A Week in Provence: St. Remy and Gourdes

On our first full day in Provence, we headed off to explore St. Remy. After fighting traffic in the nearby towns, we approached through rows of shady plane trees. I thought that I was in a Van Gogh painting. (Van Gogh lived here, spending most of his time in a nearby insane asylum.) I must admit that, upon arrival, the town was not so impressive. Maybe that's because our girls were not cooperating and our lunch place was expensive but so-so food. We did a brief drive-by of Les Antiques, some well-preserved Roman monuments near the town. But, again, not as impressive as we'd hoped. I still loved the plane trees.
Gordes is impressive just in how it is built. It is one of the famous hilltop towns of the region and it seems the villagers creatively found some way to build a structure on every square foot of the hill. The village rises above the lush green valley below with contrasting hues of honey gold.
Here we are enjoying some pizza in the town center. As it was windy, we searched for a restaurant indoors -- but none of them opened until 7pm. The lazy lifestyle of Provence is nice for childless couples, but not so great when you've got hungry children at 5pm.

I love the steep and narrow winding cobbled streets of Gordes. It makes me feel like I'm living back in the middle ages. Again, though, not so convenient with a stroller. :)

KaRynn and I are enjoying the view of the Provençal farms below. By the way, don't we look more like sisters than cousins. (Except I look much older!)

Right next to Gordes is the Village des Bories. KaRynn and I decided to go check it out. The road to it was a bit nerveracking, though. We were surrounded by stone wall on both sides, which sometimes only left half a foot between our car and the wall. Anyhow, it's an ancient community of little stone hovels built by the Celts or Ligurians or even dating back to the Iron Age.

A Week in Provence: Roussillon

Here we are in Roussillon, yet another beautiful hilltop village. All the houses here are built with stones in shades of deep rose and russet, blending into the nearby red-ocher cliffs. This is quintessential Provence -- the warm colors changing as the sun moves across the sky. While I love the colors, the girls loved climbing the stairs and running down the narrow carless streets.

Don't you just want to stay here forever and bask in the glorious sun?
Here is Mariah, conquering another long staircase.

Under the archway...

Anna Claire brought her camera too and was inspired by all the photo-snapping around her.

Hi everybody! This is the life -- getting carried everywhere with a fantastic view.

Yep, everyone likes to carry me.

A Week in Provence: Fontaine de Vaucluse

Not far from Gordes is the Fontaine de Vaucluse. It's sort of a miniature Niagara Falls, a mysterious spring that gushes from a deep underground source. It's a bit kitschy, with lots of restaurants and shops and a well-traveled hike, but it was perfect for the kids, and quite beautiful.
Here we are at the top -- we hiked all the way to see this?? Actually, it's the gushing water below that is beautiful -- not this.
Mariah is just having a ball with her new best friend KaRynn.

This is Anna when she's asked to "smile" for the camera. She's a tease.

Hanging out on the trail.

A Week in Provence: Arles

Here we are in Arles. Does it make you think of Van Gogh? (Without the warm sunny tones--this was our only rainy day.) He painted some 200 canvasses here. I really liked the place. It was not too crowded and full of antiquities. The most impressive is a 21,000 seat Roman amphitheater. It still functions today as a bullfighting arena.
Rob with the girls and our first glimpse of the amphitheater in the background.
The ampthitheater, complete with modern seating.

Hey mom, look how high we've climbed!

Wow, this is cool. I'm taking a picture of you with your camera, mom.

Yes, I know. I'm quite the charmer.

On top of the amphitheater. Wow, what a view!

Run, run, run, run, run. Is this what the Romans did too?

A Week in Provence: Biking!

The best part of our trip to Provence was, of course, the biking. As soon as he could, Rob set out to climb Mt. Ventoux, the epic and painful mountain of Tour de France fame. I decided to try it too, this time. Only I cheated and skipped the first part. As you can see, the top is just barren rock, which was a bit scary for me. I'd rather risk falling into grass and trees than into a treeless wasteland.
Here we are on top of Mt. Ventoux. We found some Dutch guys to take a photo of us. Rob is pretty amazing. He made it up in half the time of most people!
At the top of Roussillon. The views are beautiful, but you can see that I'm a bit winded!

You can't see it, but Roussillon is in the back left. It was stunning at sunset.

Rob -- action shot.

This is right near where we stayed -- just outside the town of Joucas.

Rob in front of the castle in LaCoste. Yep, the inspiration for the clothing company. Notice the wildflowers in the foreground.

At the top of Bonnieux. We loved this town, and the bike ride to it was magnificent.

You can't go on a biking trip without having to do some laundry. . .

Mariah had a great time with the clothes pins. Actually, she couldn't figure out where they all went.

KaRynn is here!

My cousin KaRynn arrived today and we are so excited. She is staying with us for the summer and we are thrilled. The girls have already claimed her as their own. And I even got to run off to catch the tail end of the Tour de Romandie, which came right through our town. We leave for Provence soon and we're looking forward to a fun vacation!

Happy Birthday Anna Claire!

We celebrated Anna Claire's 3rd birthday today. Her favorite friend Nicole is turning three also, so we decided to do a joint birthday party celebration. We did a flower and butterfly themed party with little flower pinwheels everywhere. I had a great time making a butterfly cake and little cupcakes with flowers and butterflies on them. They were a hit -- our non-American friends couldn't get over how deliciously sweet American cake is. We decided to take the risk and do the party outside in our apartment complex's beautiful garden. The weather cooperated marvelously -- all sunshine!
Anna Claire wanted a chocolate butterfly cake, just like the one in a little cake book that we have. I thought I made the cake even more yummy looking than the one in the cake book. (Except I forgot to cut little triangles in the side wings until it was too late. Frosting a chocolate cake with pink frosting is not easy.) I even made the butterfly pink -- Anna's favorite color. However, the first thing Anna Claire said was, "Mommy, it's not purple, like the picture.) I think she adjusted quickly and was only too happy to eat it!

A bird's eye view of the celebration. Anna Claire had the time of her life running around with all of her friends. We even had a piñata, which is quite the novelty over here.

Dance with me!

Here are some pics from Anna and Mariah's favorite pasttime -- dancing!

Anna does all kinds of traditional ballet pirouettes and twirls, while Mariah prefers the more modern interpretive dancing. Both girls seem to believe that they must put on dancing skirts when they hear fun music.

It's Springtime!

Since Easter, the weather has cleared up, allowing us to do more fun things outside. The great thing about where we live is there are loads of things to do near the lake. We took a great trip across Lake Geneva to Evian, France. There we could drink Evian water right from the source -- free! Here we are, in front of our ferry.
Hanging out on the boat.

The view from Evian. If you look carefully, you can see Morges in the background -- straight across the lake.

Anna Claire and her golden hair. Btw, she will NOT let her Mommy put anything in her hair.

Playing in the park by our house.

Hanging out with Daddy on the waterfront. Now, don't they look alike???
It's time to practice our biking again! Actually, the girls have a little race course that goes round and round and round the apartment.