Villages in Carpentras Region - 22 March 2009

Cute sign at a shop in Pernes les Fontaines
Samuel and the big smooth rocks around a tree in Le Beaucet

Memorial plaque in village of Le Beaucet
Village of Le Beaucet - with troglodyte village built into the cliffs

Fountain in Venasque

A closeup of the stone construction of the ramparts

Pretty blossom on almond tree

(it's one of the first trees to flower at the close of winter)

Stone gateway and clock tower at St Didier

Lunch stop at Venasque

Notre Dame d'Aubune Chapel in Beaumes de Venise

Village of La Roque Alric

View of Rooftops from Barroux Castle

Barroux Castle

Kidlets

The view from Barroux Castle looking down over the olive groves

Le Jardin du Rocher des Doms - 18 March 2009

View from the hilltop gardens

Kids enjoying an icy pole

On the bateau gratuit to cross the Rhone

Le Pont St Bénezet

On Wednesday we took the kids to the park behind the Palais des Papes. The hilltop gardens are very high up and overlook the city and there are great views of Avignon and the magnificent winding Rhone River. It was a beautiful sunny day to be outside. The temperature was about 24 degrees.

That previous post about my french is my roundabout way of letting people know not to expect me to come back to Australia speaking fluent french. I'm just letting you all down gently now so you won't be too disappointed. Andrew made a good point about it saying that our understanding of french has grown way more than our ability to speak it. But one without the other isn't much use either, it's only half way there.

Learning French

My progress in learning french has stalled since we left Carlipa. I've made some feeble attempts to find language classes since we've been here but time is flying by so quickly and we've kind of found that we can get by without speaking to anybody much at all. Isn't that terrible! It's been a surprise to me that we haven't been able to pick it up by now sort of by osmosis. I thought with hearing french every day it would sort of grow on me but, sigh, that hasn't happened.

Our next door neighbour, Daniella has kindly offered to help me with my French and we spent a couple of hours on the weekend going through the pronunciation of some basic French words. But mainly getting sidetracked chatting. She’s from the Czech Republic, has a Masters in Social Work and speaks three languages. She’s having difficulty in finding a proper job in her field in France so she does cleaning part time and some home help duties for elderly and disabled people. It must be very frustrating for her with her skills to be in this position.

Douane in Action in Avignon

On our way to Avignon recently we were traumatised when we were pulled over for running a red light. Well we didn't really speed through, more sort of slunk through behind the other two cars who also went through the red light. Anyway on the other side of the intersection a swarm of navy blue uniforms were waiting for us, pulled us over and wanted to search our car would you believe. Not sure what they were looking for. They were actually Douane which is the Customs officers but they also had a couple of policemen there as well, ready to book people for anything else they could I guess. An expensive mistake to make – ninety euro fine. They kindly pointed Andrew in the direction of a cash machine so we could pay the fine straightaway. So thoughtful! I’m sounding very sarcastic aren’t I? I’ve got my double standards to maintain, you know. The female customs officer spoke good English except when she asked Andrew “Didn’t you see the fire was red?” meaning the light was red.

I’ve been looking for some new blogs to read. Whenever I read other people’s blogs I get very disheartened with my own blog particularly when I see the beautiful photography on some blogs and the stylish and creative layouts. My blog feels really dull and uninteresting and my photos are often kind of hazy. And isn't it amazing how much you can learn when you read what other people are doing. It all sounds so interesting.

A couple of the tourist guide books we've picked up lately have had suggestions in them for short drives to explore the region. These work out well with us because the kids have a limited time span for touring and Andrew and I get to zip around quite quickly and look at things and then we can plan to return on our own and look properly when the kids aren't with us. They're not much into leisurely strolls around ancient villages. That is one good thing about where we are now at Cavaillon. It's positioned well to go to lots of different places in Provence without having to spend hours at a time in the car.

Villages of the Luberon - 16 March 2009

The Luberon mountains

In the Lourmarin Valley the rocky mountain ranges were spectacular.


A view of Bonnieux

Fearsome door knocker on a huge door in Bonnieux

In Bonnieux, an attractive statue on the side of a building.

The countryside is dotted with these stone bories. This one is in pretty good condition and looks like it still might be used as a shelter from the elements. On an earlier trip, we paid a substantial amount to visit the Village des Bories which was a cluster of bories all in one place. That was before we knew that Provence has hundreds of bories which you can see whenever you like for free.

Ella in the Backyard

Here are some photos I took of Ella on the swing in the backyard. Samuel and Ella absolutely love the yard at this house. So much so that when we want to go out sightseeing or doing a bit of travelling they put on a performance to avoid going out anywhere.

Carnaval des Enfants - Cavaillon

There was a mini carnaval in our town which we went along to look at. The children in the parade were dressed up in their finest spiderman and snowwhite costumes and there was a brass band which played lots of catchy tunes that we recognised and we walked along with the parade. It was all over in a very short time and they burned the main man at the end which we found odd.

St Remy de Provence - 10 March 2009

Andrew and I visited St Remy this morning. The kids were in school so it was nice to wander around the village on our own without two small people enquiring when we were going to go home the whole time. Apologies for the photo arrangement. I was trying something new...which didn't work obviously.