The Festival of David's 50th - Part 1

On Friday 12^th we moved into our new, much larger, accommodation.  Anthony, Dennis, Carolyn and Julia arrived on Saturday afternoon.

We were rapt with the new house as it was much larger than we had anticipated and had magnificent views across to Rocher St Julien and down to Buis. 

I really liked seeing Buis lit up at night.

On Friday and Sunday we went to Carpentras for the respective food and antiques markets.  Carpentras is another town that we haven’t spent a lot of time in and which has a character filled old centre.  We really liked some of the boutique shops but decided that the antique market was essentially full of tat (Ed – I still bought 4 pairs of cufflinks).

On Monday some of us headed off on a lovely randonee that included climbing to the top of St Julien.  We have done this hike before and love the views of Buis. 

We could even pick out our soon to be cottage. 

Our new (old) house circled in Red

It was much easier to spot our holiday rental mansion on the opposite slopes.

House at bottom of picture

It was beautifully sunny in the morning although it became a little more overcast in the afternoon.  We stopped for an improvised lunch of pain, saucisson and frommage.  Along the way Dennis entertained us with renditions of the MAD Magazine versions of various songs from the Sound of Music.

The small town of La Roche sur Le Buis, one km past the rental house

          

Barbra and Rob arrived on Monday night.  On Tuesday we went to Vaison to get supplies for my birthday dinner the following night.  Following our experience with the butcher in Buis, I was determined to properly marinate chicken pieces for Coq au Vin.  I found the largest chicken thighs and drumsticks that I’ve ever seen.  I hope I never run into these giant chickens alive.

We also liked this array of herbal teas, some of which we think must be a joke.  E.g. Tisane Col et Sterol.

After the market we enjoyed an excellent meal at the Michelin recommended, Bistro Du’o.  This is the restaurant that had been extremely difficult to book, but it was worth persevering with.  We enjoyed our lunch so much that we made another booking for the following Tuesday.

Incidentally, Anthony and Dennis commented that they had also been struggling with restaurants being ‘exceptionellement ferme’.  We think that many restauranteurs and shop keepers must see the opportunity to take a break between Christmas and the arrival of spring.  If they feel like taking an extra week of holidays above what they had originally planned, they just do it and stick a sign in their window saying ‘exceptionellement ferme’.

After lunch we wandered around the medieval town and Anthony and Dennis and Dale and I bought some photographic artwork, which is currently proving challenging to transport home.

Dale and I came back ahead of the others so that I could start preparing the following night’s Coq au Vin.  Here I am on the terrace enjoying a virgin mary and wearing one of my new Provencale tabliers (aprons).

Many gorgeous sunsets over the weeks

Wednesday arrived and that meant that I had reached 50 years.  The weather was abysmal, I suspect it was commiserating with me.  Nevertheless, we managed to wander down to Buis and around the market in constant rain.  Barbra and Rob continued valiantly with sightseeing but the rest of us pretty much hung out in the house.  At one point Carolyn went out to get some extra supplies for dinner and took a scenic route and reported back that it was snowing about a hundred metres higher up the road. 

I spent much of the afternoon very enjoyably in the kitchen.  I don’t think that I would have enjoyed spending my 20^th or 30^th birthdays cooking.  But at 50 it’s incredibly enjoyable.

Drinking is nice too

Manuela and Clemens arrived about 7.30 and that kicked off a long evening of food, wine and conversation.  Manuela and Clemens had driven from Switzerland for about 7 hours, including through falling snow.  I received some great presents: beautiful cufflinks from Julia and Carolyn and also from Catherine, Paul, Malcolm, David and Stuart; dinner at Bistro Guillaume in Melbourne from Barbra and Rob and an amazing hamper from Manuela and Clemens that included a 150 jigsaw puzzle of a picture of Dale and me in the snow in Zug last year.  Anthony and Dennis bought me a wonderful French comic book about a hapless fox, which Dennis said had him chuckling away for hours.

On Thursday I woke up and reflected that I now need to say that I’m 50.  I have to say that I don’t really like the sound of it.  Perhaps I will just say that I’m 49 for a little while longer. 49 is the new 37.

We also awoke to the unpleasant realisation that we had absolutely no running water.  We ran around the house trying to work out whether there were any pumps that were not working.  This was thanks to Barbra, who advised that she had read lots of books about people moving to renovate properties in France who are always having problems with their water pump.  We decided that that this probably wasn't our problem because we appeared to be on the town’s main water supply.

When we rang the owner, monsieur Alain, he quickly asked whether we had had heavy rain the night before, which we had.  He said this often results in an electrical problem with the water pumps at the local water station.  He said that we probably wouldn’t be the only ones affected and that it would probably be fixed within an hour.  Dale and I decided to walk down to the next door neighbour to see whether he was also out of water.  He was very charming and insisted on shaking our hands and exchanging ‘bonjours’ before entering into any discussions.  He assured us that he was also without water and that the electricity company was advising everyone that the problem would be fixed by lunchtime.

So, without showers and toilets we decided to head into town to have some breakfast and to use toilets.  

Afterwards, we all went to have a look at the cottage in Buis.  Here are some of the photos that Dale has taken.

Ground floor kitchen and dining

First floor lounge

First floor bathroom

Second floor main bedroom

Second floor second bed

Third floor bedroom & toilet

Third floor balcony room

In addition, there is also a basement, and a mezzanine above the third floor bedroom, so essentially it is a 5.5  storey house.

As an added bonus, this gorgeous cat lives next door.  His name is 'Lucky', but the french pronunciation is more like 'Lukey'

We then went on to Nyons.  Barbra and Rob departed for 6 days in Beaune in Burgundy but returned for 3 nights on Wednesday the 23^rd.  We wandered around Nyons, enjoying the market, and stopped for lunch at Les Petits Amis where we had had lunch a couple of weeks before.

Julia and Carolyn deep in conversation

Manuela and the apple of her eye

On the way back we stopped at a delightful mohair farm where we met the goats and bought some bits and pieces. 

Awwwww so cute

We drove back via the Col d’Ey and everyone enjoyed the trees in blossom and the views from the Col. 

Hello Clemens

This great view of Buis as you come back from the Col d'Ey shows how close it is to Le Mt Ventoux

When we got back the water was back on.  We were all very relieved.  That night we went out to a restaurant in nearby Entrecheaux.  This involved ordering 2 taxis to transport us there and back.  Everything worked swimmingly and the taxi drivers even knew how to find the house because they know monsieur Alain.  Fiona arrived to stay in Mollans sur Ouveze during the day (because there wasn’t room in the house until Saturday) and we picked her up on the way.

The Restaurant, St Hubert, had been recommended to us and we mostly had wonderful meals and the service was charming.  The only downsides were that we ate too much and Anthony and Fiona both succumbed to food poisoning about 24 hours after having eaten shell fish.  We think that the cockles were the culprit because Clemens also had seafood but didn’t eat any cockles and didn't get sick.  We will go back to the restaurant but will recommend staying away from the seafood.

We had a leisurely start on Friday morning because lunch had been booked at a restaurant called Le Pre du Moulin, which has received a Michelin star.  It is located in a small town north of Orange and we all really enjoyed our meals even though we had eaten a lot the night before.  The service was very professional and efficient and the food was marvellous.  I decided to push my luck in a Michelin starred restaurant by asking for a spoon to share Manuela’s dessert with her.  This was permitted although some fun had to be made of this gauche request. i.e. Manuela had to confirm that she was happy to share her dessert.

Pre du Moulin

After lunch we all went off on separate sightseeing trips.  Anthony and Dennis and Carolyn and Julia went off to see the Theatre Antique in Orange and Manuela and Clemens went to Avignon.  Dale and I went to see some Provencal hill top towns including Gigondas and Beaume de Venise which are famous for their wines.  We drove up to a small winery called Domaine des Escaravailles outside Roaix.  This involved negotiating charming small roads that ran between vineyards (Ed. and grey areas of car hire insurance).  We had drunk a bottle of wine from this winery when we had lunch at Bistro Du’O and had really liked it.  We enjoyed our tastings and decided to stock up on some wine for the following week.

Very pretty town of Gigondas

Amazing Avenue leading out of Malaucene

The curse of the Renault Captur struck again, this time Fiona suffering a puncture.  Unfortunately she was starting to feel the effects of the dodgy seafood from the night before and decided to head back to her gite after lunch rather than going to Orange.  In between towns she was forced to pull off the road.  Hertz roadside assist promised to send someone but failed to do so, not once but twice.  Finally after waiting over 3 hours and with failing light a tow truck turned up.  As he started to change her tyre, we happened to drive by in time for this jolly photo.

The tyre was replaced with the space-saving spare, which was only good for 50km.  Being Saturday night, we had to wait until Monday morning to take the car to the Renault garage in Buis, only to be advised that the tyre was cactus (Citroen joke intended).  We advised Fiona to drive to Avignon on the spare tyre to front Hertz for a new car rather than wait another day for the correct tyre to be ordered and delivered.  She spent the remainder of her time in a Yaris.