Day 16 – Lazing in Provence

It will be light to late this evening; we have just come in out of the sun that is shining pink on the Provencal hill top village just 300 metres away from the house. The village casts a benign presence over all of our activities here. It looks down from the hilltop as it has done since the 12^th century. Trees and acres of vineyards surround it. The whole scene gives an aura of timelessness. It also provides us with refreshment and sustenance.

Today the winds of the past few days have died down and it has been pleasantly warm. As there was major cycling activity on the surrounding roads as amateur riders pitted themselves against the scary climb of Mont Ventoux, the only driving that I did was to collect the fresh croissants and baguettes from the boulangerie. The morning was spent reading and at around midday it was time to walk to the village for lunch. This was taken in extremely relaxed circumstances in the village square, which by 1pm was packed with diners at the three different cafes there. Note to Alison and Thomas – You are going to have to get there early on Sunday. We all had lovely Provencal dishes with fresh ingredients accompanied as usual by the local rose wine.

We said our goodbyes to Barbara and Iain who are heading north today. They have been great holiday companions and we will miss their sociability and the titanic struggles at Scrabble.

After an hour dozing with our books for an hour we decided that it was time to make use of the pool. I could tell all was not well when Marion took a long time to get under, she is normally a get wet quickly person. Well when I dived in it was a quick two lengths of the pool and out. The upside was that it was very refreshing. I decided to get my exercise by walking round the outskirts of the village.

As I write the yellow stone of the Provencal House is minute-by-minute evolving to a lovely shade of pink. In an hour the floodlit castle and church will be silhouetted against the black of the Provencal sky.