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Published: September 1st 2006
La Vie Bella - Life is Good!
So it has been about three weeks from my last entry and boy has that time flown. I have been so fortunate to pack so many things into the last three weeks.
The focus of August for me has been food, food, food, rose, rose, rose and on the side some boating (of all types - kayaking, sailing, power boating), and some mountain walks (well one anyways).
I will beak up this entry into a few bits (perhaps if you have a map of France check it out!).
Solliers Pont & Hyeres -
The Scene: Sun, Sun, Sun, Happy Times and Great Food and Wine!
We arrived at Solliers Pont the home of the Dinsdale’s in Mid August after the Europeans, and this was to be my home for the next three or so weeks.
Solliers Pont is a small inland village between Hyeres - Nice in Southern Med France. The Dinsdale’s have a lovely house and I have had a truly relaxing time there. Andy has had to work during the day but I kept myself busy deciding what we would eat for lunch, catching up with
Pauline and Marie, reading many books, sunbaking, taking photos and helping Andy and the family out with various bits and pieces(boats in and out of the water, cleaning the pool, watering the plants etc). It has been really nice to be staying with a family again after so many years of living out of home.
I had so many fabulous experiences during my time with Andy and the Dinsdales so I will try and touch on some highlights!
• Milla’s cooking & hospitality , John’s rose and fabulous German Beers!
• Lying in the hammock and soaking in the rays and having leisurely swims all day long!
• Playing with the Dinsdale’s Rottweiler Jacqui (first time I have had a dog in my life since Jade died when I was in my early 20’s).
• Crepe’s fabulous Crepe’s (thanks Pauline and Marie)…
• To much Pastice (for those in Aussie land, this is Ricard a French aperitif that you have with water). That stuff does weird things to you I can tell you!
• Andy and I’s fabulous trip to Lac St Coix, which is a fresh water inland lake emerald in colour bordered by gorges. We took
the Hobie Kayaks and paddled around in the sun all afternoon. (Watching Andy climb the cliffs and jump off from about 15 metres put my heart in my hands I can tell you!).
• Finding a great Italian restaurant in Le Lavandu and eating pizza at 11.30pm after a long day! (run by a cool Italian family and of course accompanying the food a great rose).
• Andy and I’s awesome day trip on the “rib” or inflatable to Porquerolles which is an island about 2km’s off Hyeres, we spent the day swimming in secluded bay’s, riding bikes, chilling out on the beaches and eating fab food.
• Watching the sunset over Hyeres on the way back in the rib was truly amazing. We had to wait until the 35knot mistral settled down before we could head back to Hyeres (I think it was about 10pm we could leave).
• Learning some boat skills! Yippee I can drive a motor boat….(not a big deal for some but in big sea and the mistral it was a bit of a challenge!).
Notre Dame De Bellecombe (near Geneve in Switzerland) but on the French side.
The Scene: French Alps, Great
Food (Canard, Fondue(with local Savoie cheese), Raclette, Fromage, & Rose)
I was very excited when Pauline gave me an invitation to visit her parents chalet in Notre Dame De Bellecombe in Van D’ Arly one of the big ski resort areas in Northern France about 1 hour from Geneva.
I took the TGV from Toulon in the Cote De Azur direct up to Geneva via Marseille Avignon & Lyon. So in 4.5 hours I had gone from the South of France all the way to Geneva in Switzerland….. morning in the South of France and afternoon in the Alps (how fabulous and hard to take).
Pauline and I spent the first afternoon exploring the Geneva shops, a quick purchase of a new bag to put all of my goodies in (camera etc as I have always been a small bag person) and then we were off to Societe Club Nautique De Geneve to have our daily aperitif. For those yachties amongst the subscribers this is yes really the official home of the Amercia’s cup. We had a few Rose’s there, watched the sunset with one of Pauline’s mates Bastien and then headed along to some sailors party
around Lac Geneve. I have to say that Lac Geneve is one of the most beautiful lakes I have seen and the city of Geneve is very spectacular and beautiful. I was pinching myself that I was really there.
We headed back that night to Pauline’s place and then the next morning I arose to the most beautiful view of mountains possible, smelt the great country highland air and enjoyed a really nice breakfast with the family.
Our first day in the mountains was spent on a 12km walk to a place called Crete De Midi. It was my first time in my new hiking boots (yes Pip I am going to get some use out of them…lol….) so after a bit of breaking in and a few blisters they should be fine. The walk was spectacular and the weather was warm. Enjoying fabulous fromage, jambon and baguette at the top was well worth waiting for. It was a picnic fit for kings and queens and Pauline’s parents Jean & Brigette did such a great job of carrying it up there for us to all enjoy. On the way back down the mountain we enjoyed framboise and mulberry
berries for desert freshly picked from the wild plants!
That night we enjoyed probably the best pizza(a big call I know) I have ever had and beautiful rose as an Aperitif before we ventured out to a restaurant (yes with a Jacuzzi- and no we did not get in there) to have a proper meal. That night I treated myself to a confit of Canard(duck) and enjoyed some great company of other people my own age with Pauline.
The next day we had the most fabulous experience. Bastien got together a bunch of mates and invited Pauline and I to go out sailing in the afternoon on Lac Geneve on a 40 foot sports boat called a Psaros 40, which is like a Thompson 7 but is 40 feet with four trapezes.
That boat absolutely motored! It went 9 knots in about 2 knots of wind. It was such a great experience as I got to steer it for about 1 hour downwind and also just hang out on trapeze and enjoy the spectacular view of Mont Blanc behind the hills in Geneve and the sparkling sun (26 degrees).
Truly a fabulous day but no rest
for the wicked….. We drove home (via Starbucks to have our favourite drink a banane moche) to be back home for dinner. Brigitte had invited over some guests and we were going to have Raclette (a traditional French alpine meal of cooked fromage, potato’s, jambon, pickles, salad). To top that fab meal off we had peche & pomme crumble and some chocolat mousse! Gosh I have to say both Pauline and I carted ourselves off to bed very satisfied!
The following day we did some tours of the resort towns of Megeve and Chamonix, both of which were really beautiful. That night Brigitte treated us to another Savoie local speciality being Fondue, fromage, fromage and fromage. Hey I have the recipe and reckon I could have a good go cooking it.
My time with the Thevenot’s will be long remembered for great food(especially cheese), helping me learn French(yes I can say some things and some words make sense) and awesome hospitality!
The next day I jumped on the train in Albertville and headed back to Southern France. I find time in the train so relaxing time to play around with my photos, write stuff, and make full
use of this great mac I have.
The weekend back in Solliers Pont was really relaxing a quick drive to Antibes to pick up a boat on the Saturday followed by a Dinsdale BBQ on Saturday night (lots of meat - Milla is German) and then Sunday we relaxed around the house and then went to the local village for the Festival of the Fig. Solliers Ville is famous for the fig and I have consumed more than my fair share of figs both on that day and in the days with the Dinsdales as they have a few trees that Lisa farms and sells to friends etc.
Lege St Ferret & Bordeaux -
The Scene: Atlantic Coast - Oysters Oysters and more Oysters (and of course Rose)! & real aussie like beaches
I was only back in Solliers Pont for about two days before Andy and I headed to a town called Lege St Ferret which is a small fishing town close to Arcachon and Bordeaux (about 7.5 hours drive from Solliers Pont). Andy to work in this town mounting two big 275hp motors on a 32 foot fishing boat that they had sold so I
went along.
I am writing this in a café in Lege St Ferret after spending four good fun days here exploring the region whilst Andy was busy mounting the motors (such a big job I have realised).
The first day I took myself off to Arcachon in the car (yes Cara my driving in Europe has improved, I am really like a french driver now), I spent most of the day playing around taking photos of flowers and the port and just browsing through the many shops. Later that afternoon I went to Dune De Pyla which is a huge dune 110 metres high. The weather was pretty shocking and blowing about 40 knots so the walk up the dune was pretty difficult and my camera took a fair battering, needless to say as it was so shocking that very few of the photos worked out well. Anyways well worth the experience and would be amazing on a clear day! I had so much fun taking pics of people being blown away!
The second day I was very brave and drove myself to a big city (small steps, small discoveries…) “Bordeaux”. For those of you that have
not been next time you go to France you should put it on your list, it is a great city full of great food, fashion, and beautiful public gardens. The highlight of the day was finding a great bookstore called Librairie Mollat (it is really hard to find English books in France and the amount I am reading I had to replenish my stocks and this place had everything I could or anyone could ever want that has been published - like a borders but about 3x the size).
When I visit a new place I also decide a photography theme for the day and my day in Bordeaux I spent much time in the Bordeaux public Jardin capturing the way different people enjoy a park at lunch time (the big lens is coming in extremely handy for this type of thing). Whilst my photography is only slightly improving my love and passion for it is mounting by the day!
Yesterday I spent on the beach in Lacanau which is an atlantic coast beach where they hold very big surfing contests. This was an awesome day for me as I got to get some tan, get in some real surf (it is kind of like Manly beach) and lie on white sand. Believe it or not it is only my second day in six weeks in Europe that I have laid on the beach!
Another major highlight my time in this region is that it Oyster Capital of Europe so every day is not complete until Andy and I share some oysters together. For those of you that know me well you would know that I am in absolute oyster heaven.
The final highlight is the atlantic coast sunsets very beautiful on a clear day as the sun is setting over the ocean something we cant really see in Australia on the east coast!
Tommorrow it is back to Solliers Pont and the family and then on Sunday night I depart from Nice and fly to Naples where I take up life being a full time student next Monday - can’t wait!
Until Italy
Ciao
PS For those who are interested soon I am going to get my website working properly and post on more photos and slide shows
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Amandine
non-member comment
Hey Belinda! I'm glad to see you had fun and good food in Notre Dame de Bellecombe with my family!! Life is good in Sydney and on the Great Ocean Road for me! Have fun in Italy and good luck for you first day of school!! Take care, Amandine