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!