Aix en Provence

Thurs 24th. A lovely sunny day here in AeP and the markets were up and running in the town. We have had a very leisurely day strolling around the streets taking in the sights and sounds. The Chauffeur is quite enjoying some of the elegant ladies in their little sun dresses. We again caught up with Merrin and Kaye and had a relaxing morning together. Liz's hair has grown to the point of looking like Elvis, so Rose and the Chauffeur have packed her off to the hairdressers this afternoon for a "chic Francais coiffure". Meanwhile, we sit in a bar waiting to see the result with a nice cold beer in our hand. We are again going to dine with M&K tonigt before making our way to Marseille tomorrow via the old Roman town of Arles and then thru the saltmarshes of the Carmargue.

Ye Olde Friends

Wed 23rd. Another second installment due to the girls catching up with some old friends, Merrin and Kaye, who travelled down from England to see us as part of their holiday. We had a very enjoyable evening over another fine dinner in the heart of Aix en Provence. M&K were at a slight disadvantage in that their luggage was still in Manchester when they arrived in France, leaving them only with spare knickers and a letter from Fay in their carry on. Good advert for Ryanair, NOT!

Into Provence

Wed 23rd. Because of late night last night we had a leisurely start to the day at our Hotel du Clos in Le Rouret. Breakfast in the garden was a nice way to get things underway. Our journey today was 170kms to Aix en Provence, a large university town famous for Paul Cezanne, the artist. It was an easy trip down thru the countryside with the roads in France considerably wider than they are in Italy, resulting in far fewer underpant threatening moments. There were so many vineyards on the way that it is hard to imagine that this area produces only a small part of the wine for France. Aix en Provence is a bustling town and our hotel is just a 100 metres from the main area and close to the shops and market. Great! Tonight we are dining with some English fiends of Liz and Rose, who they first met nearly 30 years ago in their cricket days. Merrin and Kaye have coincided their holiday to catch up with us, which is great. We will update you on this front tomorrow, but the Chauffeur has been looking to buy some ear plugs given that he is dining with four women tonight. The photo of the day shows the girls outside the perfumerie in Grasse.

La Bastide St Antoine - Yum!

Tues 22nd. This is our second post for Tuesday, but our experience at the restaurant La Bastide St Antoine in Grasse deserves a special mention. Our friends, Lech & Lynne, who live part time in each of Cannes, Cyprus and Clearwater in Chch, took us to this fantastic restaurant for what has to be one of the best meals available on the planet. We all had the degustation menu which gave us an amazing array of tastes and flavours in small portions. The Chef and Owner, Jacques Chibois is a Michelin starred chef and it certainly was a dining experience that we will never forget. Monsieur Chibois visited us at our table at the end of the night, which ended up very late, to ensure that we enjoyed our meal. Superlative.  It was great to catch up with Lech & Lynne in their part of the world and we appreciated the opportunity to share both their company and this amazing restaurant.

Allez les Bleus

Tues 22nd. We spent the morning in Monte Carlo and got a good look at the principality that covers an area of less than 2 square kms. A long walk to visit the royal palace rewarded us with great views looking back into the city.  Monaco exudes wealth and is a nice place to visit but we didnt think it would be great to live there unless you were a squillionaire. We headed out of Monaco on a short trip into France to a place 70kms away to a place called Grasse, the perfume capital of the world. The girls did a tour of a perfume factory and came out smelling delightful. Our camp for the night was a short distance away in Le Rouret where we stayed in a lovely little stone cottage with relaxing gardens. We had time in the late afternoon sun to sample a bottle of Rose and a tasty cheeseboard before heading out to our dinner date with our frinds from Chch.

Another World

Mon 21st. Today we left Italy and have bunked down for the night in Monte Carlo. Our day started in heavy rain in La Spezia so we decided to hit the Autostrada to get some quick miles on the clock rather than meander thru winding roads. We left the autostrada in Genoa, a large port city and then followed the secondary roads thru the Italian Riviera, arriving in Monaco at 4pm after a journey of over 300kms. Unfortunately the weather was poor to average for most of the journey, but didn't detract from the trip too much. Monaco certainly shows signs of affluence with tidy streets and gardens and grand buildings. They are gearing up for the F1 Grand Prix at the end of the week and you can see the preparations already made for the track. We managed to stay out of the Casino but Rose had to have her photo taken with a flash Maseratti parked outside. If you like cars and boats, this is the place to be with many fine boats docked in the marina and an array of Ferraris, Bentleys, Rolls Royces, Maserattis, Mercedes, Maybachs and Porsches roaming the streets along with garden variety BMW's and Audis. The prices in the shops are pretty high so the girls have stowed away the credit cards for 24 hours. Yeehaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!

Cinque Terre

Sunday 20th. We got an earlier than scheduled wakeup call at 4am when an earthquake rattled thru La Spezia. It was centred at Bologna, a town we travelled thru a week ago and caused some damage in that area. We got a fairly good shake here and for a moment thought we were back in Chch. Back to the holiday, we caught the ferry out to the Cinque Terre villages and explored 3 of the 5, plus Portovenere, missing on Riomaggiore and Corniglia as the weather closed in and became wet and cold. While we all certainly enjoyed the experience perhaps it may have been more spectacular if the weather had been better. Because of the inclement weather we were unable to walk between any of the villages which was a bit disappointing. Tomorrow we say Ciao to Itsly and head to Monaco. Arrivederci.