Where to from here?

We do not like the obstinate need to follow eating and drinking protocols. (No, it is not possible to have breakfast/lunch/dinner just now - you are 2 minutes too early/late monsieur). There are too many smokers, especially women. There are too many dogs and cats on show. There are too many towns needing a cleanup (Grafitti, bums, rubbish). And business hours need to change, especially on Mondays and in the middle of the day.

But these differences, good and not so good, are what we are drawn too. And so we will be back again-soon.

These last two months have been a great adventure. Our month with George and Yvonne in Scandinavia was eye opening and extremely pleasant. Our month revisiting France has been entertaining with each day bringing new experiences. We have had fantastic weather all of the time and we are very grateful for that, even if it looks like climate change is at least part of the reason for our luck. But all things come to an end and we need to move on-again. We may finish our tour with a few days in Lyon, a city that beckons but which we have never seen. We are just as likely to pass the last few days in Switzerland, enjoying autumn and the last of the sunny weather for the year. But which of these we complete is probably of little interest to most readers. We have had a great time on the move but it is time to stop for a rest and to reconnect with our birth culture, as indifferent as we are to aspects of that.

We have a few other trips in mind too and a few more discussions over a wine or two if we are to radically change our lifestyle. Just how, and if, we balance out our quest for a meaningful living and our obligations to community and family still remains a challenge to be solved.

Long may she reign in Briancon

This is a now good point to wind down the blog and all these tales of indulgent travel by a couple of boomers. As we prepare for the last week of our European search, some of you will note that we have still not made any decisions for a real project here in France. We continue to visit and to have our emotions aroused most times positively and other times negatively. We continue to enjoy the sights, smells and culture of this non Anglo country without being game enough to leave family and friends and to create at least half a life here. Maybe it is better to leave the situation as it is.

We like and enjoy the little nuances of day to day living here; the importance of presenting a perfect front to the world with homes of good presentation, even though if you look beyond there is a host of rubbish hidden from view. There is a cultural need for endless small talk; despite traffic behind you; despite the lengthening supermarket queue and despite the time of day. The daily community lives with boules for the village elders or non workers each afternoon; and the endless trail of people of all ages going to and from the boulangerie for their daily baguette and a chat. There is an apparent lesser focus on earning more euros than the next person to get a bigger car, house, boat etc. And then there is constant, almost child like, sense of humour as they converse with one and all.

Recalling the Revolution at Vizille

On Wednesday we visited the Chateau de Vizille which played a notable part in the French Revolution. We checked out the museum of the Revolution (interesting) before driving deep into the Alpes past l’Alpe D’Huez and into Briancon; one remote part of this great geographical wonderland. A revolution to get rid of the ruling classes seems not such a bad idea at times. From our distant European viewpoint I could support rolling out the guillotine for most Australian liberals except hey, they seem to be doing such a good job on themselves at the moment. Save from the factor that they are using my taxes so poorly.

A day testing GPS in the hills

From St Remy we moved on through Gordes and Rouissillon to our next stop near Apt. Rouissillon was by far the most interesting spot; great little galleries on winding medieval streets and an active central square with mainly French day trippers enjoying their Sunday. The next day we wandered through the small village of Saignon before reluctantly heading north towards our next planned stop somewhere around Grenoble. Our GPS began to regularly fail when we were deep in the gorges and we missed a road deviation so we visited Pont en Royans twice in a couple of hours looping through it at various levels before arriving in our selected logis in the almost hidden valley of Lans en Vecors.

Last picture before she fell from hiding

Two things then happened; first one of the bulls decided being fenced in by about 6 horses whilst being harried by young men as they all raced along the street needed some variation and second several spectators, mainly men suddenly decided to join Yvonne in the planter box. Before this happened and the bull was on the other side of the street looking for victims, Yvonne took this picture. And after being dislodged from her perch, damaging her camera and her pride, she had suddenly lost interest in hanging around. But we did, as there was no way out now unless we could outrun a few animals and people.

Bull fighting preliminaries-French style

However as we were strolling back to our car after a light breakfast on Sunday morning, we were intrigued to see that a few of the streets were being fenced off and some horses and riders were gathering in the streets. Signs nailed into trees talked of Toros and something about a giant paella in the main city square later in the day. Then the public loudspeaker system began to issue warnings in four languages and encouraging people to stay behind recently erected barriers. Yvonne said that we must hang around to see what this was all about. First a group of horse riders cantered their horses up and down the rather short run of about 200 metres; quite elegant it seemed.

As Randall continued reading L’Equipe and the details of all of the weekend rugby games, Yvonne decided to be safe by standing on the top of a nearby planter box and using a street light pole for added support. We were very strategically placed on a bend in the street and able to see both the beginning and the end of what was about to happen; a French version of the running of the bulls.

Where are you now Vincent

I am sitting in our small hotel at Lans en Vecors in the mountains outside of Grenoble. The sun has begun it’s march down the hills in the valley opposite the hotel and it will be another good day for a spot of discovery. But, without getting too far ahead of myself, perhaps we need to bring you up to date with our current research.

On Saturday, our voyage of artistic discovery took us to St Remy de Provence, not too far south of Avignon and a town where Van Gough, an inspiration for Yvonne, did a spot of painting some time back. After settling into our Logis de France accommodation, we went looking for evidence of the Master, but despite looking in all the many attractive galleries in the town, we could not find Vincent.

Our fellow travellers are departing now

Tonight (Friday) we have now sent Ben and Sarah on their way home with Ben relieved that he will be home for the ARL thugs get together on Sunday. Well no one is perfect.
We have been very surprised to have the weather hold out so well for us and after having to rug up only a few times in Scandinavia over August, we are wondering why we have brought so much winter gear. Perhaps we should venture back into the Alps soon to find a bit of cool weather before heading back to Oz.

But, as we know, we are perhaps fortunate to be here at all and our day to day challenges remain small and insignificant in the scheme of things.

Life for some in St Paul de Vence

One of the things that drags us back to France (and Europe in general) is the clear sense of community living that emerges and the amount of infrastructure planning and execution that exists so that large numbers of people can live in reasonable comfort with plenty of services at their disposal. We think this is a huge contrast to Australia where city “design” is almost non existent and suburbs have just spread out and out and out. This is possibly exacerbated by our experience with Canberra with its suburbs and transport system designed for cars and boring ¼ acre housing with almost no “community” development. In contrast, even here along the coast, there are quite different communities often joined at the hip, and where there are plenty of opportunities for a more human existence. These feelings especially emerge each time we think about our return to Canberra soon and our search to find where we best belong. And with climate change issues ahead of us, we feel so far behind in the need to make changes.

A town in Provence

On the other hand, Randall has had to be fully alert in the mornings on his jogs from
Chateauneuf to Grasse as the roads are skinny, footpaths are sometimes tough going on ankles and the traffic is heavy as many locals leave home to make their way into Nice, the nearby technological park offices and other areas from about 7 am each morning. Houses, businesses, schools, cars and small businesses are located in almost every nook and cranny in these hilly areas. Over the years, olive groves have given away to housing and the population density in many areas means slow going in traffic each day at times. Our GPS has been fully extended to keep us off the tiny tracks and heading through the hillside towns each day.

Muggins at Mougins for lunch

As we head inland to areas behind Nice, there are still plenty of locals and visitors wandering through the pretty villages. Mougins proved to be so good that we just had to stay for a long lunch (shouted for us by Ben and Sarah) and Thursday we returned to the pleasant bastide town of Valbonne for our final lunch outing with our two visitors.

Lazy daze in St Tropez

Our two weeks in Provence has provided the opportunity to gain another perspective on living in France. The coastal areas are captivating as, on the surface, life for the French boomers looks great. There are plenty of joggers, rollerblades, walkers and bike riders making their way along the beach promenades in the autumn sunshine. The white pointers are plentiful on the stone covered beaches and there are still a surprising number of people enjoying the sun and a dip in the sea as we have done several times this week. Other boomers and some older people are escaping home duties to spend a few hours fishing from rocky outcrops along the coast. And then there are those that have spent their money on a boat drifting along the many sea lanes around here. Everybody is sooo relaxed around here. Does anybody work?

Tourettes sur Loup

We are nearing the end of another phase of this year’s travels. Sarah and Ben are preparing to leave us and they will return from Nice direct to Australia over this weekend; ready for a bright eyed return to work on Monday next. Whilst for us, we will move into mobile phase once more as we head in a northerly direction. We need to be back in Geneva by Friday next to return the car to Renault. There is no real plan or route except to say that we aim to spend a day or so around Aix-en-Provence before perhaps heading back up through the Tarn, then up the Rhone valley across through Grenoble before heading to Geneva.