Latest posts
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Homeward Bound
So, here we are at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris waiting for our flight home. Hard to believe. Our time in Dijon was simply great. We walked the Owl Trail (Parcours de la Chouette), a meandering walking route through Dijon’s historic centre, marked by bronze owl arrows set into the pavement and leading to…
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Diet Disaster
I had, rather delusionally, thought that with some restraint and lots of walking I could prevent the usual holiday waistline expansion. I was destined to fail, of course. We have been in Beaune in eastern France for three days now, enjoying incredible wine tastings (this region is the mecca for lovers of Pinot Noir), truffle…
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Montpellier to Lyon
I love the French high-speed trains. They are on time (to the minute), efficient (they actually tell you exactly where to stand on the platform to step directly onto your allocated carriage), clean, comfortable and very fast – today we travelled from Montpellier to Lyon, whipping along at just a tick under 300 km per…
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Message in a Bottle
In France, recycling is taken very seriously. Apparently, so too is the belief that you can park pretty much anywhere you like. However, woe betide the motorist who blocks access to the recycling bins. The line of empty bottles carefully arranged across the windscreen of this car, parked on a footpath, suggests that the neighbourhood…
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Camargue Horses
Just inland from this part of the coast is the Camargue, one of France’s most distinctive natural landscapes. This vast region of wetlands, lagoons and salt marshes is famous for its white horses, black bulls and graceful pink flamingos. In the past, we have found the Camargue horses quite elusive, and only seen at a…
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Aigues-Mortes, the city of Saint Louis
Just up the coast from Sète is the medieval city of Aigues-Mortes, built by King Louis IX between 1240 and 1248 (he was canonised after his death, becoming Saint Louis – the ultimate medieval performance bonus). You can walk all the way around the ramparts, a distance of just over 1.6km enjoying panoramic views across…
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Last day in Provence
For out last day in Provence, we drove back to the village of Saint-Remy-de-Provence. This place inspired Vincent van Gogh and is certainly on the short list of places we could live. On market day (every Wednesday), the picturesque little street in the photograph is completely crowded with stalls and people. We had a great…
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Vaison-la-Romaine
Yesterday we visited the weekly market in Vaison-la-Romaine, one of the biggest in the area. The streets were packed with stalls selling fresh fruit and vegetables, local cheeses, olives, herbs, clothing, and all sorts of Provencal products. It was a great place to wander and pick up a few local treats. The photo is of…
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A Big Day!
Today we visited Villeneuve-les-Avignon, a village on the western side of the Rhone river, opposite Avignon. There’s a Saturday Brocante market (antiques) which we hadn’t visited before, with the promise of champagne and oysters. Although the champagne and oysters weren’t forthcoming today, the village was very interesting, with a fort and an abbey with beautiful…
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Moulin de la Roque
The lovely cottage that is our home in Provence (on the right in the picture) is part of a little group of buildings that once was a state-of-the-art flour mill. It was built around 1750, about 20 years before Captain Cook reached the south coast of NSW. We have never really questioned until now why…