8 am departure for a tour of the medieval walled village of St Paul (du Vence)- adopted home of Roger Moore, sadly he didn’t join us for coffee.

Every once in a  while you get a real surprise that is completely unexpected. This little walled village was just such a surprise for me. It was a little note in the itinerary and compared to the other “big” attractions I really hadn’t given it much thought. When we arrived here though I was completely in love with this charming , gorgeous, quaint……..need I go on, you get the idea.  A photographers delight, absolutely beautiful. It is built high on a hill surrounded by the beautiful vineyards and lavender fields of Provence. Built with a very thick impressive fortification  you enter the town through an arched gateway, complete with an  old defensive canon set into the wall- no cars in here- as you wander the narrow cobblestone streets and amidst the houses which are  hundreds of  years old. There are beautiful small galleries, patisseries, and grocery stores with their fresh produce in baskets on the pathways. There is a charming little cemetery and church and beautiful gift shops selling all manner of local specialties. I took around 3oo photos here in this one village!  Many famous artists have been drawn to this village for the beauty of the countryside  in the last few hundred years, including many of the very big impressionists, and there are Chagall sculptures in the street. This little village is apparently a modern draw card for the rich and famous when they come to Cannes for the film festival.  I can completely see why. We  leave  St Paul, walking out past the petonche park , at 11 am and drive north through the fields of Provence. Short stop for lunch at a services then on to Avignon for an afternoon stroll. We visit the Palace of the Popes and see the  famous bridge  (or half bridge really….) then reboard the bus and drive to Lyon. In our last trip Avignon was one of my very favourite  cities. Sadly, after the beauty of St Paul and the growth of the city, or maybe combined with the growth of my experiences it just didn’t live up to my memories. Still, a lot changes in 15 years huh?  Heavy traffic  on the outskirts of Lyon and finally we arrive at the hotel. Dinner booked for 8 pm. Long day of driving today. 

Anyone for Rugby????

The boys started their rugby "careers" two Sundays back.

So here they are trying out their new sport.

Who looks most like a tennis player?

OK, maybe it is just me but please humour me here. Who do you think looks most comfortable on the court? 

I have been watching the kids doing their tennis lessons and so maybe these photos just look a certain way to me because I have seen more than just one pic of each but I just thought these pics caught the essence of their lessons. 

Barber stool....

happy birthday to me :)

I first saw these when we first lived in HK and finally I have one, thanks to my recent birthday. This is such a special and interesting little curio I wanted to share it with you. 

This one is a restored antique, around one hundred years old although it is possible to get many  reproductions here sold as freshly made "authentic" antiques. 

But, I digress, it is a barber stool. It was used back in the days when barbers plyed their trade on the streets all over China. The bottom two drawers held their tools of trade, scissors ,combs etc and the top drawers collected the "coin" dropped through the slot on top as payment. 

Super cool huh??

So now we have a fun new spare coin storage for the house and I have a lovely new birthday gift.  happy birthday to me :)

Say what...............?

Living in HK I am mostly used to the ridiculous prices for most grocery items. I am even used, by now, to the very different names for regular items, like "buddhism melons" which are actually chokkoes.

But wait...............

A few days ago I walked through the local supermarket and in leaving noticed the imported watermelons from Japan. The Japanese fruit at this supermarket always looks lovely and is beautifully packaged and is E.X.P.E.N.S.I.V.E........ so I glanced back over my shoulder and was rather disgusted at the $999 price tag on the watermelons. I know they are special shapes, (pyramids, gourd shaped, heart shaped and one even had a face) but really, HKD$999 which is AUD $153 or USD$130....for 1 , yes, ONE watermelon. 

But wait, just as I was about to climb onto my high horse (where is that stool and stirrup???) I happened to walk back in through the same area and realised I had indeed misread the price tags. It wasn't actually $999 it was in actual fact $9999- 

I'll let you do the math but seriously we are talking thousands of dollars for a piece of fruit. 

Now I am truly disgusted- there is so much poverty in the world and I am in a city where we see people begging daily- how could the store justify offering such an obscenely overpriced item and what on earth would those people  who buy this fruit be thinking. Why not just donate the money to a good charity and have a whole regular watermelon for a few bucks????

Hi ho Silver.............

Pisa, Nice and Monaco.......

Day 11 

We have an early morning departure and then make a  stop at Pisa to view the famous leaning tower. The kids have a wonderful time taking photos with  many silly poses propping up the tower then 1 hour later we leave for the long drive along the Italian coast across the border into France and then onto Nice. We enjoyed  a Sunday  afternoon stroll along the waterfront of Nice , around the malls of  shops, some more gelato then on to the hotel. We freshen up before we have our  hotel dinner. This evening we take the optional tour to  Monte Carlo and Monaco with a local guide, Mirelle, (mee- ray) for the evening . We wander the garden in front of the Grand Casino, and have an hour to watch the sun go down and take photos of this very pretty spot. Kids in tow we obviously didn’t venture into the casino but instead filled our time looking at the beautiful fountains and gardens. The cars were impressive- although I must say, living in Hong Kong, seeing flashy luxury sports cars is no big deal as we see them here daily.  The coastline from Nice into Monaco is fabulous- we drove past Cap Ferat , saw many famous name houses and ogled the luxury boats. Wow.  When we arrived in Monte Carlo we drove past the preparations for the upcoming Grand Prix and even walked part of the street circuit on our stroll up to the casino.... then  finally back to the hotel.  We finally fall into bed around 10 pm.

Nice is indeed Nice, but our kids are used to the fabulous beaches we have in Australia so did they love  the pebble beach and deckchairs- not so much!!!! The gelato was a much bigger hit.

Breakfast musings of a seven year old.......

Mornings are usually a hive of hustle and bustle at our place. Breakfasts, getting ready for school  , recording temperatures in each child's diary, lunchboxes ....you know how it goes.

So this morning in the midst of "business as usual" Riley looks up from his toast and asks...

"how does the atmosphere form?"

 OK, so of the hundred things running through Mum's head at that moment, I know that wasn't one of them. "sorry babe, don't know"

This received an instant reply of "well who made all the trees?" A bit early for theology but I gave him a hasty and confident "well that would be God, honey" (maybe I have some answers after all) to which I was rewarded with another question  faster than you can blink, "who invented handles?" "I don't know. Wait, did you say handles????" 

Riley :  Yes......

Me : What kind of handles?

Riley : You know, doors, drawers (nodding his head towards our lovely buffet and hutch, as if "are you dim or what")

Me : Still don't know honey, in fact, how could we know who made the first handle??????

Riley went back to his toast with a somewhat thoughtful expression, leaving me feeling TOTALLY inadequate as a source of knowledge to my kids, and it still only 6.15 am.

So if you have any answers to these or other interesting questions of the universe please fell free to forward them on.