And so we are home.....

Sadly our journey in Europe has come to an end with many amazing experiences and rich history to reflect upon, and great memories of fantastic times with the girls and some terrific friends. Saturday was a final meal with Sandrine, Christoph and Nikita before the drive back to Barcelona for our Sunday flights home.

To the Wadley family in Hereford England, thank you for sharing your precious vacation time with us once again.  It was a terrific week and we look forward to the next chapter of our travels with you!

To the Blouquet family in Avignon France, we cannot thank you enough for the generosity and kindness you showed us while there.  We look forward to hosting you in Victoria - maybe next year?!

And last, this trip really brought home how much the girls have grown up and what wonderful young women they have become. We feel so fortunate that our circumstances allow these travel opportunities as a family.

Now, onto planning the next adventure....

A day in Avignon - 8/16

A preparation day for departure so off we set to the Carrefour to do a wee bit of shopping, then into Avignon for a bit more shopping. We met up with the Blouquet family and then popped back into town to visit the Palais du Pape and surrounding area. The Palace is an imposing building set at one edge of the Avignon city walls. While there are few remnants of the interior of what must have been a grand building a few painted rooms survive and it is fantastic to see examples of the medieval artwork; no photography of the best rooms unfortunately. In the evening we shared a lovely dinner of Tartine, meats, cheese and dessert at a local restaurant with Sandrine, Nikita and Christoph followed by a wander of the streets to take in a few more sites.....

Roussillon and Villeneuve du Gard - 8/15

Today we drove into the country and visited Roussillon an old hilltop town which was a centre of ocher production in the region.  As you drive into the area the typical soil colour starts to give way to the red hues and by the time you enter the town a strong rust is evident everywhere.  Today was market day and the town square had many vendors with a wide variety of products for sale.  We poked about the market and then explored the streets before making our way back to the cars and a picnic under the pine trees.  Back to the Avignon area to see Villeneuve du Gard, the town where Sandrine's father was born and where Sandrine roamed the quiet medieval streets as a child.  The fort on the hill was built by the King of France to keep an eye on the Pope when the Papal Palace in Avignon was occupied; the town below typical for the time with streets jutting off in all directions....

A day in the country....

Today we headed out to visit Fontaine-de-Vaucluse and Sénanque Abbey.  We weaved our way through little towns and many roundabouts passing rolling hills and olive groves on our way to Fontaine.  The little town has the remnants of a castle set high on a prominent outcrop while the very clear river, coloured a fantastic green from water plants, runs through town. An example of a paper mill still produces rag paper using a water wheel to power the mill.  We strolled up along the river to the source which is the exit point from an underground water system set in a cave at the base of a high limestone cliff.  We enjoyed a relaxing lunch by the river of various treats including a very special local sausage (for Edward) of herbs, spices and offal.  After we set off again to Sénanque Abbey which is the iconic image of the church set in the Lavender fields most people are familiar with.  We drove through Gordes and stopped for pictures after the Abbey leaving a visit of the town for another visit to France at some point in the future.  Back to Avignon for dinner in the evening; a feast of cheese, bread, fruit, etc.....

 

Quiet Day - 8/13

A lazy morning sorting out washing and other domestic duties before heading out to Eryagues to visit with Mathilde and the Vidal family.  Mathilde is another student who stayed with us in Victoria last year and they invited us out for a quick visit and lunch as this is the only day they are at home in between their vacation travels.  Their house is a bit hard to find so we arranged to meet at the main square in their town so we could follow them back home.  We had a very nice lunch of grilled sausage and pork tenderloin, a fantastic zucchini terrine, pasta salad, bread, and a dessert of fresh red nectarine with ice cream and meringue crumbled on top. A very nice bottle of champagne accompanied the appetizer round of tapanade on toast, nuts and chips while another lovely bottle of local Rosé complemented lunch.  The girls had a quick dip in the pool while we chatted about travel and food.  The Vidal's have a small number of olive trees on their property and they described the harvest of the fruit and how they get a quantity of olive oil when they have enough olives.  As is typical here, they harvest the olives in November and take them to a local processor where they are weighed and added to all the other olives from the area getting a corresponding allotment of oil in return.  At the end of our visit they gave us a gift of Callisson's, a provencale cookie/cake treat, and a small tin of their own olive oil.  Later we headed back to Avignon for a wander into town to orient ourselves a bit more and to plan for some shopping heading back to the Blouquet house later for another wonderful dinner.

Pont du Gard

Over 2000 years ago the Romans decided an aqueduct was required to transport water to the growing city of Nimes and Pont du Gard is the imposing remnant of this project.  We wandered across the river and back taking in the site and then had a picnic lunch by the river where we swam later to cool off a bit.  In the evening we had a short stroll in to Avignon to have a quick look around and a snack of pizza, then back to the Blouquet home later for coffee and cake and a tremendous amount of hilarity over my stories to them of the U-Vic rabbit problem and the efforts to humanely move them up island and to Texas....  they though I was joking at first when I explained about driving them up island and then everyone dissolved during part two imagining pampered rabbits in first-class enjoying a glass of carrot juice.....  we must remember rabbit is commonly on the menu here.