Autumn In Provence

 Must apologise for being a terrible blogger, I have not been posting or catching up with all my favourite blogs, life just seems to have got in the way!  I am currently in Provence, staying with Belle Mere in Sanary-Sur-Mer, probably my favourite place on the planet, have been out and about today and managed to take some photographs, I will be resuming normal service as soon as possible.

Belle Mère's Move, Part 4, Au revoir

This was the last photo of Belle Merès house taken just before we set off for home, early yesterday morning.  31 years of life, love, laughter and tears have been witnessed by this house. There will be new occupants moving in soon and the house will once again bear witness to another family playing out their lives between it's walls. Although we were all a bit sad, we must look to the future, Belle Mère is looking forward to her new life in her new home and is already making exciting new plans for the new house.

We trundled off, leaving Belle Mère to finish cleaning the property, ready for the new owners, we thought we would make good time as we set off early and then 7 hours later and just 17 KMs from home, this happened.

Yes, here we are on the hard shoulder of the A64, auto route, broken down, at a very dangerous spot. Not what you need after a seven hour drive when you are exhausted, with a van full of furniture and friends coming to help you unload at a certain time, at the other end. We called the hire company, who told us they were not allowed to recover us on the autoroute but would reimburse the costs of the offical motorway dépannage (Break down truck) they told us to ring 17, the police.

Half an hour later we were still waiting, on the verge behind the armco barrier, in the freezing cold, then a yellow man in a yellow van turned up, by chance he had seen us and stopped to see if he could be of assistance.  He rang through and told us nothing had been reported and so he sorted out the dépannage, so we waited some more, he waited with us and was very nice and helpful even letting MG open the van to get a fleece out, did I mention it was freezing.

And we waited......Crusoe was shivering and really pissed off, he was not the only one, here he is looking at me, thinking, what the dickens is going on!

Eventually, The Dépannage man arrived with his shiny, new Mercedes truck, of which he was extremely proud, he was a bit worried about Crusoe's hairs getting on the interior of the cab. Within minutes, the van was winched on and the rescue was complete. Turned out the petrol gauge was faulty, we had run out of diesel, you will be pleased to know the rescue costs were covered by the hire company.

We were given some diesel and got home much later than expected, our friends turned up at 8am this morning to help unload the van.  All is well. tomorrow I am having a much needed lie in, then I will have to turn round the washing and do some jobs as we are off to England on Tuesday for another adventure........

A footnote

A big thank you for all your wonderful comments, whilst at Belle Mères, sorry I could not respond, but laptop access, was severely restricted!

Belle Mère's Move, Part 3, Market Day

For some bizarre reason, I thought Tuesday would be the easiest day of the move.  I was wrong.  Yesterday, the professionals were coming in to pack and today they were supposed to be moving the furniture, however the weather forecast for today was terrible so they put more men on the job to get as much done as possible.

At 7.45 yesterday morning, the doorbell went and an army of burly men spread through the house like a plague of hungry locusts, packing, wrapping and moving, even Belle Mère was in shock, "they are going too fast, I can't keep up". We had not even emptied the kitchen cupboards of food and jars, we started working frantically  so they could get into the kitchen. 

Things were whisked away so fast, mistakes were made, things that were supposed to be kept out have now gone into storage, it did not help, that we were all exhausted and still half asleep.

Antique amoires were taken to bits, blankets and bubble wrap were taped round valuable furniture and paintings, I have to say they were very gentle with the china and fragile objects. As they were French, we did not have to make them mugs of tea every half hour, they just stopped for a two hour lunch break and then returned to continue working at breakneck speed.

It is amazing how much one can accumulate, especially over 31 years, and after all the main stuff had gone Belle Mère, was trying to sort out 'the bits', you know, the bits, that have found their way into that draw or cupboard you always meant to sort out but just never got round to.

Anyway job done.  Well almost, MG and I are returning to the Pyrenees early tomorrow morning with a van full of furniture, kindly donated by Belle Mère. Which we will have to unload at the other end, and Belle Mère has to clean the house, I have already started cleaning and she will have help, before she hands over the house on Friday.  No doubt we will return hopefully in May, to help her move into her new home.

We did go to the market this morning, it was a bit of a damp squib, cold, wet and windy, with only half the usual stalls, but I still managed to take some photo's.

Poor Crusoe, he was shunted from one room to another yesterday, totally bewildered by the proceedings, so I took him for a pre-market walk, to let off some steam, barking at the waves.

Les Poissonnier's

Charcuterie

Du Fromage

Belissimo!

A quick coffee, and a chance to watch the passers-by. Ooh, he looks interesting!

He is worthy of the Sartorialist, methinks!

And another, wow, great turban.

My only purchase, Anenomes for Belle Mère

Belle Mère's Move, Part 2. Curb Appeal

Well, I have to admit, I am now absolutely shattered, I have done an awful lot of packing and lifting.  But things are going to plan. The professionals are coming tomorrow to pack all the fragile items and paintings and on Wednesday they will be moving the furniture out and putting it into the container for storage.

I have somehow managed to take some more pictures, mainly when I have been taking Crusoe for his constitutionals and amazingly enough I have managed to bag the laptop to do this post, as MG is also shattered and I think is turning in, as we speak!

Photo subject today is curb appeal, I am fascinated almost to the point of obsession about houses and gardens. I love walking past interesting looking properties and peaking in.  There is plenty of material in this neck of the woods so I hope you enjoy, peaking with me!

Love this gate and the colour is typically Provençal.

I wonder what that person up there is doing?

Of course, waxing his surfboard.

This is such a pretty villa, but not much of a view at the back.

The view from the front makes up for it.

Pretty pink house with pale green shutters.

Look closely at this one, it is in fact the back of the building, everything is painted, it's a trompe l'oeil.

I would love to peak inside this characterful  house, on the cliff top, Picasso lived here for a while.

And this is the side entrance.

Love these gates and driveway, this house and garden, see photo below, remind me of the holiday house in the film of Bonjour Tristesse, with David Niven, Deborah Kerr and Jean Seberg.

The garden, which has a path straight to a little cove.

Town house, now apartments probably at one time belonged to a wealthy merchant.

Lovely little square complete with water fountain

This property is a classic turn of the (20th) century villa, it intrigues me, when it was built there certainly would not have been a main road, it was probably a little track, and it would have had fantastic views of the sea, now the other side of the road is all built up, so it no longer has great views. I would love to know it's story, who built it? Is it still in the same family?  I will have to find out more about it.  There is just something mysterious and romantic about this villa. I love it.

Close up

The front entrance, barley visible through the trees.

And finally, Mimosa tree, I cannot tell you how divine the smell is when you walk past.

Belle Mères Move, Part 1

Well, we made it, we are now at Belle Mère's. President Sarkozy stepped in with regard to the striking oil refinery workers, so France did not come to a grinding halt.  And we were able to continue unhindered with our plans.

Yesterday morning MG went to collect the van that we have hired and when he backed it into our drive, I got quite a shock, van! It's more like a small lorry, but it is very important we have a tail lift, and standard vans don't come with tail lifts,  you will see why in a second.  All three of us got in the cab, Crusoe was very excited to be allowed up front, on the seat, he loved looking out of the windscreen. Six hours later after a very uneventful and uncomfortable journey we arrived at Belle Mère's.

Well you can imagine what Belle Mère's house looks like at the moment, piles of stuff and packing boxes everywhere, she would never forgive me if I published a photograph of it.

This morning we got up bright and early, first job move Belle Mère's plants, these are not going into storage, Belle Mère has had permission to put them in the garden of the house she intends to buy.

  

After we had done this, I had some errands to run in town, and MG went to get his hair cut, I promised you lot's of picture's and I think I have delivered. I took my camera with me, whilst doing my errands I snapped everything in my path!  I am sure you will be able to see why I love this place so  much.

Steps down to the port

This market is in town every morning until 12.30 pm. I would never go to the supermarket again if I lived here.  The proper market is every Wednesday, it is one of the biggest in Provence, with some fabulous stalls and yes I will be going.....with  my camera of course.

Something for the children and something for Julie at Being Ruby!

The port, no tacky gin palaces or floating nightclubs here, just fishing boats and modest sailing boats.

When the local fisherman return with their catch, they sell it, from a stall in front of their boat, can you get fresher than that?

Fancy an Ice cream?

In the old town, behind the port, lots of narrow streets with fabulous shops

My favourite cafe

Bunch of flowers? One of the biggest flower markets in the south of France is nearby and all the florists go early in the morning to purchase, there is so much variety and the prices are so reasonable (compared to our part) that you could flower up your whole house quite inexpensively.

OK, let me take a closer look.

Smell that Mimosa!

Whilst waiting for MG, I think I will have a quick aperitif before lunch.

On the way back, the market has gone, reavealing the treelined walkway, the trees are covered with glittering fairy lights at Christmas and provide much needed shade in the summer.

Saw these guy's windsurfing, whilst we were on the way back to Belle Mère's and could not resist snapping them through the windscreen.

Well back to Belle Mère's for lunch and more hard work this afternoon, have a lovely weekend, back soon.