nimes. We started with a visit to an ancient arena. It was exhilarating!!!

Actually the most exciting part was the sleeping cat. The views from the top were also pretty nice and the ascent to the top was steep! Jim and I both got cramps in our legs going down.


Can you find Jim in this picture?


There was a nice park in Nimes, where Evie had a crawling break and we checked out some canals.


For lunch, we went to a cafe where there were no English menus and the staff spoke very little English, so I stumbled through with my incredibly bad French and was proud of myself for ordering what I thought was roast beef for Jim.

In fact, it was not. It was beef tartar, which is, actually raw...and served with a raw egg, which you mix into it. Being the good sport that he is, Jim ate it anyway. After he finished it we were informed that it was not JUST beef, but also horse meat. I'm pretty sure that if we had been in the privacy of our own home, Jim would have had a more vocal reaction to that information, but instead he just smiled and said "I just ate horse....raw..."


Some statues, post-traumatizing lunch experience:


And, some ponies (not for consumption) pulling children around the park :


Evie liked the pony. He was more her size than the last horse she met.

The end of Provence part Un. I'll blog about the rest as soon as I can!