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!