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Published: July 10th 2013
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Bonjour! We have made it safely to Rochefort Du Gard in southern France and it is absolutely beautiful 😊 Rochefort is a small village just outside of Avignon where my inlaws have a house and have retired for 6 months every year.... so we are visiting for 8 days over the school holidays.
It did take us 28 hours to actually get here so i'd better mention that. But the kids were fabulous with no screaming or crying (abnormal for the little miss) and although they have had quite a few naps in the last few days to catch up with sleep they are doing really well with none of us really having jetlag. Thai airways was really good with huge meal selections so everyone had heaps of choices, and on the longer 12 hour flight to Paris they saw the 4 of us squishing in to 4 seats and immediately gave us an extra row - thank you!
And then we got off the express train to 35 degree heat! And a very warm welcome from the Grandparents 😊
The village is so very cute.... and very French 😊 Little tiny laneways, two churches at the top
of the hills, a hairdresses and beautician, 4 pizza shops and 2 patisseries. Every village has a lavoir where the washer women used to clean clothes and Rocheforts is in very good condition and the fountain here is in the centre of town. The last couple of nights we have been going for a wander around the village looking at all the little water fountains and enjoying the atmosphere of the little village. The neighbours are all very friendly and the Little Man has gotten in to the swing of saying 'bonjour' to everyone. And...the smell in the mornings is beautiful! Not sure if its the amount of flowers everywhere but it is such a lovely smell 😊
My French is not very good but 3 days in I can easily order some sandwiches and drinks. Although my first attempt of food on the express train was fairly amusing with me returning to the family carrying a strange chocolate fudge, a cheese and tomatoes sandwich and some chips - it was all I could recognise on the menu and manage to say with correct pronunciation.
Yesterday we headed out to the Pont Du Gard which is the main
bridge of the Aquaduct to Nimes. It is very impressive engineering that is 2000 years old and you can walk around the areas and there is a museum etc. The kids loved wandering around in the bush trying to follow the aquaduct which was great for them to get an understanding of how it is actually in the dirt and people have found the ruins and tidied them up. it is hard to explain when there is a perfectly good bridge in front of you!
We then headed to the Gardon river below and the kids went for a swim. The Little Miss absolutely loved all the stones on the ground (she is part bower bird) but it was hard for either kid to grasp they needed to keep their shoes on - very funny! Heaps of people were hiring canoes and heading down the river, but Nonno and the Little Man decided to do some fishing but didn't manage to get enough for dinner 😊
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littlewing
Cindy
So France it is :)
Glad to see your plans for the year are coming off - the kids look like they are having an amazing time with Nonno - lucky you what a fantastic place to have rellies!