Luberon.... Roussilon and Beyond....

Our first day out in Provence! J, The Navigator, K, The Driver.....

Ok! Left.... No, not that left, the other one! Oh! You meant right? NO! I meant left, just not that one!!! OK OK, it's easy enough to turn around....

Right... NO! Left!!!

And finally.... On the right (left) road.... How about a stop for cafe au lait and a croissant? Ok.... A lumpy start but eventually we found ourselves in Lourmarin and a cafe. The guide books understate Lourmarin - a relaxed village, beautiful settings and lots of fabulous looking restaurants! In short,the word "charming" springs to mind!

I could imagine we have died and gone to heaven, the sun is shining, there is lots of wine, the views are beautiful, sigh....bliss.... except ..... it is very confusing... And they only talk French...

So pit stop done and off to Roussillon, a new favorite but wouldn't want to stay there, such tiny windy streets! The car park is just outside town so a short walk but not to be missed....

As we made our way back to the car, we felt dreadfully sorry (honest) for one very embarrassed young French policeman as he examined his official car with the front wheel bent at 90 degrees and the side wing wrapped affectionately around the safety barrier! Not another car in sight!

Then finally on to Gordes, a beautiful town best seen from a distance! Linger in Lourmarin to dine and Rossillon to have a wine and take a photo from Gordes as you pass!

Interested in a few local facts?

- In 1545, 3000 people from several Luberon villages were slaughtered over a 2 day massacre. Their leader, Pierre Valdes, was exiled from the Catholic church in 1184, leaving behind a small minority Protestant group. The Aix parliament passed a bill condemning any following the faith to death. The men were killed and many of the women locked in a straw barn and burnt alive. How tragic!

- if you have seen the film "A Year in Provence", the author, Peter Mayle now lives in Lourmarin

- Roussillon, a village mined for ochre by the Romans.

A Beautiful Morning....

Our first full day in Provence and woke up to sunny skies and a beautiful day....

K has some memories to recount in future years, too many to share but, I tell this tale as it was told to me.....

"I don't know why I feel the need to confess to all of life's little events but .... this morning, cleaning my teeth, I was thinking, how odd? This toothpaste tastes a lot different here, not horrible exactly but not like toothpaste.... Must be the French water.... No... Definitely tastes a bit odd...check again... and realized!!! I was cleaning my teeth with Savlon! YEUCK!"

Meanwhile, our accommodation was a hit!  Very pretty.....

London to Provence....

Stressful!!! Cabs, train stations..... Customs, chaos, passport control, luggage x-rays.... And finally...... Eurostar, having breakfast with Jennifer Saunders. A little disappointing, she didn't recognise me, or perhaps she was just too polite to ask for an autograph....(for real!)

.... And so to France...

K! Show off! His "smattering of French" was getting us around pretty good! It was freezing on the platform at Lille with an hour to wait so, surprise.... We soon gave in and went in search of a glass of vin blanc! Dunno what it is but when people talk a foreign language to me it's like hitting a panic button... I say yes to their first question so vin rouge it was! In an Irish Pub!

Proud of ourselves, we found our way to the right platform and the right carriage on the French TGV fast train to Avignon.... K wanting to show off settles into his seat and asks the bloke across the aisle, "parlez-vous Anglais?"... "Hope so mate, I am Welsh!"! Amazing... here we are in Lille, France and it turns out the bloke we are sat next to on the train lives on The Wirral, about 2km from where we spent our first 2 weeks! Talk about a small world!

Around 10 hours after leaving our luxurious London pad we arrived at our pretty Provence villa.... Knackered! We hadn't eaten since breakfast, we have had so much this last few weeks we must look like Mr & Mrs Blobby... Certainly feels like it.... However sod unpacking, let's go get food!!

Amazingly we are still speaking.... This despite a long day traveling, freezing cold train stations, at least 5.5 hours locked on trains, collecting a hire car, K locking the keys in the boot and a retrieval via the back seats, driving on the wrong side of the road, not finding a single recognizable road sign, at least three wrong turns, finding several junctions not on any map, driving around a golf course at least twice, barely speaking a word of French and being tired & hungry!

London..... Day 2......

Day 2 started out a little slow... Struggled to think what to do, it felt like we have already done everything we wanted to do on past visits. Of course, we soon remembered, it isn't possible to do everything in London in two whistle-stop trips!! Duhhhhh

So what will it be? Museums? Markets? Open top bus tour? Eventually with the help of the concierge, we settled on Camden Markets, followed by either the Victoria and Albert Museum or the National Gallery.... The V & A David Bowie exhibition sounded good but tickets were scarce....

We caught the #27.... YES! A bus... [once it was described to me it rang a distant youthful bell] and we arrived at Camden Markets 20 mins later.... initial thought were to turnaround and get back on the bus! However, ignoring reservations, a little bit of a wander and we soon started to enjoy the sights, sound, smells, character, characters..... It was fabulous.... A real experience...... If you ever get the chance go!

Weather was perfect...

From there we jumped on another bus... starting to get the hang of this now.... Off to Trafalgar Square, which it turned out we hadn't seen before... Not sure how we missed it!

Another great place... Just oozes history..... A walk up The Mall to St James's Palace, Waterloo Place and finally an accelerated tour of the National Gallery.... We have walked miles so time to head back on yet another bus for an hour or two downtime before heading out for dinner....

Tomorrow?  France!

London Day 1.....

Finally!!! We dragged ourselves away from the hotel for a quick stroll to Oxford Street and Marble Arch, then back for a late lunch/early dinner at a fabulous little local Thai restaurant and then off for an evening with Helen Mirren....

Some great lines! Harold Wilson and John Major excelled..... The costume changes were impressive.... and we definitely recommend it!

And finally ... back for some much needed downtime and some sleep .....

Landmark Hotel.....

Woo hooooooo and WOW! Just arrived at our London hotel..... checking in 3 hours early..... AND the room is ready...... AND we have been upgraded to a Marylebone Suite.....

..... Now shall I pop to the spa or opt for a glass of the complimentary champagne?

Hmmmmmm tricky one...... POP.... Bang.... Oh, ok.... Perhaps just a little glass or two before exploring ...... For a man who doesn't like champagne, K is putting in a good effort..... Too good .....

Loving this hotel already.......

Did I mention, we deserve extra points for getting to reception, we had to "take a right, then a left, go straight past the wine tasting....." .... Erm, wine tasting? .... "yes, PAST the wine tasting....".... Mmmm Ok...






BTW, if my champagne looks a little flat in the pic, it's due to a retake using a very nice Pinot Grigio... Unfortunately, having made the best of the champers, I mistakenly deleted the original!

Good job we weren't here last Saturday! Man City stayed here, before and after their loss to Wigan.....

Moving on.... Chester to London.....

So 13 days since touch down, 11 pubs, 12 different real ales, 18+ bottles of wine, an average of 25 dinners EACH....lots of hello's, even more laughs and some sad farewells until next time, it's time to move on to our next stop....

A last sad farewell to a little yellow friend K grew very close to .... Then off to Chester to catch the train to next stop, London for 2 nights ....

What Is The Gabba?

Something about the trip from London Euston to the hotel reminded me of home.....

All Good Things Come to An End....

Sadly, our home visit part of the journey has come to an end, a last evening with Mum and Sophie.... A nice meal and a sad farewell....

Thursday and York.....

Well, not a whole lot to say about Thursday.... Let me just note,this wasn't the highlight... It was cold and wet and although York is a very nice City, the rain didn't give us a lot of chance for exploring.... I should mention The Shambles... Very pretty.....





.... and York Minster... very grand..... We climbed every one of the 273 steps to the top of the tower and the views were pretty good.... we were lucky the rain held off until we climbed down again .... From there we just got soaked!!

And here we are Friday morning.... We are having a slower day today... Its been a whirlwind so time to recharge our batteries and pack our bags before we head to London first thing tomorrow... I hope we leave the wet and cold behind us ....

Tonight is a final dinner with Mum and niece, Sophie... Another sad farewell....