A night out with the neighbours!

Here we are on Bastille Day, taking things fairly easy after a big night out last night!  Many of the towns and villages in France celebrated Bastille Day last night, Saturday, and Le Thoronet was no exception.  We began the night with free drinks put on by the Mayor!  Tables lined up down the street, council staff pouring champagne, wine, juice, and a pink fruity number which turned out to be sangria. There was also substantial effort on the food front, even if the authenticity was lacking, with pizza, sausage rolls, sandwiches and a huge display of fresh fruit cubes on sticks - it soon became apparent that this was for the sangria.  There was certainly no counting how many drinks you had, so the street was packed with all the villagers having a great time.  We met up with several friends from the hamlet and after a couple of hours, moved on to the local bar/cafe for dinner.
It's taken us six months, but this was exactly the experience we were hoping to get by living in France for a year - having dinner with a group of 25 French locals, with me having to speak French all night, and Lew sticking close to the ones who speak a bit of English!

It was a lot of fun, with all sorts of conversations going on, a lot of laughter, and me trying to follow what was going on and give the odd translation to Lew.  We were opposite a hilarious couple from Calais who are down here visiting his sister in Les Fadons.  He gave me a crash course in the Pas-de-Calais language which is still spoken in the north of France - totally different to French both spoken and written.

We started eating at about 9.45pm, so had to abandon the table and run into the street when the fireworks started at 10.30pm.  Then the dancing started......
The French love to dance, and there seems to be a huge number of dances which involve bizarre looking actions and steps on the dance floor.  No inhibitions, everyone is just out for a good time. There now follows the worst photo in the world, of everyone doing "Gangnam Style" - I had to put it in, as it conveys the atmosphere...I think!

We left after midnight, with everyone still going strong, including numerous children under ten!
A fantastic night, it really made us feel like we are getting into the community here.  We'll be really into the swing of things by the time we leave!

Not much else to report this week, so I'll leave you with a French language quiz:
Question: what is the French word for "flowers"?
Helpful hint: there's a clue in the photo....

Colours of Provence

Another hot week here in the south, with the weather settling into a pattern of 30+ degrees, sunny in the morning, then thundery and humid in the afternoon.  We have therefore also settled into a pattern of moving in the morning, and not moving in the afternoon!  All gardening/cleaning/biking and walking needs to be completed by lunchtime, interspersed with regular visits to the pool.  The afternoons are spent watching Wimbledon or the Tour, and doing a bit of French and reading if we are feeling energetic!  Plus more visits to the pool.  What a life!

With minimal work to do in the garden at the moment, we decided to head into the Alpes Maritimes area above Nice, to visit Alison and Grant.  They are friends from Nelson who are in France on a cycling holiday, which has finished up at Alison's parent's house, way up in the mountains.  They called in to see us for a couple of nights on their way past, and suggested we might like to come up and see a different part of Provence.  What a fantastic experience we had!

On our way we stopped at Mouans Sartoux for the obligatory coffee and croissant - interesting experience!  We both ordered a hot chocolate, and when it arrived, it turned out to be made with cocoa powder!  Luckily there were sugar sachets on the saucer to make it drinkable!  However, when the French couple next to us ordered a hot chocolate, I heard the waiter apologise and say they had run out!  Obviously cocoa was good enough for the tourists, but not for the French!
Anyway, Mouans Sartoux has a very pretty old quarter, with a lot of flowers and plants outside the houses  - I'll let the photos do the talking:

On we went to Alison's place, winding our way up on progressively narrower and steeper roads. Their house is in a tiny village called Pierrefeu, which is spread out over steep hillsides, with the old part of the village at the top.  History lesson approaching..........the village was established by the Romans as a signal station: a chain of communication centres stretching from Scotland to central Italy, along which coded messages were sent by fire signals.  In summer, a message could travel from Hadrian's wall to Rome in 48 hours!  This was interesting for me, as I remember as a child in 1977 during the Queen's Silver Jubilee celebrations, going with my father to a bonfire site high on a hill somewhere in England, and waiting until we saw another bonfire on a distant hill before lighting ours, taking part in a signal chain across England.

The old village was virtually derelict in the 60's, until a French builder came to the area as a hunter, and discovered the ghost town with one inhabitant - an undertaker!  He bought 15 of the houses and renovated them, then sold them on in an effort to keep the village alive.  It's certainly a commitment to live up in that part of the village, as there is no vehicle access to each house.  End of history lesson!

We had a very enjoyable afternoon and evening with the family, sitting outside under their veranda having lunch, coffee, drinks, dinner and plenty of conversation - all the important French events of the day!  Stunning views from the bedroom window the following morning.

We decided to go home the long way round, armed with advice on route selection to see some more mountainous country.  First of all we passed through Aiglun, another tiny village, and onto the Clue d'Aiglun - the word 'clue' means 'ravine' or gorge, just in case the photos don't suggest the translation!

Just at the bottom of this photo you might be able to see the bridge we crossed over, just above the greenery, and to the left a black dot which was the tunnel we emerged from!

And the white dot in this photo is Lew walking along the road checking that the car would fit!

We passed through several more 'clues' during the day, before the inevitable thunder storm began around lunchtime.  Luckily the Renault is well equipped for picnics (its about the only thing its good for...!) so we set up the airline tray tables in the back and tucked in!

The final part of the long route home was to go in search of the lavender fields, which are all flowering around now........

Taking these photos involved some serious driving skills (and patience) from Lew, with me demanding multiple emergency stops, reversals, and parking on non-existent verges,  so I could obtain the "perfect shot"!
It also involved Lew (not me this time!) squelching through a clay mud field to take a "full frontal" shot of the sunflowers, as they were all facing away from the road!

A nine hour day in the car, which is probably a record for me, for whom the words "road" and "trip" in combination ring alarm bells loud and clear!  However, well worth it for the scenery, the smell of the lavender, and the chocolate and forest fruits gelato bribe used to get me back into the car at Castellane!

Vive le Tour!!!

                                              
A Big Day on the Willy/Metcalfe calendar for the year today........off to see the Tour de France!!
Stage 5 of the Tour (or TDF as it seems to be called by professional fans - in other words, most of the French population, who consider themselves experts on the subject) was due to whizz past  about  6k from the house, so we couldn't not go, could we?!

Preparations began several days beforehand - Lew and I went out on our bikes to scope out the best viewing spot, armed with helpful advice from past expert spectators: gentle uphill gradient, so the riders are a bit slower; straight stretch of road so you can see them coming; not in a village - too many people and therefore statistically less chance of picking up the freebies that are thrown out.
Having picked our spot, we set off, armed with sandwiches, water, book to read (you'll see why in a minute!), sunscreen and hat, and...........NZ flag to cheer on the 2 Kiwi riders on the Tour.

We set up on a bank, at an intersection with the Tour route.  Plenty of gendarmes (police) in evidence, stopping numerous cars trying to get through - warning signs of the closure have been up for weeks, plus a large sign and barrier on the road, but still they came!

During the course of the day we witnessed the true colours of your French gendarme.  None of your friendly neighbourhood bobby here, the French police are obviously trained to be as scary as possible, and we saw lots of screaming at drivers, blowing of whistles, furious arm waving, and an impressive selection of hard stares that reduced the offending child and adult alike to a quivering wreck.
Anyway, back to the fun part.  For those not familiar with the Tour - sorry, TDF - the race itself is preceded by the "caravan", a procession of bizarre and entertaining sponsor's vehicles.  They cruise by about 2 hours before the riders come through, blaring loud music, waving madly, and hurling free samples of products into the enthusiastically waiting crowd!  Hence the need to position yourself strategically amongst the crowd, so you are in prime position to elbow all others out of the way and dive on as many spoils as possible!
Here they come......

 
Wave your arms around, jump up and down, and you might get a packet of fluorescent sweets...

Not sure what came out of this vehicle...

Here's the French state-controlled betting system PMU...

And the local supermarket chain...

Bear in mind that these vehicles drive the full length of every stage - today they had to go 252 k....

Our haul?  A cap, three packets of sweets, a rubber bracelet that will get us a free baguette, a sachet of washing powder and.....a condom!  Not too sure how the parents explained that one to the kids at the end of the lolly scramble.

Excitement over with, you then have a couple of hours to kill before the riders come through.  Time to talk to your neighbours, go for a walk, or amuse yourself in some other way.

Gradually, there are signs of activity as the riders approach.  Various cars come whizzing  past, multiple gendarmes on motorbikes, and of course, the VIP's in their helicopters.

As you can see, Lew was wondering whether anyone would notice if he hopped in and got a lift to the finish line.

And suddenly, here they are!

Is that it?  Six riders?  All that fuss for six of you?  Where are the rest?  Having a quick glass of red and a cigarette in Lorgues?
A long 8 minutes later, the peleton arrives...

Passes....

And leaves.....

So, three hours gone by, we had ticked a big box on the to-do list: seen the Tour AND got a free condom, what more could we ask for from a day out in France?!?