Last days in France

Last Cote d'Azur hike with autumn colours and snow.

Back in Sydney we are experiencing temperatures over 25 degrees Celcius, humidity, green gardens (despite the ongoing drought) and flowers of all colours.

The last weekend hike

We hiked to a arsenic sulfate mine in the Vesubie Valley, only abandoned in the 30's. We used the handy table and chairs to eat our quiches and pain aux raisins. Despite the sun it was quite chilly. We only saw two other hikers and heard the shots of hunters, luckily in the distance.

Last weeks

We're winding down here in France. I'm looking forward to seeing my family, the Aussie bush, BBQs and Vegemite.

Firenze

View over Florence from Fiesole

Pat's company gave its workers the day between Armistice Day and the weekend off so we took ourselves to Italy. We left at about 11 (the usual slow start) and had made it to the Rapallo exit of the motorway at lunchtime. We had camped here in 2000 and visited Portofino. After a small picnic, eaten overlooking the rocky coast and snowy mountains behind we did a drive to Portofino then hopped back on the motorway. Unfortunately we ended up in Florence's peak hour traffic in the rain and after the long drive all Pat wanted to do was get out of there. So we ended up in Finesole in the hills behind Florence and found a room. The room and the restaurant we ate at were rather overpriced. This was a product of high tourist traffic no doubt because the town had a great view over Florence, Roman ruins and an interesting history.
We toyed with the idea of getting the bus in to Florence but eventually caved in to taking the car. This turned out to be a quite expensive option as we parked in the main railway station carpark but easier for getting somewhere to stay.
The walk around in the streets was enjoyable although there seemed to be building or restoration works going on all over including the Baptistry. First stop was the Palazzo Vecchio, containing some ingenious Medici architecture and beautifully decorated state rooms. We walked past the Uffizi queue down past the Ponte Vecchio and had lunch near the Palazzo Pitti. Then we were resigned to a long wait in the Uffizi gallery queue - the main attraction we hadn't seen last time we were here. An hour and a half later of sitting and standing in the cold stone walkway we were in! I was disappointed by the paintings. I guess they were amazingly priceless but the repetition of Annuciation, Crucifixion and Madonna e Bambino left me cold. Botticelli's Birth of Venus was a consolation and the few Rubens and Rembrandts. I enjoyed the Amsterdam and Vienna galleries more.
Back at the station we were trying to find accommodation and were approached by a man just outside the hotel booking service who offered a nice Bed and Breakfast Pensione for only 5€ more than we paid for the poor place the previous night. We took it and the nearby free parking as well.
We had a lovely meal in a Trattoria recommended by the Pensione owner near the main market in town. We had antipasti and veal and steak with porcini mushrooms.
We drove back home the next day through Livorno and past Pisa, stopping in Genoa to walk along the seafront and have a hotdog.

Long weekend in Provence

We spent the weekend amongst ripening olives and autumn coloured vinyards of the Alpilles region of Provence. It was only a few hours drive by motorway and we were able to visit Le Baux de Provence on the first afternoon even though we only left home at 11am. We found a pleasant hotel in Maussane nearby. Since it was raining the following morning we went to Arles which was fairly close and did Nimes on the public holiday Monday (All Saints Day).


Roman arena, Arles

Travelbug

Hermes Travelbug with the red rocks of his new home.

Weekends

Last weekend we drove down to the Esterel to deposit a geocaching travelbug into its goal cache. It was Ben's first geocaching trip. We climbed up to the top of a hill with a military lighthouse then clambered down through prikly brush and over red rocks to get back on the track of the cache. It reminded us all of Australian bushwalking. What made it French was the number of people about, the several rockclimbers in sight of the cache and the castelated tower on a little island just off the coast. We had a very pleasant dinner in the Coin de la Rue in Valbonne afterwards.

This weekend we explored Monte Carlo for the first time, taking shops including a huge fnac music and electronics shop and numerous luxury goods shops, the casino and associated cars, the harbour and boats. Back in Villeneuve Loubet we finally checked out one of our local non-Asian restaurants and ended up with a delicious orgy of seafood (mussels, calamari, prawns and whitebait) and the frites that I was craving - yum.

Hiking

We were on a goat track up high on one of our latest walks in the Southern Alps. This one left from the Sanctuaire de Santa Anna just across the border into Italy. The little alpine lakes were pretty but the area was littered with WW2 bunkers and rusty barbed wire. I ate several delicious handfuls of raspberries from the bushes lining the track. We did another walk on Sunday after camping in a delightful all-season campground at Isola. The walk from St Etienne la Tinée wasn't as nice as the previous day as it was hotter down lower and three quarters of the route was on a steep gravel road. The free fruit compensation wasn't there either as animals, probably pigs, had stripped the bushes of raspberries and most of the leaves.

Beach

I was wetting my toes on our local Villeneuve Loubet Plage, just so I could say I'd done it. It has almost been warm enough again in the last few days for full immersion but it probably won't happen. Those pebbles make for a pretty uncomfortable swimming experience.

Necklace

As promised, a photo that features my new necklace, bought in the Perigord town of Sarlat for my last birthday - the next one is in three weeks!

Fin de été d'Inde

The air seems a lot cooler now that it's getting dark at 7pm. Gone are our evenings playing tennis.

One of the women at tennis is going to Australia (mainly) next week for 3 1/2 months so I've given her my parents' number and she might call near New Year when they are in Sydney.

Bits and Pieces

Animal life: There was a large toad clambering around in the rockery by our car space a couple of nights ago. Also a couple of days ago a large group of sanglier (wild pigs) were hanging around in the car park behind Pat's work when I arrived to pick him up. The pack (what is the collective noun for pigs?) seemed to consist of a big mama, a couple of smaller daughters and a whole swag of piglets. As they trailed off into the pine trees we could see the last two were lame in their back legs. They were all quite dark and bristly. People here reckon their numbers have increased because there are less hunters. Certainly residents with gardens near forests regularly have them dug up. And I saw Australian "sanglier" being sold in a frozen foods shop here!

I also just remembered that on one of our walks in the Dordogne we encountered a hillside so covered with wild garlic we could smell it.

Today I cooked baked beans. It took more than 4 and a half hours. They will have to be better than the canned variety, which are hard to get here.

Rain

It is looking like we might have a whole day of rain. It feels like a refreshing change. The temperature has reduced to 24 C.

We had a very unsatisfying expedition into Italy on Sunday. After Rick regaled us with stories from their visit to Apricale restaurants we decided to try and find it and a cache at San Michele to deposit the Mini Travel Bug. Without a map we had no hope of finding Apricale in the hills above Vintimiglia. So we went to San Michele and couldn't fins the cache box. I looked for about 20 minutes under rocks and bushes but the GPS wouldn't fix. By the time we got to the next town with food (Sospel) it was too late for lunch so we drove home. The only saving grace was that I picked a handful of tasty purple figs from a tree by the road.

A couple of English soundtrack movies have been on tele recently. Am Australian effort Innocence (2000) by Paul Cox, very touching film about rekindled love with Bud Tingwell and Julia Blake. The other was Rear Window (1954), the retouched version with James Stewart and Grace Kelly. We didn't realise it was her until I mentioned it at tennis. She seemed familiar!

Not much to write home about

The news of the past week has been very depressing so I haven't felt like blogging. We talked about terrorism and the French religious symbols ban in state schools in French class. The topic generated quite a lively discussion, if in broken French.

Australia goes to the polls on October 9. Surely the Australian people can give my Dad a birthday present and get rid of Howard but it seems nothing is certain. It is nice not to have to endure weeks of posturing by him and the rest of the pollies although I do try to read current opinion on various news sources. I tend to read the ones pointing out Howard's propensity to lie and ignore the will of the Australian public. We'll do our postal votes for Howard's electorate via the embassy in Paris.

I'm currently watching the US open with German commentary (can't understand anything except "oh ja" and "breakchance"). We spent the day reading secondhand books bought from Heidi's English bookshop in Antibes yesterday. Very relaxing. The weather is a bit opressive, like a Sydney February.

Last week with Bruce we did a cache behind Grasse, at a ruined village called Castellaras. Pat broke the repair off his front incisor with a pain de camapagne sandwich on the way there so he looked like a snaggle-tooth. Bruce went for train trip to Menton and cycled all the way back on Monday while Pat organised a dental appointment for Wednesday. This meant a change to our vague plan of going away for an overnight trip to the Mercantour. Instead we took Bruce around to Barcelonette with the bike doing a hike to some alpine lakes from the Col de Cayolle on the way. He bivvied in a wood for the night while we drove back home over the Col de Bonnet. At 2802m the highest col in Europe. The road seemed to go on for ever through an increasingly barren landscape, a fitting setting for all the WW2 bunkers and buildings still littering the mountain tops. It took us two hours to drive home from the top. Early the following morning Bruce rode Pat's mountain bike over the col, arriving back at the house about 4 in the afternoon, some 170 kms later. Too exhausting by half! We went off to play tennis for a couple of hours and he was asleep, unsurprisingly, when we came back to go out to dinner. I saw him off at the airport for a flight to Munich the folowing morning.

Dark side of the blog

Obviously I am a novice at this blogging world but plagiarism of one blog to another seems creepy and insidious. I found out about this issue reading Blast Radius (from Aussie Blogs). One American woman seems to have been targeted twice. I think I should stick to publishing bad photos and inconsequential mutterings to avoid these weirdos. What do they think it will do for them? Do people use their blogs as some kind of life/career enhancement tool?

What's in my info file?

It might be revealing to review what's in my misc info file on this laptop. I thought that Explorer would have some option for listing the files as text but it seems not, so first you must set up a context menu item using a .bat file as per this helpful page.

So the list, with explanations:

jewellery: someone who shall remain nameless owed me a birthday present from last October so I was collecting pictures of the styles I like. We bought a piece in the Perigord (pic later).

A Guide to Wearing a Saree: I think I collected this because I was reminded that my mother and grandmother have some spectacular silk saris, never made up, from my grandfather's business trips to Kerala state in India. In Bhutan I bought a traditional woman's outfit which is slightly easier to put on

Entertaining At Home: self-improvement 1950's-style

Growing Figs: We acquired a fruiting fig which had self-planted under my PIL's wahing line in Canberra. We moved it to Sydney in a big pot where it tried to fruit for two years. Having not seen it for a year I don't know its current state.

How to inspect a property: I still want to "own" my own home

Move Checklist and Calender: We moved from Sydney to France in 2003. Luckily we didn't take much because we have to pack again to come home in three months. We have acquired sme fairly big items, including bikes, electrical goods

Worm_farm.pdf: I had a worm farm in two polystyrene boxes to eat my compost items. It wasn't ideal as the walls were too high. The cockroaches and slugs loved it.

BackpackGearTest, Bushwalking food, dehydrated curry, QldWalks, Kiandra to Kozi walking in Dec: various items regarding aspects of bushwalking

david: stuff about an old boyfriend

mexican train: rules for a domino game introduced to us recently but with a rather confusing rule sheet

Australian camera shops online: I was contemplating a film SLR but next time I buy it will probably be digital. Our little digital compact has taken over from my film compact almost completely.

2004NSWSquashCalender: not sure why I kept this except it took a while to download

plant_stand199905_81.pdf: I was contemplating some carpentry to make this but haven't got around to it.

corsica: information on where to visit on Corsica

quotes.txt: For example
People who are only good with hammers see everything as a nail.
-Abraham Maslow, Psychologist

vi commands.txt: from when I was computing on Unix

If you don't have cable and your library card has expired

I've been blog rolled! If you don't have cable and your library card has expired Not sure why.

I also noticed that there isn't much gleaning going on here. It's mainly a travelogue but I'm definitely not feeling too intellectual at the moment. We also seem to be remote from discussions of current events. Watching CNN doesn't seem to stimulate debate. I'm escaping into the Olympics for the time being. Still, I am keeping an eye on whether we'll have to vote in the Australian Federal election before we come home. It seems Howard has shied away from this test now that Latham is stronger (but only politically because he just went into hospital). The prediction is now October before the US election.

Lists

Lists seem to abound in weblog circles, including this free association game

1. Server:: computer
   
2. Charlotte:: dessert
   
3. Jackson:: Michael
   
4. Resentment:: housework
   
5. Controlling:: freak
   
6. Intense:: blue
   
7. November:: home
   
8. Donkey:: ass
   
9. Weave:: web
   
10. Satisfies:: food
    

Beetle

A prickly looking customer we met on a walk through woods. We were across the Dordogne River from Chateau Beynac looking for a cache.

Castlenaud

The very popular Castlenaud: a restored Dordogne Chateau containing the Museum of War of the Middle Ages, hence the reconstructed war machine sticking up over the ramparts on the left of picture.

Canoeing the Ardeche with the crowds

Dolmen

Two more dolmen near Limogne-en-Quercy

French prehistory

Here is a large dolmen near Limogne-en-Quercy south of the Lot River, which runs roughly parallel to the Dordogne. This is one of three we visited near the town.

August summer holiday

We have just returned from two weeks exploring more of France. We opted to drive a short distance rather than fly anywhere or attempt anything further afield with Pat's two weeks off work. This time we went north via Barcelonette through the Southern Alps then across through the Rhone valley to the Massif Central and beyond to the Perigord and the Dordogne Valley.

Here is a typical Dordogne valley scene with farms and chateau in the distance.
We camped which was exciting with the number of thunderstorms that kept appearing. Luckily they cooled things down to below 30 degrees. Camping freed our money for good eating. The Perigord is renown for good hearty food including foie gras and the rest of the goose or duck, truffles, potatoes and garlic soup. More highlights soon...

Happenings

The free phone I was given has already died. Apparently it has had this problem of not being able to access the network before. I'll have to buy another if I don't want to lose my call credits. Was going to buy one online but we'll be away from home so better to wait until we return so I'll be here (mostly) for the mail.

Not much else has been going on - tennis, trialling the osteopath for my hip ...Getting a bit fed up with French lessons. We changed to group lessons but it's hard to get the level right. One is too hard and the other not challenging, which is probably why I'm losing interest. On the plus side, we have met some different people to talk to.

We're off to other parts of southern France for two weeks: exploring, walking, camping, eating (always an important par tof the French experience).

Wildlife

We only see these cute little guys in the warmer months and they are pretty shy. In winter I spied one hiding out in our stair cupboard with the hot water heater! Apart from them there are cheeky magpies with a loud "chukka-chukka" call. They will tease any cat they can get close to. There are some other small greeny-spotted lizards, pigeons, seagulls overhead (a mysterious fishfin-like slimy object appeared on the outside table one day), cicadas, bumblebees and a few other birds if you look hard - woodpeckers, hoopoes, tits of some kind. I really miss the Australian birds.

Auvergne Trip

Pat's company closed down for French National Day (Bastille Day) and the two days between it and the weekend. We have just come back from the Auvergne area (le Massif Central)- about 500kms from home.

14/7 We parted from the A7 motorway towards Le Puy-en-Velay. The first campsite was in Gaudet, a very small village on a river, just near the start of the Loire. We walked to the only hotel restaurant and had a decent menu. We were persuaded to have marinated strawberries and cream even though we were both full, probably the best bit!

15/7 Explored the Loire valley and the Livradois-Forez area. Went into Le Puy-en-Velay.

HPIM0530
Originally uploaded by Robubble.

Above Le Puy-en-Velay
The cathedral has Oriental and Byzantine influences and was built in the 12th century. We walked around the old religious centre and up to the huge red painted Notre Dame statue.

HPIM0529
Originally uploaded by Robubble.

Drove through La Chaise-Dieu with another pilgrimage church. Even small villages on the St Jacques de Campostelle (Portugal) routes have large cathedrals! Campsite on small Plan d'eau (reservoir) amongst pine trees near Champagnac-le-Vieux. No dinner as Pat was still recovering from a virus that gave him a fever and aching muscles.
16/7 Tried to find a geocache in the forest off a mountain bike trail from St-Germain-l'Herm, near a cascade but had no luck after searching for 20 minutes. Also managed a short walk to a dolmen in a field near Issoire. Campsite above Chambon-sur-Lac. We found the nearby St Nectaire area, an old spa holiday town, to be a bit dead so ended up in a pizzeria by the lake. We tried Forme d'Auvergne and cantal on our pizzas. However, the tourist office in St Nectaire had earlier been helpful with brochures in English.

17/7 Interesting visit to a chateau at Cordes. Bussed up the top of the Puy de Dome after visiting the Parc de Volcans exposition on, you guessed it, volcanoes (and man, since men have been here thousands of years). Campsite above Mont Dore after taking the cable car up to near the summit of Puy de Sancy (1885m). Lovely dinner in town at a traditional Auvergnate restaurant. Lots of local cheese featured. For entree, I had a feuillette with Bleu d'Avergne then a steak with wine sauce, Pat had a porc and cabbage dish "pottée". We finished off with fromage blanc and tarte and creme brulée. The restaurant was entertained by a traditionally dressed woman with a medieval instrument, singing and playing.
I was bitten all over by tiny midges as I got undressed outside the tent in the dark. And I really mean all over - between my legs, bottom, small of my back, arms, feet, next to my eyes - ugh! I only discovered they were there when I shone the torch inside the tent and started to squash the ones I could see.

18/7 Rain began during the morning. Pouring as we left so we set off south, past Lac Pavin, a volcanic lake. From Condat we encoutered a "fun run" going up the hill in the pouring rain! Stopped in Egliseneuve d'Entraigues for the Maison de Fomage and found a market fête going on despite the rain. Stopped in St Flour for lunch and a walk around. The Tour de France had been there a couple of days before. This perched town looks better from a distance as close up it's a bit colourless. After a short stint on a free motorway we drove down the N106 through some lovely countryside and ended up in Nimes held up for twenty minutes by the end of the Tour de France road closures. Made it back home at 8pm.

Spending some time now annointing my midge spots with antihistamine cream. Also Pat has passed the feverish virus onto me so not feeling too chipper today (Tuesday 20/7).

SchoolFriends

I find this reunion site rather fascinating: Welcome to SchoolFriends Australia & New Zealand!, but there are hardly any new people from my school years or uni. It's free to sign up but emailing through the site costs but you can disguise your address in the profile text. It seems I missed one of my primary school's physical reunions but maybe contemplation from afar is safer!

Geocaching

Our front patio coordinates are: N 43° 38.340 E 007° 07.414

With Pat's GPS unit, a Garmin eTrex, we have found some of the physical caches on Geocaching, two here on the Côte d'Azur and two on Corsica. The main motivation is it makes you discover places you wouldn't otherwise hear of if a cache wasn't put there.

New additions

Been adding things like crazy! I now have a blogroll link list and a referring pages script - talk about getting ahead of myself.

Camping at Gorges du Verdon

Le Tour is on with lots of Aussies riding so good to watch.

I have been trying to organise our mailing addresses as the Post forwarding service runs out in August. It's not 100% anyway - we had problems with ING suspending our accounts.

I have just been back to the Gorges du Verdon for the third time for a camping trip with Judy, Ann, Kathy, Alison and Stephan and 9 assorted-aged children. Unfortunately we got a long series of thunderstorms come through which prevented much activity. Missed out on rafting and hiking but we managed a walk along the gorge road and up to the chapel on the roc in Castellane. We all swam in Lac Saint Croix before the drive home.

We climbed up there - with young children so not as hard as it might look. We also ate a simple meal at the Hotel in the bottom of the picture.

Watching Jazz à Juan 2003 on TMC. The next festival starts this month.

Going camping with Judy and Ann and various boys near Castellane.

New glasses and longer hair

Photos & Mic, Jodie & Chloe's visit

Yay, j'ai photo blog, grace de Hello et accueil gratuit à Blogger!

We had 6 good days with Mic, Jodie and Chloe. They arrived, a bit unexpectedly while I was still cleaning the house, on Friday and left Thursday morning to drive back to Lausanne.
We managed to go to Eze, Cassis (a long drive), Ile St Marguerite and the beach at Antibes. We also tried out the swimming pool (see pic) and shopped the Geant Hypermarche.
House feels a bit empty after a nearly-two-year-old's been around demanding toys, books, songs etc

avec Mic, Jodie et Chloe, Juin 2004

dans le piscine de Les Ambassades

France had a Fete de la Musique on Monday night. We saw Harmonie Toot Sweet (they also sang at Adapt in France's 3rd birthday the Friday before) with Margaret and Francois Dutoit, one of Pat's previous managers.
We had a very good night of dinner and wine at Laurie Stevens house in Mougins on Tuesday. She also invited Joh, a dutch guy and Kim, who didn't show up because her younger child was sick. The plan was to stay the night because we had to get up early to walk with the hiking group at 9am.
The drive up with Gillian and Elizabeth was quite smooth apart from the fact that I had too much wine but it was all too good too pass up. It was bad for the drive up to Boreon - I was almost sick on the final bends. We had to wait for half and hour while the others finalised their hotel bills and finished breakfast.
The walk was from the parking where we went to Lac Negre and the five lakes in October but in the opposite direction, to Lac Adus. The group split up at one point so some could avoid crossing a large patch of snow. The six of us remaining saw a grassy col, marmottes, a chamois and the top view of the little lakes. We met there for a late lunch.

Corsican diary

The following is my travel diary for two weeks in Corsica:

15/5/2004 Calvi. Got off the Mega ferry in the late afternoon. Found campground then walked around town. Walked back to a restaurant (uphill) in the vieille ville (U Campellu)

16/5 4h30 walk to near the Cirque du Bonifato, stopped at stone-walled hut with young Brit man missing person notice attached. Many small pink cyclamen flowers.
Drive down west coast to Galeria. Camped then dinner on terrace overlooking the bay and Tour Genoise (first of many) opposite.

17/5 Icecream before 5h walk to Girolato near the Sala (?) nature reserve. Beer overlooking the beach, watching the unloading of a grader from barge. Notables: heat, red and yellow growths and small green snake. Drive narrow winding road to Porto, including interesting encounter with bus. Camp then dinner at La Tour Genoise over the port.

18/5/2004 Porto pastry on the beach. 0h30 walk to Calanches de Piana (natural donjon). Drive to Cargese to look for caches. Found the first 10km south on the coast road – somewhere in a nicely carved granite boat commemorating the landing of the first Greeks at that point. Couldn’t find the microcache as I kept getting blackberry prickles stuck in me. Back in the town attempted the other multicache, this time with success. Several steps took us to the two churches, down to the port for a diversionary beer then up to the Tour Genoise above, via the long winding route as I had omitted to write down a photo clue as to which path to take at a junction. A local asked us if we had been to the point for the belle vue but we had to say next time because it was getting late and we were tired.
Drove to Vico, inland from Sagone where we had to have dinner. There was a campground in Vico but not much else. It was deserted apart from one Swiss girl and her dog, the man mowing the grass and the Doberman on the roof of the reception building. In Sagone we found a hotel on the beach open and had salads and ailles de raie avec capers, which were a bit soggy, perhaps they were frozen.

19/5 Drove through forest and mountains with the first couchon sauvage we saw to the Col de Verghio. Bought bread and had lunch by the dam lake at Calacuccia. Couldn’t find a campground there and we had no time for a walk so drove to Corte. Got money, map, walked around town and anthropological museum and had beer to recover! Drove back to the Col du Verghio and took demi-pension at hotel there. Short evening walk up to the col on the GR and MM routes amongst the cows. OK evening meal of soup, ravioli (bocchio and mint), small piece of cheese or pastry. Bed quite uncomfortable.

20/5 Off relatively early for what was to be a long circuit walk. 6h30 walk to Lac du Nino. Walked around the lake and down another path with quite a few other people but we overshot our unmarked path back to the col, not reading the map or using the GPS to full advantage. We asked a couple where they were headed and they turned out to be English and offered us a lift back to our car. Jean and Dave were from Leeds and were staying in a villa near Lama (north of Corte) for a week.
Drove north of Corte to a campground near Mont d’Oro at Tatone on the railway. Nice showers followed by pizza in the campground deserted restaurant. One was crème fraiche, ham, mushroom, cheese – like carbonara on a pizza.

21/5 1h30 walk to the Cascade d’Anglais. Beautiful clear water over many gray rocks. Drove to Ajaccio. Had lunch in restaurant on the port, petites fritures and moules frittes. Short walk around town past the Maison Bonaparte. Went to Carrefour supermarket for supplies and dinner.
Drove towards Filitosa and found campground at Calzola. Lovely quiet rustic camp under cork oaks, inspected be several curious cats. Dinner of roast chicken and potato salad.

22/5 Visit to the Site Prehistorique de Filitosa – statue menhirs, settlement and quarry (no dolmen). Small museum and gallery didn’t add much..
Had lunch after passing through Propriano and buying bread and tarts. On the beach at Campomoro there was a wedding going on and a fish farm in the bay. Some spear fishermen were unloading when we arrived. Pat had a short swim but it was pretty cold so he wasn’t in long.
Drove through Sartene to Bonifacio. 2h walk around clifftop Haut Ville. Camp in poor crowded site. First few drops of rain. Walked back to Haut Ville past the port to dinner in deserted restaurant – bad value and no ambience except we were outside. Kept awake at night by fighting and police turning up nearby and Gipsy Kings playing at full volume afterwards.

23/5 Drove around the coast past a tortoise on the road (Santa Guila beach had been recommended but it was crowded and had a boring resort feel. Some bits done up, right on the beach but car park a rocky mud puddle in waiting.) Drove through Porto Vecchio (lots of shops and no parking) back into the mountains. We had lunch in the mist near Col d’Ospedale, missing the beautiful lake which we could have sat next to. Found camp near Zonza. Crowded but we found a spot by ourselves right at the top. Threatening rain but I did washing and still only a few drops. Dinner in nice restaurant in town (Auberge de Sanglier). Croustillant (Pat) charcuterie (Ro) and Civet (daube) de sanglier + excellent tarte aux pommes and chestnut gateau.

24/5 6h walk return from the Col de Bavella to the Refuge de Paliri and the U Colomleddu (Trou de Bombe), natural rock arch. Notable: thousands of pine processional caterpillars, mostly squashed, pretty blue daisy like flowers, two black beetles rolling dung ball, views of rock spires and the sea.
Returned to same campground and dinner in another restaurant in Zonza. Fieulleté (Pat), salade gibieres de canard (Ro), Daube de sanglier avec pruneaux (Pat), Legumes de Mediterranee (Ro), fidone (Gateau Corse), chataigne mousse with green leaf preserve (Ro)

25/5 5h30 walk around the Aiguilles de Bavella from the col again. Very rocky, chains in parts of the GR alpine route. Interesting changes in scenery and vegetation. Fighter jets overhead again. Tiring walk uphill at the end.
Drove to next town Quenza and found an Auberge. Managed by a chef so set menu very good. Cannelloni de brocchui (mint), stuffed quail + braised vegetables, cheese or dessert assortment. Did not sleep (heat, period, sore hip, coffee) but the shower was good and managed to see some tennis on TV. Older English couples aplenty here!

26/5 Drove through the middle of the island over uncomfortably winding roads: more pigs, some lovely woodlands but also burnt, deforested hillsides. Finally had lunch by the road then found natural river campsite north of Corte. Train line went around it and the river through.
Drove to a pizza place for dinner. TV on with champions league final but we didn’t stay.

27/5 After quick supermarket shop drove back to the southwest of Corte to the Gorge de la Restonica. At the end of the road got a remarkably good spot right next to the track which took us up to two lakes, Melo and Castanella (still almost all ice), via ladders and through snow (skied on boots down although Pat had chosen to wear sneakers because the walk was supposed to be short!). Sustained our only injuries, a big bruise on calf and a gashed hand. Lots of German families with children.
Back to campground for showers then returned to Corte. Checked email at a cyber pub then had beer and meal in the old town. Food at recommended U Museu cheap and unremarkable.

28/5 Left campground at 10am after paying blind man owner. Drove through La Castagniccia area, including Morosaglia (where patriot leader of briefly independent Corsica Palio was born), chestnut woods with many domestic animals (pigs, goats, cows, horses and birds. Found cache at Col (Bocca di San Antonio). Lunch of toasted panini and beer at La Porta near a baroque church with contrasting bell tower. Ended up on the coast again. Towards Bastia the single lane boring road held more and more traffic so we turned inland again, over some hills to the north coast.
Camp by a river at San Fiorenzu. Walk around town and bastion. Dinner in busy place with new waiter anxious to practise his English resulting in some mistunderstandings. Spoke to Norwegian with French Canadien wife after laughing at the waiter’s efforts. Good steak (Ro) and moules frites (Pat), followed by icecream profiteroles.

29/5 Drove around Cap Corse with stops at Nonza (odd little schist tower) and Centuri (lunch on the hot rocky beach then walked in the small village fishing port). Through Bastia without stopping and San Fiorenzu without joy at the ATM. Along the coast past Ile Rousse to Calvi we loked for a nice campground but failing to find one we returned to the same campground in Calvi. Shopped at the supermarket for more Muscat and terrine that we had liked (but none of the Emperor with figues which was so good, sweet and tasty).
Dinner on the marina, which was full of yachts from Antibes for a 40th anniversary club race and Aussie Rules, a superyacht. We guessed who it could belong to among famous Australians: Greg Norman, perhaps. I later confirmed this online – a $70 million dollar largest aluminium hulled go anywhere pleasure cruiser with fantastic number of toys for fishing, diving and boating. Food was a bit disappointing for a 20€ menu, overcooked and strongsmelling seafood with overly salty sauces.

30/5 Rest day in campground. Looked at the beach on the way to get bread. Plenty of people on it but only one in the water. Yachts had all gone to be replaced by an influx of Germans including one family who had to put their mansion tent up less than a metre from ours while we were in it – grr!
Dinner in behind port, steak (Pat) stodgy seafood spaghetti (Ro). Bought red coral earrings but no T-shirt.

31/5 Packed up and drove to Calenzana (start/end of GR20). 1h30 walk up to first col and back with quite a few daywalkers and fresh GR walkers. Drove back through a couple of other La Balagne perched towns. Not much activity for a fete day so we headed back to Calvi for lunch at an Italian style place: lasagne au brocciu (local fresh cheese and mint) (Ro) and Pizza Reine (Pat).
Had to while away the time until the ferry so drove up to the Notre Dame and stayed there in a rather wild wind for a few hours. Back in town found a 24h petrol pump that took a while to negotiate.
Had a drink on the marina, pastis and tea, then panini in the car before queuing for the ferry.

My bag was stolen today - no phone, sunglasses, pocketknife, makeup etc. Bummer. They wouldn't have gotten much satisfaction with a phone with a permanently dead battery and no cash and cancelled cards (including an expired credit card).

Corsica for two weeks to forget about it now.

New photos in France posted at France 2004

Played tennis today in nice warm sun but still quite cold. Also went for hike on Friday with four Swedish women, Fleur, and an English couple who used to live here. It was up near Seranon off the Route Napoleon.

We have a lovely Peugeot 206 again, light metallic grey this time. Already it has acquired a dent in the bonnet (if it wasn't there to start with). We parked in the Decathlon carpark in between the rows and went in for tennis balls and a blow-up mattress and that's when we think it may have happened.

My Amazon books arrived:
The Curious Incident of the Dog - Mark Haddon. I read it in one day and thought it was clever writing and quite thought provoking. I wonder if Allan has read it.
The Dead Heart - Douglas Kennedy. An American writing a thriller about Australia - should be funny.
Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood. Another futuristic exploration of humanity.
Drinking Coffee Elsewhere - Stories by a young African American woman are a bit disappointing after the reviews. Maybe they'll improve as I read more.

Spring has definitely sprung. The trees in the domaine are becoming bright green and the flowers are emerging. Some of the flowers, possibly the pine trees, are giving me hayfever.

I went for an extra hike last Thursday with Annsofi and Ingrid, both Swedish, up Montagne de Thiey in an effort to look for AnnSophie's gold bracelet, to no avail. The wildflowers, however, were lovely. On the Tuesday we had a very leisurely hike on the old Route Napoleon from the road on the River Saigne, including a drinks stop at the bar and a cup of rose from Angela. Yesterday we had a very short walk after a longish drive above La Turbie, led by Gillian (with a hard 'G' as Annsofi corrected me), as Angela's mother-in-law had just died.

I played tennis in shorts for the first time. Pat and I have been playing quite a bit. I've put on weight. Linda at tennis was telling me about Atkins diet of minimum carbohydrates. It would be very hard when the bread is so nice. The pain de campagne from Pain aux Dieux tastes like sourdough and comes in a large long loaf - yum.

Pat got the Panic Room out of the CE library. It was quite good but a bit laboured and far too long for such a simple story. Now we have Captain Corelli's Mandolin. I'm a bit reluctant to see it after I enjoyed the book. I'm remembering that the other book I tried to read of his, at Gary Davies' place in Italy put me off him completely: horrible stories about drug deaths in Columbia and I don't know what else.

Discovered today that the statistics on my website tell you where viewers are referred from.
Danny Yee has linked my page! And Camilla has a new site!

I've run out of space at my free geocities site. I think I could take down my Europe 2000 pages as the photos are pretty poor.

Almost finished rereading Almost French - Sarah Turnbull. Now have to wait a couple of weeks for my new Amazon.fr order to arrive.

We're back in the week after Easter. The long weekend (only Monday) we spent in the Vaucluse region of Provence.
Saturday we drove to Vaison-la-Romaine, found a campground in nearby St Marcellin then drove into the town and walked around. First up the hill to the ruined chateau cum fort, through the old medieval town then across the Roman pont to the opposite side of the river Ouveze. The town had a massive flood in 1992 so there has been rebuilding but the extensive Roman ruins are still there. We didn't pay to go in but walked around and looked through the fence at the impressive amphitheatre.

We missed out on a meal in a rather rustic looking fixed-menu restaurant in the medieval part so opted to try Morroccan for a change. Entrees of cumin-spiced tomato, eggplant and zucchini and a pancake (brique) with chicken and sweet sauce were followed by couscous (of course) with beef and prunes for Pat and meatballs for me, again in a tomato sauce.

The first night in the tent was very cold, even after taking a short walk along the riverbed.

The following day dawned clear (although we woke up after 9.30!) so we drove up Mont Ventoux after a stop in Malucene for bread and a drink. Ventoux is the highest mountain in Provence (2010m) with its own ecosystem. True to its name it was blowing a cold wind up there and snow dusted the trees higher up, above the road closure. A short walk away from the road gave us a slightly better view of the ski slopes (now bare) and the various towers on the summit. The view off the mountain was a bit hazy. After a picnic lunch on the way down we drove through the fields back around to Vaison-la-Romaine via another old village, Seguret. There we admired the little paved alleys and the strangely woven plane trees over the carpark.
We found another campground in a different direction from Vaison and finally found one of the Michelin-guide-recommended places to eat. Dinner was a three course menu in a busy upstairs room next to a tiled shaft down to the floor below and a fake staircase up the wall to an old door in the mezzanine. I started witha goats' cheese tart and Pat had a rabbit(?) terrine ,which was a bit bland and complete with bones. My main was sauteed porc in a mustard cream sauce and Pat's was baby goat (chevreau); chocolate gateau and fraise et cafe glace for dessert.
After a warmer nights rest and a shower we left to drive home via a few more stops. We found an interesting Chateau in Suze-la-Rousse. The wind was now blowing freezing cold. Before lunch we found the trogolodyte village of Barry near Bollene and walked around its many buildings and looked at the view of the Rhone. Back-tracking a little we found a picnic table in some woodland and had a rather chilly meal. Last stop was Orange where we found the amazing Roman relics of a triumphal arch and huge theatre. The theatre had a very interesting audio tour although the wind whistling through didn't make one want to hang around. The remaining marbles collected from it were in the museum opposite. There was a very nice oil painting of the port of Nice in there too. Pat tried unsuccessfully to drive me past the Chateauneuf des Papes winery (with a tiled roof he claimed to remember) but only succeeded in finding the chateau in the town of the same name.
We headed back on the motorway (after we found it and after we negotiated the hazard of filling up the car and getting back into a traffic jam or two).

All in all an enjoyable trip.

Skiing on March 28 was great - 5-10 cm fresh powder and lots of sun. Only 2 hours from home to be on the slopes. This after hiking up to the St Barnabe plateau (where the cache is) again but from the Cormes side this time - uphill from the Loup valley. It was cloudy again so we still didn't see the view. Had very short lunch out of the wind beside the very well constructed wall of a ruin.

Back hiking today with the women's group. Drove up with Anne and Nicki to the Col du Vence road and walked up to the top of the Baou des Noires et Baou des Blancs. Fresh wild asparagus, pink orchids, one browny-green orchid and other little flowers.

Pat has started playing more tennis now it's daylight saving and he feels unfit!

The rest of this week has been taken up with "home duties"and internet activities. The desired trip to Isola 2000 hasn't happened yet - maybe this weekend. It is almost the Dong's last week in France. Then it will just be Rick and Katherine Ganter and us to represent Oz in Thales.

Anna left last night on a train to Italy after a week staying with us. We managed a couple more museums that I hadn't been to before: Musée d'Archeologique and the Musée d'Art moderne et d'Art contemporaine where we saw a rather disturbing display of works by a Jean Fabre, containing lots of animal (mainly insects) and human body parts. C'etait trés bizarre. His great-grandfather was a well-known entomologist, Jean Fabre.

Other things we managed to do:
walked around Antibes, went to "bandes dessins", English books and Asian foods shops
walked around old Grasse and saw the costume and jewellery museum
drove to Mons and did a walk downhill towards the aqueduct romaine
found first geocache near the Col de Vence (St Barnabé) (from Geocaching)
dinner in Mougins (vieille ville) with Martin Childs and Norman and Sharon
I played tennis in the heat while Anna went and explored Nice by train

We finally did a long bike ride today with Norm. We went down the hill cross-country to the Park de Vaugrenier then along to the Cap d'Antibes to Juan-le-Pins and back home, 42 km in all. Wow, what a sore bum! Apparently if I do this more often I will become accustomed to it (what process is going on to make your pelvic bones more used to pressure?).

Anna rang to say she'll book a train ticket from Paris and arrive sometime next week.

Bad news: Spanish bombings, Israeli bombings ...

Today found that The Guardian online has monthly weblog recommendations.
This one Mzansi Afrika > is by a South African and mentions a conference in gated communities around the world. As we are now living in a boom-gated "domaine" with 24 hour security presence this could be interesting.

From an article in the SMH on weblogs I found this link (no Aussies living in France except a Lesbian woman and her lover)
Aussieblogs Webring

So I just thought I could note where I've been link-wise recently. Today I looked up the "sorry ever after" lyric to find out what 74-75 refers to. The song, by Connells, doesn't seem to mean much except it mentions the years 1974-1975.
Also looked at the Eurosport website and it is slightly better than the newspapers in presenting a more balanced diet of sport than the major male ones but not much better. Flicking though our channels I have found that the Motors TV (which used to feature moslty obscure Australian motor sport) has been replaced by a Belgian French channel RTBF.

Also been looking at photography sites - have to remember to ask Sam or Susan again for her website.

Yesterday we ventured out to Menton (the long weekend in Haut Vaucluse had gone by the by) after the end of the lemon festival. We had a short walk in the old town centre and cemetery with Russian princes and Webb Ellis (we didn't find his grave but an unstable section was closed) before retiring for a seafood lunch by the sea.

Actually it's still Wednesday. I have to stay up to pick Pat up at Nice airport at 11pm (23h). On Eurosport we have the garbage collection that is The Wedneday Selection, golf, sailing and equestrian. Last night I tried to rewatch Vertical Limit in French but it was still so excruciating that I had to turn it off and play computer scrabble. Couldn't even hear the Aussie accents because of the dubbing. Looked up Ben Mendelsohn on IMDB instead and that lead to some reminiscences about Mullet and other Aussie films. Also looked at the Oscar results. Now how does one get to see Harvey Krumpet?

Haven't heard from anyone in Aus lately except Mum and Dad. Jim C rang just before Mum and Dad went home, which was nice. I hope we get to see them, though they're coming in July and we might go away somewhere. Also want to catch up with Martin B, either in Germany or here.

Back to the blog

I'm now ensconced in the life of the expat wife in Villeneuve Loubet on the Cote d'Azur. Tennis, hiking, French lessons, shopping, coffee, internet.

The topics from my previous posting are still relevant, here in France. I can still watch the eucalypts waving in the wind outside our balcony windows, looking towards the Mediterranean Sea. Also, I have been sick 3 times since I arrived in September, 2003. I arrived with an ear infection (Dr B thinks I may have hearing loss in the left side) and have subsequently had two colds, one whilw our Aussie friends were living here with their two boys, and one after skiing in Morzine.

Today I have had to do a load of washing in our landlady's washing machine. She lives next door. I managed to wake her son, Benoit (20). Even though I waited until after 12 he wandered out in his underpants rubbing hie eyes! He did help me and brought the clean wet load back up. While I was waiting I had lunch and vacuumed this hard-to-clean off-white tiled floor.

Pat left for a GSS team building exercise in the Cotswalds on Monday afternoon. He will be back late tonight and hopefully tomorrow we can go away for a long weekend to see more of northern Provence or maybe even further away.

So what has happened in the 20 months since I wrote that first entry. Simpler to list some point form:
* got engaged in August, bought opal ring
* fell over a small cliff into Lane Cover River and bruised hip and badly grazed arm. Old mobile ruined!
* job found at Sydney Uni with Centre for the Mind, supervised by Allan Snyder and Terry Bossomaier. Friendly colleagues including Elaine M, Natasja W, Angela Y, Maria and Martin B. My office turns out to be opposite Max's labs so again a neighbour to William L and Duncan B.
* got married at Banjo Paterson's Cottage, Gladesville on 29th March, 2003 (almost our anniversary now)
* month long honeymoon in Bhutan, with a group of friendly Aussies and Americans
* gave notice in June that I was going to France
* we packed up townhouse in North Ryde into a storage space in Hornsby
* Pat left for the south of France
* after a week's skiing in Perisher, handed over my job to a rather volatile man (who lasted 2 weeks before Allan sacked him)
* left Australia for Nice
* hotel in Sophia for a two weeks before finding this townhouse through Norman Dong (he and Sharon had lived here before)
* some outings with Claire Moore to get to know the area. Started driving.
* we got our visas through visits to the Mairie, madical examination and chest x-rays with a French helper, Catherine Bo
* couple of games of squash with David M before they leave for Australia in December
* 10 day trip to UK while Pat is back for a sea-trial in Australia
* watching the world cup rugby
* started hiking and tennis with the IWCR women during Christmas activities
* my cousin Adam survives a terrible car accident as a pedestrian in Gosford and spends many weeks in hospital
* Chug and Ang arrive for a few days from Indiana and have Christmas meals - yum
* Jenny and Bob arrive from Canberra but miss the good weather. They go on through Italy to ski in San Cassiano while we drive up to Morzine to ski with Mum and Dad for a week
* they come back early after Bob's father dies in New Zealand. They make it back for the funeral.
* Mum and Dad come back from skiing in Austria and Italy to see the south of France. Mum's ski acident rebounds in effects of delayed concussion and they are forced to stay almost two weeks longer than they planned. We did quite a bit of sightseeing as a result (instead of more skiing).