France

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September 23rd 2006

Published: February 2nd 2007

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Scuba Steve

France

Its only been 2 weeks since we came home from France so I think I am getting better at updating this, though I do notice that its been over a month since I last wrote one...Well as it has transpired it is now a month since we got home and still this blog is waiting to be published!!

Tickets were booked for an overnight trip to Paris on the national express bus leaving at 10pm. We arrived at the station hungry and had BK for dinner before boarding our bus. Thinking we were going to take the Eurotunnel we arrived at Dover with anticipation, but sadly we were chucked on a Ferry at 2am to make the crossing. We slept most of the way so didnt really see the white cliffs of Dover except for the brief glimpses in the bus headlights.

The bus ride Into Paris was pretty uneventful, didnt get to see the famous tower at all, but did see a sign pointing to the place where Asterix and the Gauls where. We had 30mins to get to the Train station where we were catching the TGV (train that goes 250km/h) to Marseille. Luckily there was a

The Gorge

Mmmmm water :)

lovely French girl on the bus who helped us and told is not to catch a taxi for the 10min ride. She gave us tickets for the underground and took us to within one stop of where we had to go, before going on her way.

The trains were awesome and it felt like we were floating. We got to Marseille in under 3hrs and had to wait 45mins for our train to Manosque. This train felt more at home in Auckland, with its Graffiti and run down apperance.

We were picked up by our chauffeur Lawrence (who owned the place we were staying), and driven to our Manor in the hills of Greoux. So, we arrived in Greoux le Bain at about 3pm on the Saturday and Liz was totally knackered as usual and I was feeling up for a walk after sleeping most of the way down so i went exploring the small town.

The villa was very cute, it was just a 2 bedroom place but one of the rooms had 2 double beds in it and the lounge and one of the bedroom had sofa beds so we were sorted. Greoux le Bain

A City near the Gorge

Just slapped on the hillside

is a sweet little village in Provence (southern France) with a lovely Castle on the hill above the town. The area of Provence is famous for its lavender fields, but once again our luck played through and we were in the wrong season so all we saw were row after row of lovely green humps of the lavender plants.

Mum and Dad were meant to Arrive at midnight, and i called them around 11 to see how they were progressing. They had so far managed to take 3 wrong turns, had a police escort and were still a wee way off. I felt sorry for our cousin at this point...

They finally arrived at 2am with the help of one of the local barmen guiding them to the villa. I heard a car noise outside and woke up from my nap and went outside only to have mum run up the stairs and jump on me (not really wise seeing as i was still half asleep) but i managed to keep my footing and give her a big hug.

Greoux itself is really cute, small side streets (some soo small i had to turn sideways to get

Typical Street

Cafe's everywhere

my wide load through) will we were there, there were 3 market days and everyone seemed to come out for them.

Our travels while we were there included going to Grasse, Manosque, Avingnon, Aix en Provence, Apt, and few others i cant pronounce (sorry mummy)

Grasse -

Perfume Capital of the World. We took a ridiculous Petit Train around the town and the commentary gave us some great history on the town of how it use to be a leather town and tannery and then they branched out into perfume and realised it would make them more money. Of course Liz managed to buy a bottle of perfume from Frogonards and it is delicious. Grasse was where we had been told all the lavender fields were, but when we got to the tourist office and asked they infomed us that we were just a few months late to see the beautiful fields, needless to say Liz was a bit gutted about it. The air still smelt amazing where ever we went though.

Verdon du Gorge -

We drove for hours along the side of the Verdon Gorge, it was a stunning place, fresh water

Palace of the Popes

Awesome Castle/Home, Dinning room big enough to hold a few hundred

lake and river and an unreal blue hue to the water. It reminded me of the WRC rallies when they go through corsica and go through the mountains with sheer drops and massive mountains all around.We went and had a swim to break up the trip in the blue lake. It's stangely difficult to swim for a long period of time in fresh water.

We vowed to go back to the Gorge another day to Kayak it and we did, a few days later we were back for a 3 hour kayak up the Gorge. That has to have been the highlight ( other than seeing Mum and Dad ;-) ) of the trip. The scenery was spectacular and there were so many people on the water, I would hate to see what it would be like in summer if that is what it was like in Autumn. Though, 25-30 for the whole 2 weeks there and it started to make us wonder if it was still summer time. At the lake there were 2 fire fighter plans that were training to skim the lake to pick up water and dump it on the hill side, and several times

Brdige to Nowhere

Bridge in Avignon, that used to be 1km long

they came down within 20m of the beach and were skimming the tree tops above the road as they came down into the lake. We got some spectacular photos of them.

Forcalquier -

We went to Forcalquier which is a cute town about 3 hours drive from Greoux le Bain. We went there specifically for the Thursday markets and man was it worth it!! There was street after street of stuff for sale. Cheeses, meats, fresh fruit and veges, clothes, shoes, jewllery, oils, soaps, fabrics, you name it they had it. They even had a stall selling different kinds of knives. We spent most of the afternoon there and had a great time.

We went out to dinner every night in the first week which was lovely. Enjoyed not having to cook that's for sure. In the mornings Mum and Dad would go down to the patisserie and get fresh croissants and fruit and cheese for our breakfast and a fresh baguette for lunch. Liz is totally addicted to lettuce, cheese, tomato and avocado on a baguette now.

We went mountain biking in Greoux le Bain, well, I might just start from the beginning on this

Lazy Cousin

Tired of walking, so i had to carry her

one.....Mum, Dad and I decided to do a 6km easy ride around the area while Josh and Rach decided to do a more difficult 13km ride. We were enjoying our ride and Dad decided that it was too easy and he was going to go on the one the others did...Mum and I got back at about 4:30pm, Josh and Rach at about 6 and they were totally exhausted, they said that if they had fallen off the side of the track at any time they may well have died it was that intense. Dad arrived home just after 7 after accidentally going on a 30km ride that was supposed to be more hell raising than Josh and Rachels one. He got back and practically collapsed on the floor. All I have to say is that I am very very grateful that he did make it back as he is almost 50 and doesn't do much fitness!!!!

One city we went to (cant remember the name now) had a Castle on the top of a hill and look very similar to the castle at Helms deep in Lord of the Rings. I had a wonderful time exploring every small

River by the Citidel

corner or door including the dungeon. If anyone had been put there i swear that they would have died from hypothermia as we went there in the middle of the day and i was cold (nearly shivering) by the time i got out and i had only spent a few minutes in there. There were several outposts and look outs that were great to go looking at, and a gun powder store under ground as well. It was just amazing to take a look around something that had been around since the 17th Century and you could imagine what it once looked like in its glory days.

Once we had finished looking about we decided it was time to go. Mum, Dad and Rach were there, Liz had decided to stay behind in the car. I thought it would be cool to take a look at the underground stairs and go out that way. Everyone else said they would walk the normal way home. I said ill beat them back to the car, and they laughed. The stairs themselves were built down into the stone hill all the way to the bottom, i pity the poor bugger who had

Lord of the Rings

Well when you up the top, it kind of looks like the helm's deep Cathedral

to build them. I got to the bottom of the stairs to find another dungeon which was pretty cool, then i found the door to get out only to realise the iron gate was locked!!! being the competitive person i am i ran walked ran walked all the way up the 25 sets of 15 stairs wearing my jeans and carrying a bag with several bottles of water in it. I got to the top exhausted and dripping in sweat...I then proceeded to run all the way back through the castle to the exit, and run through the streets of the town to make it back to the car before the parents and rach. I was about 2 streets away from the car when i heard someone yell Josh. I turned around to find them walking out of a side street. I could hardly talk and tell my story but i think i got the jist across as they were laughing before long. Although I was rewarded with a nice beer in cafe before heading home.

We enjoyed a lovely last dinner out at a cute restaurant called Marmite of all things!!

Trip home was soooo long.

Role Reversal

This lasted longer than i thought

It took at least 2 hours longer than it should have, we got on the train in Manosque at 6am and travelled to Marseille then onto the TRV train to Paris, then onto the bus from Paris to Calais where we went in the Eurotunnel. That was the strangest thing, the bus got put on a train along with other buses and cars, we had to keep on the bus for the trip and we emerged at the other side in 45mins rather than a 2 hour ferry journey. The trip to and from France was too much of a reminder of the long haul bus trips we did in South America, but this was worse because of all the changes and they didn't have any entertainment on them!! From now on, when we decide to go on a trip somewhere we will book it well in advance so we can get a flight there and save ourselves a LOT of money and hassle.

that's all for now

Well sorry folks that all!!! we cannot remember anymore from the trip, as it was too long ago, but from now on it is my (Josh) endevour to make sure