DAY 25: QUIET DAY, NEW FRIENDS and a BELLY ACHE

 April 30, 2023

Our hosts, Trevor and Elizabeth,  lived in a handsome apartment opposite the Duke's castle.  We were ushered out to a set table in a walled patio, with the Duke's castle overlooking us. 

They had both worked in the USA for some time, so conversation was easy. Both of them attended Harvard and Elizabeth taught in the language department at Tufts. (We learned that English is spoken at the front of the mouth, French in the middle and Germans - who cares where they speak.) She did not remember our Jennifer.  The conversations rolled over to lunch time and we headed of to a restaurant in our square to eat. We learned lots about the history of Uzes and a bit of French politics and etc. It was fun.

With some help I chose the Special of the Day for my meal. When I got home I was so close to throwing up I went to bed and slept until 7PM. Fortunately by then it has passed (meaning with time), but I just had toast for dinner. 

When we left home at 10:45 AM Collingwood was in bad shape. When we got home the game was over and they had won by one point. Sadly I missed a call from Marg and Geoff. 😥

The Duke's house.

DAY 24: MARKET DAY (AGAIN), STARBUCKS IN NIMES (and a couple of disappointing attempts)

 APRIL 29, 2023

This is our 3rd Saturday Market day. Deidre wanted to shop for a few things for the kids, I thought I could take a few more market photos.

There is a large selection of products for sale.  Here are just a few.

The market incorporates just about all the streets and squares in the downtown area, "starting" at the end of our street. And its very busy:

By 11 AM we had satisfied our market interest and headed off to Nimes. Why? Because the nearest Starbucks was at the Nimes railway station, and we missed our American coffee. We both find French coffee a bit disappointing. (Plus we are a bit tired of paying $4 for a thimble of coffee.)

This was our third visit to Nimes, but we had not visited the railway station. And Starbucks did not dissapoint.

They even had Deidre's favorite cake (although it was a bit dry)

After our coffee, we wandered out of the station onto Ave Feucheres (or is it the Esplanade Charles de Gaul?) and all the way to the Fontaine Pradier. The center section of the avenue was a pedestrian mall. It was a perfect day, we just sat at the base of the fountain and took in the sights. 

The Fontaine Pradier

I do wonder why she has a house on her head. 

While relaxing in Nimes we had a look at our tourist map for any "site remarquable" in the area, and found two that looked interesting - one referred to as Olivette and one "Reserve Naturelle des Gorges du Gardon." We located them on Google and spent an hour of driving. We did not know what to expect at Olivette but did not find it anyway.  The road towards the other site remarquable just progressively deteriorated into a track and we gave up. So we headed home.

I needed a few steps (the end of the week is fast approaching) so I went for a walk/hike in the local valley/park in front of the cathedral. I had walked in the area before, once with Kylie and once with Don, but this time I wanted to try and do a circumnavigation. It was a fun walk but eventually I started to get lost. Fortunately I found a fellow walking his dog (who spoke good English) and we enjoyed a fun conversation, ending up with good directions home, plus an invitation to Deidre and I to meet at 11 AM for drinks the next day. 

We had recently been able to buy raw chicken (that looked like chicken we were used to) and Deidre made a great chicken, potatoes and fresh vegs dinner. For desert she had purchased 4 small containers of Crème Brulé. Turns out it was tapioca. Deidre tossed hers out.

DAY 23: Cascades du Sautadet and La Roque-sur-Ceze

 Friday April 28, 2023

We were up to speed a little earlier today and by 11:00AM we were actually in the car. Deidre had found mention of  some "cascades" (which we had interpreted as a waterfall) within a reasonable distance from home. We thought we could buy a baguette and some goodies in a local village and enjoy lunch next to the falls. The day was about as good as it could be - sunny, warm and just a breeze. We have been very lucky with weather so far.

As usual, the drive was quite pretty, with plenty of poppy fields.

Low and behold, as we reached the falls we could not avoid noticing another of the very attractive "village on a hill". This one called La Roque-sur Ceze and apparently rated as "one of the most beautiful in France." The approach was very steep so I drove as high as I could into the village (in fact not that far), dropped Deidre off and headed back to find parking. 

It was way too steep for Deidre so we spotted a nice restaurant in the sun and decided to forget the picnic and treat ourselves. We selected a table for two in the sun and waited for some attention, which arrived fairly soon. To our disappointment we were advised that they were not serving  on the patio, and that we were required to come inside. That was not to our liking so we had a look around the village (as much as we could manage) and headed back to the car and went looking for baguettes.

Definitely narrower than Uncle Arch's driveway

Too steep for Deidre

No baguettes could be found but we did see a lone restaurant with a sign for crepes, and settled for that - in the sunshine. I visited the Gents as I was leaving, but could not figure out the sign over the urinal. Maybe Geoff can help. 

After lunch we headed back to the falls and had a look.

Not Niagara, but a pleasant walk. There were ruins of the old mill in the area.

DAY 22: ANOTHER REST DAY (With Picnic)

 Thursday, April 27, 2023

Got up late, played on the computer until almost noon.

It was another nice day so we decided to go on a local picnic, then do some shopping on the way home. To save Deidre some walking I fetched the car and picked her up closer to "home". As she closed her door she heard a clunk in the door and guess what she found - HER LOST PHONE !

Deidre had searched the car several times, I had searched the car twice and even our B&B landlady had searched it also. But somehow it was lodged out of reach in her door pocket, and closing the door had popped it loose. A really nice way to start the day,

We drove to our favorite boulangerie and picked out a couple of baguette sandwiches and some pastries and drinks and headed off on a new road. We found a picnic table "somewhere" and enjoyed being outside for a while.

 

The car was quite dirty, so we stopped in a car wash on the way home and gave her a nice bath.

I tend to relax my gut muscles when I wash a car!

PHOTOS of OUR LITTLE TOWN

 SHOPPING

OUR HOUSE

Our Street

Our stairs 1

Our stairs 2

Further up our street

THE STREETS

PEOPLE GATHERING

There are lots of bars and cafes with sidewalk tables, and there are very popular especially on the weekends, market days and sunny days. 

My theory is that most people live in apartments with little of no outdoor space, and that drives people to gather and be social at these places.

DAY 21: REST & RELAXATION

 Wednesday 26, 2023

This morning I watched football replays. It was fun. 

Our larder was a bit bare, and it was market day, so we went out for breakfast and shopping - it was market day again.  We did not buy much but found some banana crepes for breakfast.

I did buy some nuts.

We will be flying home exactly two weeks from now. Today I am booking our TGV ride to Paris and a hotel for 3 nights. 

DAY 20: ANZAC DAY: Home from Digne through everywhere....

 April 25, 2023

ANZAC DAY

It was only 200 kms (say 125 miles) but it took all day.

We were only underway for about 15  minutes when Margaret and Geoff called to tell us that the Mighty Magpies had won. Great call. Thanks. 

We were only underway a further 15 minutes when Deidre discovered she could not find her phone. We stopped and searched the car and our baggage to no avail, so we called our hostess and headed back. By the time we were back she had searched the room with no success. We searched it all again with the same result. 

Reconciled to this unexplainable loss, we set off again.

Red poppies grow all over the place in this part of France. Being ANZAC day we stopped and picked a small bunch to mark the day. Losing the phone now seemed a very minimal loss. 

We have our poppies, direct from the field.
(I was NOT surprised that they did not have a light wire stem)

This mountainous area is identified as the Western Alps. Some mountains in this area reach about 4,800 meters (15,000 ft). The highest our road took us was only about 1,000 meters  (3,250 ft) but were were surrounded by high rocky mountains and saw snow in the distant mountains. Our path was always windy and sometimes windy also.

There was plenty evidence of farming in the valleys, especially lavender. (The lavender was planted in very rocky earth.) There was another vine crop that we were not able to identify. 

Lavender fields in the distance

Lavender fields thru the telephoto lens

There were some small villages on our route, but very few places to buy lunch. Eventually we found a "café" in Monieux (???) where the nice lady in charge of a closed for lunch café took pity on us and made us a couple of sandwiches. 

Very late lunch

Eventually we made it out of the mountains and began the slog of roundabouts home to Uzes. 

Overall a wonderful three days, and we slept well. Thank goodness we rented an automatic car and not a stick shift.