Well, I hope the
festive season was as good for you as it was for me. I spent around 10 days in St Raphael/Frejus
soaking in the sun and warmer temperatures at my friend Laure’s family
home. Her family were so lovely and so
welcoming. It was really nice to be in a
family environment again, especially for Christmas. They were a family away from home. They looked after me very well, and I was very
spoilt. We spent most of the time
relaxing and reading. We ate a lot of
good food, and it was great to experience real French family life, which I haven’t
seen a lot of as I’ve never been in a family in France. It was so good to be back in Provence. It really is one of my happy places. There is just something about it, I love
it. One evening we went to the movies to
see Hugo Cabaret – an excellent film. I thoroughly
enjoyed it. Another thing that is very popular in Provence is to make Nativity scenes with Santons, which are figures made in the region to represent traditional life here. One person's home I went to had the biggest nativity scene I've ever scene. There is a lot of work and effort that goes into it and it was very detailed. There were farmers, a waterfall, even people playing petanque.
Then the second wave of
the international visitors Chez Laure arrived with Rebekah and Jason from the
United States. We spent the afternoon
soaking up the beautiful sun and gorgeous coastline of St Raph, and even dipped
our feet in the Med. It was lovely!
On the 23rd,
the third wave flew in from London, with the arrival of Miriam
(Australian). We had to pick her up from
Nice so we went there for the evening to see the old town, the Christmas markets
and the lights. Here flight was delayed
so we made the most of it to eat dinner and look around a bit more. I really liked the old town of Nice, with the
lights etc it really felt like a set of a movie.
The 24th
was the day we celebrated Christmas. We
spent the day preparing, including practicing songs we were going to sing to
the family – a new experience for me, I was definitely out of my comfort zone. There were 16 of us in total with some of
Laure’s extended family and the
international contingent. We ate a big
meal in the evening, including Kir Royale (cassis syrup with champagne, mmm),
foie gras, duck confit, roasted chestnuts and other things for the entrée. Followed by two big roasted Chapon (castrated
rooster) with vegetables for the main, followed by Buche de Noel and a dessert
that Laure made that I can never remember the name of. It was very good and then we had the
presents. So many presents!! We all stayed up until about 3am.
The next day (the 25th)
we woke up to do it all again for Christmas lunch. I think they had planned another meal
entirely for the lunch but there were so many leftovers and we were still so
full, we ate the rests for lunch and then worked our way through the Christmas
food over the following days.
The 26th we
were treated to a surprise visit from Dave and Magali from Aix-en-Provence that
Miriam, Jason and Rebekah and I knew from when we were there in 2005, it was
great to see them and we spent the whole day around the table, eating and
talking.
The 27th I
sadly said goodbye to what had felt like my home away from home. But, I was off to Albi (1 hour from Toulouse)
to see Nathalie who I had not seen since she was last in New Zealand at the
beginning of 2010. It was great to catch
up with her again and she was a great host, showing me some of the region and
having me try some of the specialties.
We went to Cordes-sur-Ciel a village perched on the top of a hill,
beautiful with stunning views. Then we
looked around Albi and saw its amazing cathedral and rose coloured stone
buildings.
 |
| Cordes-sur-Ciel |
 |
| Albi |
 |
| Entrance to the Cathedral at Albi |
 |
| Albi Cathedral |
On the Friday we went
to Toulouse where I met a couple of her friends and they took us around Toulouse
and then I stayed at her friend Gilles house until later that evening when I
jumped on the night train back to L’Aigle in time to spend le Reveillon (New
Years Eve) with my friends here in L’Aigle.
That was another big French meal where I tried more foie gras and
Calvados. We had a lot of fun dancing
and singing the night away.
This week it has been
back to work which is a bit of a shock after the festive season and so many
late nights to not have much time to recover, so everyone has been pretty
mellow. The weather sounds a lot like
how it is in NZ actually. It pretty much
rains all the time and if it isn’t raining it is cloudy. I have seen the sun about twice for brief
moments. I don’t have much planned for
January yet but to be honest with weather like this I don’t really want to
travel in it, so I’m planning on relaxing here and saving some money and trying
to plan my trips for later in the year.
No comments:
Post a Comment