Provence

  Simiane la Rotonde, France
Monday, June 23, 2008

View of the Gite le Fontaine

Thursday 19th June

Alison: After packing and organising a bag full of things we don't need any more to post home with FedEx using Michael's account, we said a fond farewell to Marie-Rose while Bernard kindly drove us into the Bordeaux station to catch our train to Provence. We had a very comfortable train ride through the magnificent countryside down to the coast and across to Marseilles where we finally arrived in the late afternoon, about half an hour after Julie's TGV from Paris arrived. 

Julie, Mike & kids with our great little car

It was very hot and we all waited in a station cafe while Michael went off to collect the Avis car we had hired. The car was great, fitting all 5 of us and our luggage very comfortably, and armed with an old touring map of Provence that Bernard had kindly given us, we set off to find our way to Simiane la Rotonde and our gite. Just getting out of Marseilles in 5.00 pm rush hour was fairly challenging, but things went smoothly along the motor way until we made the fatal mistake of not by-passing Aix-en-Provence. We spent about 30 minutes or so trying desperately to get out of there until finally a lovely woman at a service station actually escorted us to the entrance of the motorway so that we were once more heading in the right direction. The winding, narrow roads through spectacular scenery in the late summer dusk were really lovely, but everyone was getting increasingly carsick and grumpy by the time we finally reached the turnoff for our gorgeous Provencal farmhouse, and all got out of the car with a sigh of relief. 

Eating dinner at the gite

We were greeted by the most beautiful outdoor dining courtyard and our friendly host Bernard just at the stage of bringing home-made pizzas out of the brick wood-fired oven. The sun set over the hills, we sat down on the chairs and chatted to the other guests (a couple from Austria on their motor bike) and assorted family members, drank delicious wine, ate gorgeous food and knew we'd arrived in heaven! Much later we forced ourselves from the table and took our bags to our room, a lovely set-up with a double bed and a single bed in an upstairs mezzanine for Julie and the kids and a bathroom and double sofa bed downstairs for us. It was great to lie down and go to sleep in such an idyllic, quiet setting.
 
Friday 20th June

View up to Simiane la Rotonde

Alison: We decided on a slow day and while Michael slept in and Julie headed off for a long walk in search of ancient artefacts she had heard might be buried nearby, I had a lovely walk with the children around the farm admiring the poppies and wild roses growing by the dusty roadsides. Eventually Mike got up and we all piled into the car and headed off to explore our surroundings. The little town of Simiane la Rotonde overlooked the gite, so we went to that first. Its 1000 year old 'rotonde' after which it was named was a lovely round building on various levels looking out over the valley with an Aromatherapy workshop in progress on one floor and an art exhibition on another.

Michael & kids singing in the Rotonde

Michael enjoyed the acoustics of the rotonde and had a lovely time singing at the top of his voice!
After looking at the exhibits we drove off to the nearby town of St Christoph, where a restaurant had been recommended to us.

Beautiful garden in the Abbey

We finally found the restaurant and after convincing the waitress that despite there being no kids menu we still wanted to eat there, we settled ourselves under the dappled shade of vine leaf covered pergola. The meal was lovely, although the waitress remained uppity! Then we drove back to Simiane la Rotonde and up to a beautiful Abbey which had a stunning rose garden looking out over the valley. It was hot but peaceful walking around the various plants, with everyone deciding on their favourite rose and smelling the different herbs. 

The chilly swimming pool

Finally we headed back to the gite, where the kids had a dip in the freezing pool and I relaxed in the shade of the trees. That night at dinner there were some new guests, this time from Biarritz, whom we had a nice chat to over the plentiful wine and delicious food that Bernard produced so seemingly effortlessly. Once again it was all too easy to stay there drinking, eating and chatting, but eventually we dragged ourselves and the kids off to bed. Their bed times have become ridiculously late over this trip, but with the summer exquinox next day and the sun not setting till so late, it is hard to convince anyone to go to bed!
 

Julie and kids doing their dig

Saturday 21st June

Alison: We were greeted by another glorious blue sky on this, the longest day of the year. Julie had decided to try some archaeology and had created a bit of a dig in a clay bank near the back of the farmhouse which the kids happily participated in. Not a lot was found, although Tom found a bit of broken tile, which Julie assured him could be Roman (it looked pretty recent to me!) but they then had fun making some rough pots with the clay which they left to dry in the sun. We had decided to go to Apt which had its Saturday markets on, and then into the nearby scenic Colorado area.

Choosing cheeses in Apt market

The Apt markets were full of nice things, but very hot so we stuck mainly to the shade in our explorations. We bought some lovely bread, cheese, salamis, fruit and tomatoes from the various vendors in preparation for a nice picnic lunch and then drove off to the Colorado valley.

Amazing ochre in Colorado canyon

We found ourselves in a spectacular ochre gully, with its bright red clay and sand contrasting beautifully with the azure sky and green pine trees. A very nice picnic followed, but it was too hot to do much exploring of the landscape, so we resisted the chance to go bushwalking and headed back to the car to drive home.

The kids had another nice time swimming and also decorating their clay pots with the ochre they collected from the picnic site. A lot of Bernard's family turned up that evening because it was their 4 year old son Theo's baptism the next day, so a huge family party was to eventuate. We were practically the only guests there not part of the family party, but they welcomed us all warmly and invited us to the baptism and lunch the next day. We worked out that we would have to leave by about 1.30 at the latest for Julie to catch her train back to Paris, but they assured us that we would be eating by 12.30 so we happily agreed.

Bernard working in his kitchen

That evening was another great meal, with about 40 of us sitting down outside in the balmy air, but Bernard remained smiling as he served us lovely stuffed aubergines and zucchinis and more yummy local wine...

Sunday 22nd June

Theo's christening

Alison: We had a quiet morning packing all our stuff and helping everyone set up for the big lunch. Julie made a small rock garden in the clay bank she had been excavating decorated with red ochre while the rest of us headed off to the beautiful little mediaeval church in Simiane la Rotonde for the service. Theo and his little cousin were very well behaved during the ceremony as they were baptised and it was interesting to attend a Catholic church service all in French and work out when you were meant to say Amen or whatever! After that we headed back to the gite, packed the bags in the car, and sat down for a while to drink champagne and eat yummy pizza before we headed off to Marseilles. We only had time to eat the first course of pizza, much to the children's chagrin as they had seen a huge croquembouche go past! Mike pretended to help make the pizzas but luckily Bernard's lovely older son from a first marriage soon took back the reins. We finally said our fond farewells to everyone and piled into the car, to drive back down the windy roads to Marseilles.

Dinner in Marseille w Anthony & Charon's mum

The drive back was relatively trouble free, but finding our way to the train station and also a petrol station to fill up involved a lot of asking questions of strangers on the street, but we finally arrived, dropped the car and got Julie to her train. Once again it was hot as hell, but we waited in the shade while Michael went off to get a taxi which took us to our nearby Mercure Hotel. This was very comfortable and while Mike and Tom stayed watching sport on TV, Rachel and I had a wander down to the port and bought her a lovely little striped navy and white knit dress that screamed 'Marseilles'!  We walked down to the same port area for dinner a few hours later and had a nice meal, the experience heightened by our delight in looking at the adjoining table and recognising the mother of friends of ours, Anthony and Charon Western. We had a lovely chat to her and her Swiss friend before heading home to our hotel ready for an early start the next morning.

Ochre decorated clay pots

Rachel's response to our time in Provence:
We were with my Nana Julie and she gave us the idea to make things with clay which we found in the earth. So at the Colorado Canyon we collected red ochre to make paint and we painted our clay so when it dried it was in lots of different patterns with brown and red colours. We also did some archeological digging and my brother found a piece of what could be a Roman plate. 

View over poppy field on way to Apt

Mike's impressions of Provence:
After a wonderful few days with our friends in Bordeaux we headed off on the train to meet my Mum in Marseilles en-route to a gite we had booked near a little town called Simiane la Rotonde near Apt in Provence. As had been a constant feature of our trip I was absolutely thrilled on arriving there to discover that where we were staying was even more beautiful and captivating than the internet site had suggested. A lovely old restored farmhouse on a lush green farm, with horses, donkeys and dogs roaming, all framed by a magnificent medieval village on a neighbouring hill... after our long car trip it just felt wonderful to be there. Our host Bernard was a lovely, friendly, typically French guy who made us feel immediately at home, and immediately on arriving we were ushered to a lovely outdoor terrace table where all the guests plus family and friends joined for a convivial nightly meal. Life was easy as we didn't have to make any choices... lovely varieties of pizza and local wine appeared before us, followed by gorgeous pork chops, cheeses and a seemingly endless array of beautiful tastes. To top it off, Tom, who hadn't been enamoured of any of these, was beside himself with joy when before him appeared a lush, ripe rock melon which he devoured with gusto.

Playing football with other family & guests

Waking the next day was like being in Paradise, and my mother in particular, was delighted to be there, having wanted for many years to get away from the hustle and bustle and quickly finding serenity in her surroundings. The kids really took to some of her nature inspired activities including archaeology and pottery while I really enjoyed the simple and relaxed feel about the farm with their own kid running about happily, us all playing some soccer in the fields, enjoying refreshing dip in the pool, and more generally basking in this magnificent location, oft enhanced by a glass of something local! Exploring the medieval village on the hill was fascinating, but the highlight for me was our trip to the local market in Apt the next day which was everything one could hope for... stall after stall of wonderful fresh produce, cheeses to die for, salamis of all manner and generally a veritable feast for the senses.

Picnic in the canyon

What better way to enjoy this than to choose a selection of our favourites which we packed into a picnic and duly enjoyed in the nearby beautiful Colorado canyon.

Our home base gite started filling with new arrivals all coming for the Christening of young Theo and his cousin the next day and we were delighted to be invited along by our lovely hosts who had made us feel very much part of the family. It was really fun to witness a Christening in a different culture, a small, intimate affair in a lovely little medieval church! Back at home, the festivities followed and we were sad to have to head back to Marseilles and not be able to enjoy all of their company and the find feast, though I did my best to partake in the short time we did have available!

Mike 'helping' make the pizza

Farewelling my mother at Marseilles as she would now head back to Paris while we would head off in the other direction to our friends in the Italian Alps. Though welcome to join us, she, not being a great traveller, had wanted to stay on in Paris (part of the time joined by a friend from Ireland) where she felt very at home being conversant in the local tongue and having apparently enjoyed past lives in the court of Louis XIV within these surroundings! (refer to future books) It had been lovely for us spending this much time with her, particularly the kids who don't get to see much of her living in Sydney. The one pity was that Tom was far from his best form for these 3 or 4 days, clearly having been mucked around by the nasty fall he'd had in Paris, which meant that this period of our trip, perhaps more than any other, was characterized by some pretty difficult situations of managing children, with ensuing stress and conflict that it's fair to say Nana Julie, who lives much as a loner these days, probably wasn't used to in her daily life... but on departing France, as they say, "C'est le vie!