France - sensory overload!

The smells, the food, the wines!   Fabulous.  

Meandering along cobble stone streets in medieval villages on market day is a sensory experience. 

There are colourful bunches of sweet-smelling flowers, packets of dried or fresh lavender, and handmade aromatic soaps - all available for purchase.

 

In another part of the market are fragrant fresh fruits, crunchy new vegetables, bundles of pungent garlic, plus savoury chickens grilling on spits and dripping hot fat onto potatoes roasting below.

In the tiny stores that proliferate along the village streets we can buy red, white or rosé wines, fresh crusty baguettes, pastries, salami, cheeses, or a variety of olives, black, green, dried, or flavoured with olive oil and rosemary.  Ah! 


Market day in Lyons - Lawrie buying olives

The background scenery surrounding the villages is stunning, changing from the rocky north coast of France, to poppy-strewn wheat fields in Normandy, to the lush vineyards and chateaux in the Loire Valley. 

Boarding a high speed train in Paris we traveled south to Avignon - speeding at 180 kilometres per hour through the rolling countryside dotted with thousands of the creamy-white Charolais cattle. 

Picking up our Renault van at the Avignon train station we set off to explore the remote little villages of Provence for the next five days.  

Passing lavender fields - not quite in bloom, the scent just beginning to perfume the air - Lawrie, and his brother Richard, muscled the over-sized van through the meandering village roads of Provence, then up the twisting barely-one-lane-wide roads overlooking precipitous canyons in the mountains of Haute Provence, until we reached the summit. 

 

Haute Provence

These roads are perfect for fast sports cars, powerful motorcycles, or crazy bicyclists training for the Tour de France. 

The roads are not suited to a cumbersome multi-passenger van.  Think of the fun - if we had rented three Ferraris instead!

 

Stopping for lunch at the only restaurant available at the summit we had a laughter-filled meal.  The 'cheeky' waiter told us what we were having for lunch.  No options! 

Slow-roasted pig cheeks served with pomme frites (we call them French fries) and a bit of salad.  With a bottle of rosé wine, and a basket of crusty hot bread - it tasted terrific.

Eventually, after spending a few nights in Haute Provence villages, we wound our way back down to traffic snarled streets in Nice on the Mediterranean Sea before returning the van to Avis. 

Linda Grierson - sampling chocolate!

The six of us are slowly sipping, sampling and smelling our way across France. 

Pure heaven.  
 

It's a family thing, her brother Lawrie and chocolate.