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Europe 2011- End of Journey

Friday, May 27th, 2011

So the journey comes to an end and my last week in London has been great catching up with family and friends.

As you can see, there was no daily blog or daily posting, taking a rest from writing, and really not wanting to bore you with family visits.

But the week has been entertaining, spending time seeing some sights that I had never seen when I lived here and with my friends from Australia – Greenwich, Westminster Abbey, London Eye and getting some shopping in on Oxford Street and Piccadilly Circus. Also, a visit to London wouldn’t be complete without seeing a show or two in London’s West End (“In a Forest Dark and Deep” starring Matthew Fox, and “The Wizard of Oz” Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Production starring Michael Crawford.

My friend from San Francisco, now lives in London, just told me he is getting married in 3 weeks. It was a good opportunity to celebrate with him and his partner.

And now, I am home. 31 days later, from an amazing journey. Happy to have my bed, my shower, and my house. Now I just have to wait for Stephen to come home.

The end !

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Monaco – Camera

Thursday, May 19th, 2011

If you are concerned about taking a DSLR camera with you because you want to go into the casino, take it along. There is a place to check bags and cameras inside the Casino. There is much to explore in the area and some great photo opportunities.

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Day 20 – Monaco (Monte Carlo)

Thursday, May 19th, 2011

Yesterday was like a dream. From the moment we arrived in Monaco, I was anxious to go and explore. The town is getting ready for the Gran Prix at the end of the month and the city was in preparation.

The race circuit was ready, the media stands were built and the bleachers all set ready for the crowds. While, I was excited just to be in Monte Carlo, it added an extra buzz to be in town with all the exciting of this racing car event.

During our exploration of the city, we got to walk across the race track, still being one of the major roads in town, walker under the main seating area and grandstands, and finally into the Auto Club store where I got to purchase the 2011 Gran Prix Polo.

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Day 19 – Grasse & Saint Paul

Thursday, May 19th, 2011

Today’s outing was a trip to Grasse, the perfumery region of the world. While we didn’t get to see much of the hilltop town, we did get a tour of the museum – Musée International de la Parfumerie. At first, I wasn’t sure that I could handle the many scents and smells, especially that allergy season has been very heavy here in the southern France. Fortunately, it wasn’t such an overexposure that I had expected. I liked the garden area of the museum, the plants that made up the many scents and fragrances – such as – vetiver, vanilla orchid, cinnamon.

After the museum we left town for a lunch reservation on the terrace of a hotel that is well know for the region, Moulin de Mougins. An outdoor room on the terrace underneath the trees made it a beautiful setting for this lunchtime treat. My recommendation, the foie gras and the porc. While I did not order the pork dish myself, the tasting of this outer this crisp meat that was tender and full of flavor of the meat itself rather than the surrounding sauce, it was a surprise.

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Day 18 – Saint-Paul-de-Vence

Tuesday, May 17th, 2011

Seeing that I have been posting a day late for the last few days, I will continue with these post in the past tense instead of the present. 

So, yesterday, was a trip into St Paul to the Meaght Gallery.  This was interesting, with some great works.  My favorites being a large Calder piece out front in the Gardens, the fountains of shaped faces, and the bronze statues. We did not stay long here.

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Day 16 – Provence to Cote D’Azur

Sunday, May 15th, 2011

Today’s drive took us from St Remy through Aix-en-Provence to the French Riviera to the Village of Vence, a short distance between Nice and Cannes but up into the mountains.   After stopping for lunch in Aix, and a walk around this city, we arrived late afternoon into Vence.

The house here is even more spectacular than the last.  High up into the mountain side, lies this 4 bedroom 4 bathroom magnificent home with views of the Mediterranean, overlooking the village of Vence and out to the coast.  The house is modern, with many patios, terraces, sitting areas and a heated pool.  Each room has views off the side of the mountain onto the lying village below and out to the coast line.  The drive up to the house is difficult, well secluded and steep roads up into the mountain side.  The driveway up to the house is further still.  The grounds and gardens are grown out with many fruit trees, olive trees, rosemary bushes and roses, well landscaped and manicured.  We have picked some grapefruit and oranges already.

Like I said, spectacular.  I will add some photos in the next Quick Post.

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Europe 2011 – Provence (Week 2)

Sunday, May 15th, 2011

Week two has come to a close and we have seen many things and been to many places.   This group of photographs are all from Provence starting is l’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue to Les Baux-de-Provence.

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Day 15 – Les Baux-de-Provence

Saturday, May 14th, 2011

Our last full day in St-Remy started out with our preparations for leaving Provence the following morning. We walked into the village of St Remy to go to the post office and purchase a box to ship stuff home, banking and an internet place to print up some documents. After we got all this completed, we went for a drive to the village of Baux. This mountain top village is spectacular and we spent a couple of hours walking around the streets, climbing through the castle ruins and looking out over Provence.

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Day 14 – The Luberon, Provence

Friday, May 13th, 2011

Today we embarked on a long drive into the Luberon, an area of Provence known for it’s hill top villages. We visit a few of them.

Although we didn’t spend much time in each one, we were on a dealing to be at one place for lunch reservation, it was a great way to get a “taste” of the region and something certainly to explore again.

Our journey today was first to Gordes:

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From Gordes to Roussilion (known for it’s red rock/earth):

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From Roussillion to Bonnieux (we drove though Bonnieux to our lunch reservation about 10 minutes outside of the city at Auberge de l’Aiguebrun. A hotel/restaurant secluded in the valley.)

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Bonnieux to Lacoste (again this was only a quick visit, enough to take a photo of thet infamous town know for the castle of the Marquis De Sade)

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It was a long day out, lots of driving, and 8 hours later we arrived home. Walter, Stephen and I headed into town for a beer at the local brasserie and discussed the evenings dinner menu. This evening, we had celeriac with arugula (a surprising taste which we all thoroughly enjoyed), fresh pasta tossed with garlic and oil, and a mix of cheeses, breads and olives.

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Day 12 & 13 – Saint-Remy-de-Provence

Wednesday, May 11th, 2011

These last two days we have stayed in the vicinity of St Remy and seeing some of the local sights and town. We have been walking through the winding street, trying to see every part of this village.

Nostradamus was born here, and there is plaque up on the wall of the house where he was born. Further south s the Nostradamus fountain, although there is no running water at the moment.

Every week, on Wednesday from 6.00am to noon, is the local markets. Once again we walked through the village sampling the local produce and picking up new items for our meals. Todays specialty was Croquille St Jacques (scallops), which Walter cooked up tonight in a vanilla cream sauce, served will sautéd mushrooms and endives. We had this with artichoke and a specialty mayonnaise for dipping. Our next course was warm vichyssoise (leek and potato soup) with a crusty bread from the local bakery. Stephen had spent the previous day preparing stock for the soup, again all from locally produced foods. Finally desert, Deb & Jo had picked up some delicious white peaches that were full of flavour. We peeled and sliced these and served them with a lavender cookie that we had purchased previously in the week at the market, a caramel butter salt ice-cream, and drizzled heavily with a caramel sauce which I had just made. It was a feast and with a glass or two of a local rosé wine, it was one of our best meals yet. All of this was prepared by us, from local produce that was collected by a shared effort, using things that we just had in the pantry (not a planned menu). I only wish that we had taken some photos.

Just on the outskirts of the village is the Roman Ruins, Site Archeologique de Glanum. We had visited this yesterday but this afternoon, the girls went over to see the ruins as they didn’t go yesterday. Quote from Wikipedia: “It is particularly known for two well-preserved Roman monuments of the 1st century B.C., known as les Antiques, a mausoleum and a triumphal arch. the oldest one in France, located at the site.”. What was most amazing about this place was that while some things were gated or roped off, most of it you could still walk through, and climb some of the steps, stones and monuments. There was still water in the old spring and now inhabited by gold fish.

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