Les Gorges du Verdon

A bridge across les Gorges du Verdon

Billed as France's little Grand Canyon (how do they get away with that?) the Gorges du Verdon is apparently only second to THE Grand Canyon in USA. Second in what way I'm not sure - size, popularity, beauty? I thought the gorges in Karijini National Park in WA were pretty stunning, and now I would just like to line them up side by side and compare them.

We took the long road home from the coast so that we could take a peek at this spot. Sophie just wanted to get home as quickly as possible, and wasn't keen on the detour.
SOPHIE: I want to get home but all Dad cares about is scenery.
ODETTE: What is scenery?

Sophie at the gorge

Ramatuelle

Caro and Bonnie, failing to look like rich and famous residents of the Riviera.

Port Grimaud is on the Gulf of Saint Tropez, on the French Riviera, which is renowned as a holiday spot for the rich and famous. We thought we might have spotted some celebrities while we were there, but they obviously weren't staying at the same holiday park as us.
St Tropez is the most famous holiday spot; so the first day we were there we did the tourist thing and headed to Saint Tropez; and we drove straight through and headed out again because we couldn't stand the amount of traffic and people. We really are country bumpkins and don't feel comfortable in crowds ...
The pretty medieval village of Ramatuelle (see the French tourist website or the English tourist website) was where we ended up. It was marked on our map as "one of the most beautiful villages in France" and it did indeed have some very picturesque scenes. And lots of tourists...
It wasn't possible to photograph anything successfully at the time of day when we were there, but you can see some pictures on the website links above.

Views of Besancon

A couple of photos of Besançon, with and without Odette.

Besançon

When we left Dampierre-sur-Linotte we went to Besançon for the night and stayed in everybody's favourite - an Etap Hotel. This time we had to have two rooms, but only because one room wasn't big enough for all of us. (Only three beds and two pillows in each...) Actually it is not Sophie's favourite accommodation but our budget doesn't fit the style she prefers...
Although we went to Besançon we didn't have much time there, and we didn't explore the town at all. But we caught up with Rowena Putland, the daughter of our neighbours back home, who is living there with her French husband Thierry.

With Rowena Putland and Thierry Morel at the zoo in Besançon

We met them at the Citadelle, where there is a zoo, and spent some time browsing there before the rain drove us home. Apart from the outdoor zoo we also saw the nocturnal exhibit, which was all rats and mice, and the aquarium. I haven't got any photos of the exotic animals, but it was fun watching various types of monkeys and baboons playing around. They exhibit such human characteristics; like the mother smacking her child over the head when he teased the baby. And then when I tried to have a close look into one of the enclosures with glass windows all I could see was my reflection!

I am not sure if Thierry was trying to throw Sophie and Bonnie
over the wall, or trying to stop them from falling...

The farmyard exhibit was something we didn't have to travel to a zoo to see (Nan, check out the peacock...) but there is a photo of Hugh and Odette crawling through a tunnel in the rabbit cage.
We went back to Rowena and Thierry's apartment and had take-away pizza for dinner. The kids watched a DVD, we had wine and cheese, and then left before the kids fell asleep (because I didn't want to have to carry anyone down the stairs...)
Thierry had some ideas for excursions the next day, but we had to decline because everyone was very tired and we had to drive back to Ste Marie d'Alloix.

Rowena and Thierry in their apartment (sorry guys,
I know its a shocking picture...)

Chateau

We visited our first chateau while we were with the Viennet family (pictured below). The chateau at Champlitte was open as a museum, with rooms recreating scenes from the 18th Century. The girls and I have decided that we would like to live in a chateau, so we are looking out for suitable real estate. If you have the same desire you could look at the Prestige Property Group's list of 120 chateax for sale in France, or ChateauxProperty.com or chateau-for-sale-france.com.

Built in 1782

These are some photos of the cottage that Roger and I stayed in in Dampierre-sur-Linotte. It belongs to Stephane's aunty, and it used to be his grandma's house. It was built in 1782, which makes it older than anything in Western Australia. I loved its thick stone walls and heavy furniture. The most fascinating thing about it was the sinuous quality of the thick walls. Nothing was straight, which you may or may not be able to see in the pictures. The walls seemed to get thicker as they got higher, and one end wall, which was not able to be photographed was quite concave at the top.

The story behind the house made it all the more interesting, and helped to explain the less than perfect building skills. (Were spirit levels invented in 1782?) Apparently the house was built by the women, while their men were away at war. My French history is not up to scratch, but I am sure any French readers would probably know which war it would be - was that the time of Napoleon? The Revolution?? Maybe I need to do some more reading...

Aussie Rules

We brought a football to France with us. Sophie is very keen to teach the French kids how to play Australian football, but usually they think it is a rugby ball. The Viennet family got the hang of kicking and marking pretty easily, and Stephan has a pretty good boot on him. (I don't suppose that will translate very well for those using the Babel Fish translation service.)

We stopped for lunch near the river at a pretty village called Pesmes on the river Ognon (yes it means onion). Annick had packed a substantial lunch of bread, cheese, ham, juice, wine, yoghurt, and fruit. It was quite chilly in the wind but once everyone started to play football they warmed up. As you can see in the photos most have shed their thick jackets.

We were already in the Australian spirit playing footy, so why was I surprised when I saw an emu?? Yes, a real emu, walking back and forth trying to get out of its little pen, in the village of Pesmes. Apparently there is an emu farm somewhere near the Grenoble airport too.

A Walk in the Countryside

Walking in the countryside...

Running in the countryside...

A sheep...

The first morning in Dampierre-sur-Linotte was fine and we all went for a walk around the village and down a rural lane. Here we saw a sheep, just in case we were homesick. As you can see in the photo it bears little resemblance to one of our merino sheep on the farm back home in Australia.

We also saw big piles of firewood along the edges of the lane. The local community has a lot of forest, which is managed and harvested to allow all the residents of the village to have an annual supply of firewood. Stephan said that he is going to take out their expensive oil-fired central heating and replace with a wood-burning unit before next winter.

Penfriends

Sophie has several penfriends around the world, and one of them is Noëllie, who lives in Dampierre-sur-Linotte. Sophie and Noëllie have been writing to each other for a few years, and chatting on the computer with MSN/ Windows Live Messenger for several months, so they were very excited to finally meet each other in person.
We travelled to Dampierre-sur-Linotte on Monday and were welcomed very warmly by the Viennet family. Stephan and Annick have three daughters and Noëllie and her little sister Marthe are about the same age as our girls. At first the children were a little shy, but by the end of the evening they were playing together to such an extent that they performed a circus spectacle for the adults.

The Viennet's house in Dampierre-sur-Linotte

Another Trip To The Snow

We went and found some snow to play in this afternoon. This time on this side of the valley, at Col de Marcieu. Although the ski station is closed we played in the snow, on the luge, and tried to start to learn to ski - with Roger as our instructor. Sophie stayed up surprisingly well. I can't say the same for myself, and I don't think I'll ever become a skier. I can honestly say I now have more respect for those who make skiing look easy.
On the way up to the ski field we were surprised by the amount of snow on the ground, on the houses, on the cars, and in the fields. Everything was pretty much covered with snow, and I guess that is a result of the heavy snowfall over Easter. It is a pity that most of the ski stations will be closing in the next few weeks.
Here are some pictures of the kids enjoying the snow, although when I look at the enlarged picture of Sophie and Hugh in the luge (above) I am not sure that the look is one of pleasure.

Saturday Shopping

Roger reckons that the supermarket carparks around here have better views than any he has seen before. So we thought it might be fun to take a photo in the carpark of any supermarket we go to.
Here is Roger with the kids in the carpark at Carrefour near Grenoble.
We had been told Saturday was not a good day to go shopping. But with the kids having lunch at home every day we hadn't had another time to go to Grenoble to the bigger shops. We needed to go to the supermarket, and Sophie kept reminding us that it would be the last shopping day before her birthday (hint, hint...).

Roger packing the shopping at the Carrefour checkout

We started at the big Carrefour store, where you can buy almost anything.
There is even a McDonald's restaurant there, so the kids could have a play. But wait, where was the playground?? It was a corner upstairs with playstations and magnadoodle boards. Not exactly the sort of playing we're used to!!

Our next stop was Decathlon, the sports shop. And wasn't that fun? Hugh wanted to ride on the little bikes and scooters, and Bonnie wanted to try on all the snow boots. Then the kids discovered the walking and stepping machines, and Hugh discovered some balls. We needed to buy some "apres-ski" warm boots for both me and Hugh (the others all found ones in the Marcoux house to fit them). It happened to be the last day of "Trocathlon", which was sort of like a clearance sale and used goods sale in a marquee next to the shop. In there I found a warm waterproof jacket that I could zip up, and Roger bought some gloves (last time he tried to have a bike ride in the morning he nearly froze his fingers off). Sophie found some used roller blades that fitted her (with plenty of room for growth) so we agreed to buy them too, as they were only 5 euros.
Sophie tried out the rollerblades on the school hardcourt just down from our house today. As neither Roger nor I have ever had roller blades we couldn't give her any tips on how to use them. And we can only hope that she gets better with practice!

No school on Wednesdays

As today was a Wednesday we decided to go to Grenoble to explore the city a bit. Stef's father Georges offered to show us the way to drive to a Parking station on the outskirts so that we could take the tramway into the centre. It is a cheap solution for a family as you pay per car for the parking, and your tram tickets are included in the cost of 1.50 euros.
Before we left Georges explained to me, in French which I thought I understood, how we would get there. We followed him across he river, along the autoroute and towards Grenoble to the vicinity of the University as he had said. But then he took the exit number "un" (1) and I was sure he said exit number "deux" (2). He signalled madly with his hand out the window and we followed, but then decided that he must be signalling that he was leaving and we should go on. We went around the round-about again and took exit number "deux", and then got completely lost. We saw the huge looming blue shape of the new IKEA store and took refuge in its parking area. What to do now?? Roger suggested that we should ask another family who were getting their kids out of the car at the same time as we arrived, so in my not very best French I asked them if they knew of the parking station we were looking for. They did not, but they knew where the tramway was, and that you could park for free at several places. The very friendly French man took roger in his car to SHOW HIM where the parking and the tram station was. Meanwhile the children and I went into the IKEA store and had fun looking at the room displays and Sophie decide which home set-up she would like to have when we return to Australia. Eventually Roger returned and we used the IKEA restrooms and had an IKEA hot dog.
When we got back in the car I convinced Roger that we should try to find the way that Georges had explained to me. We drove around for a bit, and Roger recognised where the friendly French man (whom he referred to as "my mate") had taken him. We parked and took a tram into Grenoble, but after we had been on it for a few stops we realised we were on the wrong line and had to change trams. Eventually we made it into the centre and went to the "office de tourisme" and got ourselves a map. Then we leisurely wandered the narrow streets, chasing Hugh to stop him running onto the road because we had left the pram at home. The girls wanted to visit every little shop we saw, but by this time it was nearly time to go home again. Galeries Lafayette provided some fun on the escalators and a toilet stop, and then "pasta via" provided some dinner. We took the correct tram back to where we had parked, and navigated successfully home. By this time the kids were well and truly ready for bed and we put them straight to bed. Roger had already locked the door and we thought a child was banging, but there was someone at the door...
It was Georges, who had spent two hours looking for us after we had left him at the round-about and tried to ring us without success. His hand signal had meant that we were to follow him! I had heard right when he said we should take exit "deux", but when he got there he realised he had made a mistake and exit "un" was in fact the one we should take. We felt bad that he had been worried about us, he felt bad that he had lost us; and he drew us such a good sketch of a map that I am sure we could find the parking station blindfolded next time we need to go there.

Snow!

Click on the photo to see more photos from our first day in the snow.

I am 42 years old and it is the first time I have been in the snow! For the children too it was their first time. We drove up the mountain on Sunday and found a ski field, at Pipay (les Sept Laux). After driving up into the mountains on winding roads I usually feel a little nauseous, so it is hard to enjoy the spectacular scenery.
We hired a luge (toboggan) as we couldn't find one at the house. Didn't think of looking under the swimming pool deck, which is Where Stef later told us we would find theirs!
We took a picnic and ate it in the lunch room provided. The children really wanted to go up on the chairlift, but as we can't ski there didn't really seem to be any point.
The little plastic toboggan that we hired was plenty of fun for our first time in the snow. There was a little fenced-off section reserved for "la luge", so we played there for a while, and the kids experimented with making snow balls. Snow started to fall gently to add to the beautiful setting. As the snow grew heavier it was time to come back to the house as we had arranged to have afternoon tea at the neighbour's house. We have met Francoise before, but not her husband Thierry.