Fantastic Provence

This post covers a fantastic week that we have had in Provence. Our first stop was the little village of Lafare, population 100, where we had a hotel room for four nights. This was a very small hotel with just six rooms, beautiful gardens, outdoor breakfast and dinner, a pool and great views. Fortunately the temperatures had cooled down from the 40s of the previous week in this area. On our first night, we enjoyed a fantastic dinner on a balmy evening with Matthew sound asleep in his travel cot in the room - this is where our baby monitor/camera with 50m range came in very handy!!

Here is our last doctor story (I promise)......Heather spoke to our Travel Insurer about all of us being so sick on our travels and what we should do. Given Matthew's cough they wanted us to take him to a hospital for blood tests. So off we went to the hospital in nearby Carpentras, but the language barrier was far too great so it was back into town to find a GP instead. I eventually found the tourist office (closed till 2pm!), so after a bit of a wait they directed us to some doctors' rooms where we fortunately found one who spoke very good English. She was fairly certain Matthew did not have whooping cough, gave us a new prescription and blood test requests. Next stop was the Laboratorie for the blood tests. It took myself and two staff to keep his little arm still, but they knew what they were doing and it was all done with a minimum of fuss and tears. As usual, within a couple of minutes he was happy again. So it was a very long day and we were all exhausted when we arrived back at the hotel around 5pm.

Our reason for staying staying in such a small village in this region was to visit our friends Anne and Pascal and their children, whom we met on our last trip to Europe three years ago. They live about 10 minutes from Lafare. That evening we had a drink with Anne at the hotel before putting Matthew to bed and then she returned to join us for dinner and wine at our hotel. Pascal and the kids were driving back from the Alpes where they own a hotel "Chalet La Maitreya" (where we stayed last time).

We spent Wednesday at Anne and Pascal's home in the village of Vacqueyras. Their house is around 200 years old (as are most houses in their village) and they are currently renovating it. Their four children, Gaby, Zoe, Seppel and Jesse, were fantastic and absolutley adored Matthew. It was so nice seeing him interact with them, and he especially loved playing the piano with the family's help. We had a fabulous lunch of vegetable curry, rice, and fine wine (except Heather of course) before all relaxing outside (under a tree because it was drizzling!). Matthew napped in their portacot.

On Thursday we had a lazy day around Lafare, the three of us having a nice walk around the village after breakfast. Heather devoured several figs from the huge tree in the church courtyard, but they would have ended up on the road and squashed if she hadn't eaten them! We had lunch in the nearby village of Beames-en-Venise at a small grill which was an omlette for me and chipolatas for Heather, complete with salad and chips. Matthew also had his own lunch of solids, which he is devouring three times a day now that he is a big boy. Finishing off with a coffee, this was a very relaxing lunch in the sun in another beautiful small Provence village!

 

There are a lot of hiking trails in the area so I went for a short walk in the afternoon to a nearby hill which overlooks the village and surrounding area while Heather and Matthew had a snooze. Apart from a little bit of rain, it was a great walk with some amazing views, and looking at the state of the track it doesn't get too many visitors either. We had our last fantastic dinner at the hotel that night. Nataliya (one of the owners) does all the cooking at the hotel and makes something different and interesting every night - entree, main and dessert, quite memorable. We got to know the other guests quite well as we reviewed how we all spent our days. Everyone adored Matthew and his smiley antics.

On the day we left, after Anne kindly gave Heather a second Reiki treatment, we stopped off to see Anne and Pascal and the children once again. As always, their hospitality and generosity in opening their home and hearts to us was very touching.  Anne made a yummy pasta dish with a fresh vegetable sauce for lunch.  There was also crusty bread and a huge array of tasty cheeses, which I had no problem in helping to devour. Matthew once again had a great time playing with the kids and especially liked the girls, Gaby and Zoe. It was sad to leave after a wonderful few days in this area and with friends, but it was time to head to the east to the Gorges du Verdon for our next stop. It was another three hour journey by car which generally seems to be Matthew's limit before he's had enough of his baby seat!

We visited this area three years again and decided we would return to the same B&B in the village of Chasteuil as it has a lovely outlook over the surrounding valley and mountains and the owner, Pascal, hosts superb breakfasts and dinners. The drive to Chasteuil follows the main Gorge and it is a very narrow road with huge drop offs down one side and often cutting through overhanging rock. Combined with the summer traffic it was a fairly slow journey but had brilliant views. After getting Matthew down to sleep and setting up our camera monitor, we headed upstairs for Pascal's Friday night dinner - aperitif, bread/olives/pate, a substantial vegetable soup, cheese plate and lemon tart. Dinner is set around a huge square table with all the other guests, a mixture of French, German and Australians (us!) so there is lots of conversation (and translation!) going on. We watched a blue moon (second full moon for the month) rise over the mountains to finish off another memorable evening.

Saturday was market day at the nearby town of Castellane, so we headed there in the morning and stocked up on some saussison (dried sausage), cheese and fruit before stopping off at a boulangerie to pick up some quiches for lunch. We headed back to Chasteuil to feed Matthew his lunch (beef, rice and vegies - straight out of the jar) while nibbling on our morning purchases and enjoying the views. We also discovered how much Matthew likes dogs. Whenever he sees one he goes into fits of laughter and wants to reach out and touch them. Just near the B&B was a huge St Bernard that Matthew loved, although I'm sure the dog was just tolerating his excitement so as to get some attention. Pascal had a local Provence dish prepared for dinner that night - Daube, which is slow cooked beef cheeks with wine, vegetables and aromatic spices and orange peel. I have already put an order in with Heather to cook this one up when we get home. For the second night in a row I was told off for eating from the cheese plate without drinking red wine - very un-French apparently! Heather was very quick to guess the secret ingredient in the dessert cake - zuichini or courgette as it is known in France. We had all over-indulged but how can you not when everything was so tasty.

Our last full day in the area involved a visit to the nearby village of Trigance to stock up at the local boulangerie which we knew had some beautiful breads and treats, all cooked in a big old wood-fired stove. On the way back, we stopped off at a restaurant on the side of the road called Moulin de Soleils. For Adrian it was a pizza and Heather, the "plat du jour" - plate of the day being veal stew. Both were perfect dishes to have on a lazy Sunday afternoon in the sun, especially since it was also my first Father's Day! It w as a memorable day, very spontaneous and I had some fantastic time with Matthew. What more could a father want? Below is a photo of the two of us boys, standing in the doorway of our Chasteuil B&B room after our big day out.

On Monday it was time to head back north into the Alpes but we will most definitely be back here some time to visit our favourite French B&B, and stay for longer next time. We even looked at the other rooms to see which would be best to house all...potentially four...of us!