Thursday 5th July 2018

Steve and Sara came to join us on this leg of our adventure. They had stayed with us on the first leg in Lisbon last year so obviously they are getting a taste for life on the open road, all be it one weekend a year, although there was talk of them getting a VW camper….watch this space! Their flight to Marseilles was delayed by a couple of hours but we still had plenty of time to catch up over a bottle or two of wine. After a few glasses of wine Steve is always keen to play the old catch a malteser in the mouth game, however Jane had neglected to tell him she had run out of her favourite chocolate sweet and made do with something the rabbits had left behind, still after a couple of bottles of wine who cares!!!

Friday 6th July 2018

As it was a day when Jane was doing her hair,  Steve and I decided to go for a long walk in the woods and put the world to rights.  We knew that we would have at least a couple of hours and that should be long enough.  However the first thing we had to ponder on was why were there so many snails on one fence post at one time…………to which we didn’t really come up with a sensible answer!

With the stunning backdrop of the Provencal hills,  solving the world’s problems became relatively easy……….so Teresa May give us a call, I’m sure we can fit you in, and America is easy, just get rid of Donald Trump. There that’s all that sorted………….

Back for a small low calorie lunch, thats mine by the way, Steve had a dried cracker and a  glass of mineral water!

Sara had work to do, so the three of us set out to explore Cotignac, a beautiful medieval village recommended in the guide book.  It was handy having a photographer with us as we don’t often get too many photos of the two of us together.

What a beautiful place it was as well, you don’t get more typically French than this photo with a 2CV on the drive!

The shops were particularly quiet…………….

This could be something to do with a certain football match being played, France V Uruguay. The whole town was in the main square and every bar was packed, they even closed the main road!

What a great atmosphere and lovely place to watch a football match, they even set a flare off after the first goal.  Steve was disappointed as for the first time in years he hadn’t packed his flares!

I can’t believe after nearly 52 years of friendship it still makes us laugh when we take silly photos like this!

We all thought this was a great place to visit, the faded elegance gave this place a charm all of its own!

Saturday 7th July 2018

Meanwhile back at the silly photographs………………….

Steve again was a little disappointed that his first choice of cafe for our petit-dejeuner was rejected by the girls, however the second choice of breakfast venue in Aix-en-Provence proved to be fine.  Aix, pronounced aches and not A, as I kept saying, is another charming city that is a must-see when visiting this area of France.

We visited on a Saturday morning which is market day, and we were advised to catch a bus, as parking was very limited and difficult to find.

These markets are a real joy to all your senses, the sights, sounds and smells make it more than just a shopping experience!

Whilst I don’t mind a little bit of shopping what I really do enjoy is the photo opportunities that a place like this has in abundance !

Well Steve finally got his choice of lunch venue, he found this small restaurant using the Yelp app on his phone and it was lovely. This eatery was well away from all the normal tourist areas and had a fresh menu du jour, and not the usual plastic coated photographic cards you might find in the aforementioned places.  The food was excellent and thoroughly enjoyable.

All this fun proved too much for some of us, although Jane said it was probably too much wine!

That evening we were invited around for a BBQ chez Sara’s sister Fiona and her husband Andre.  We were joined by their friends Marie-Lou and her husband Eric.  Fiona has been living in France for over 40 years now after having met Andre on a gap year from college.  Both Sara and Steve had said that Andre was an excellent cook and not to fill up too soon as they know that I enjoy my food. Well to say the food was excellent would be an understatement, and I couldn’t really pace myself, course after course of the most tasty home cooked food kept arriving in front of me, and I didn’t want to appear rude and not clear my plate……..and everyone else’s come to that!  I think I might have to start planning one of next year’s road trips so that we can all do it again!!

Andre and Fiona have two huge great Irish Wolfhounds which were about the size of small ponies! You can see them here giving me a look of disgust as they saw me finishing off what could have been their tea!

Sunday 8th July 2018

After the previous late night we decided a restful day around the pool would be a good idea. Still the household chores still need to be done and with a bit of basic training Steve slotted right in to the caravanner’s life, although holding his stomach in and sweeping at the same time did prove to be a little difficult……………..and he did however  draw the line at emptying the loo!

And still the silly pictures keep coming, I’m not sure how Steve could tell it was me in there!

Monday 9th July 2018

Fiona had recommended a few places to visit and told us of a great route back to the airport.

First stop Cassis. We all had a great time when we visited the home of the inventor of the open-toed sandal, Phillippe Flop, although Sara did find some of the scenes sole destroying !

Cassis is a lovely port on the Mediteranean, and our plan was to drive along the Corniche to Marseilles and have lunch there.

So before the coastal drive we thought a couple of pre lunch drinks would be in order, so we had a couple of corniche pastis ( I know its a bad pun but it made me laugh!)

This photo is in here for no other reason than I like the colours!

Marseilles proved to be a fitting place to end our great weekend together, where will the next place be that Steve and Sara join us on our travels?

When we arrived back at our site that night we found that we had new neighbours.  I had my reservations at first but the were a very nice quiet friendly family!