What's for lunch ?
2nd October 2008
Five and a half weeks in Provence!
Has it really been five and a half weeks since we launched into Provencal life in the community of Dauphin! The time has travelled quickly but daily life progresses at a wonderfully slow pace. I will outline a typical week in the life of the Australians abroad.
Monday: After walking up the steep hill to drop Natalie at school, we take the car to Forcalquier ( seven kilometres away) where a large weekly market takes place and we can stock up on fresh fruit and veges, bread, cheese olives etc and have a general browse around the variety of stalls and vendors.
Tuesday: Not every week but last Tuesday I (Alison) took the opportunity to attend a day long cooking course. What a wonderful experience that was! It is run by a woman in a nearby village, Forcalquier, and it is a cooking club which meets at her house every fortnight. There is a different theme each time, it runs from 9.0am until 3.00pm and everyone pays 45 euro for the privilege of preparing and eating a three course meal. The menu was: Soupe de Potiron a la vanille (Pumpkin soup with Vanilla); Epaule d’agneau aux raisins sec et au ras-el-hanout ( Lamb shoulder with sultanas and north African spices served with couscous); Pommes roties a la badiane served with Crème glacee au safran et la pistache ( Baked apples with ‘Badiane’, a dried star shaped fruit with a slight aniseed flavour and saffron, pistachio ice cream). I now need to walk for miles to drop all the kilos I put on! Everyone spoke French and although the hostess could speak English she didn’t translate very often which was great for my French but it did require a lot of concentration. This became all the more difficult as meal progressed and the wine flowed freely. We commenced on the terrace with an ‘aperitif’ –rose framboise (a rose wine mixed with a raspberry liqueur-delicious!) accompanied by a savoury biscuit: olives and parmesan. We then moved to the dining room where nine people sat down to the delicious meal we had prepared that morning. I snatched pieces of the conversation and tried my best to contribute. They were all very friendly and patient with me. I think if I did something like that every day my French would improve out of sight.
Wednesday: Natalie does not have school on a Wednesday so we may go on an outing or relax at home. One Wednesday we ventured back to Gorges du Verdon and hired the pedal boat. It was lots of fun with spectacular scenery. At the end Natalie and I jumped in and had a very refreshing swim followed by a free ride as Dominic towed us back to shore while we held on behind the boat.
Thursday: After dropping Natalie to school, Dominic and I may then spend the afternoon going for a walk, exploring nearby villages or just staying at home resting, reading or cooking (me not Dominic!). We have a great two hour walk through the forest very close by our place and this is becoming a bit of a favourite as it fits around Natalie’s school hours. On the days that she does not go to canteen we pick her up at 11.30am and drop her back at 1.30pm.
Friday: Like Thursday, we use our time exploring the region. Dominic and I are trying to complete as many walks as we can. There are so many to choose from. We recently had a very pleasant amble in the forest of Ganagobie which is the site of a Benedictine monastery (still operational). It sits on a plateau and affords spectacular views of the countryside around.
Saturday/ Sunday: More time to explore while Natalie is not at school. One Saturday we took an afternoon trip to Sisteron, 50 minutes north of here, from where we had a great view of the Alps. We plan to visit the Alps on one of our remaining weekends. We are so conveniently located here being within a one and a half hour radius of the Alps, The Mediterranean, The Gorges du Verdon, and lots of interesting cities and sites such as Avignon, Nimes, Pont du Gard, Aix-en-Provence and Marseille, not to mention the hundreds of walks available on our doorstep.
We have had Dominc’s mum with us for a ten day visit and the weekend she was with us happened to be “Patrimoine” ( Heritage) weekend when many museums and places of interest are free throughout France. On the Saturday we took Nana to a nearby 12th century Priory which also had beautiful gardens. We had a picnic in the grounds on a beautiful sunny day and ambled slowly around the grounds and through the museum. It was a perfect pace for Nana. On Sunday we left Nana behind for a rest and drove to Avignon and Pont du Gard. It was a great day, taking in the Palais du Papes (Palace of the Popes), the Avignon Bridge (of ‘Sur le pont d’Avignon’ fame) and the amazing Roman aqueduct at Pont du Gard and the equally fascinating museums at the site. Best of all, the whole day was free!
We are continuing to enjoy the conviviality of the people of the village. We have had dinner with the Sugiers- our landlords; have invited friends from Natalie’s class around for afternoon tea and Natalie (with her parents tagging along) has been to afternoon tea at the home of one of the girls in her class. Our “Australia presentations” are coming up early next week so I will report on that in the next blog. Dominic has been very busy at the computer producing an extremely professional Power Point presentation including music and film clips. We have been able to access a data projector so hopefully we will be able to give people here an insight into life in Australia.
With only a little over three weeks to go in Provence we are trying to do as much as we can. I think we could be here for a year and still not fit in everything that there is to experience in this beautiful region. Stay tuned for the next blog to see how much we can cram into three and a half weeks!
