Kenwood Gardens and Belly Dancing

Today was a nice relaxing day! We took a walk to the lovely Kenwood gardens and estate where we strolled around and sat to sip some tea (well, Christina sipped, Stephen gulped). We were treated to an awesome Moroccan dinner with by James gang at a restaurant in Crouch End called Bouga. Stephen, Jane and Christina each had a go at bellydancing (yes, we do have video evidence!) and the friendly waiter rounded out our evening with free shots of limoncella.

Oh no Sens, start going (0-2)!!

Hours of walking: 2

Kenwood Manor

Sip, sip, sip

Kenwood Estate

More flowers!

Scott, Stephen, Christina, Jane, Beth and Kate enjoying some very yummy food!

Christina and Jane dancing it up!

Travel day - on to London!

Travel Day. Today we were heading back to England, so we only had a little time to kill before our flight. Instead of going to take a peek at Nimes, we went to visit the market in St-Remy de Provence for some last minute gift shopping. Afterwards, we drove to the airport only to find out that there was no gas station for miles and miles (even though the airport was surrounded by small villages, none of these had gas!), so we returned the car without a full tank. Drat.

Took our flight to Luton Airport, trained to the King's Cross station, tubed to Finsbury Park, and then bussed to the James' (Aunt Jane & Uncle Scott). They were out at a play, but left us a delicious ready-bake pasta (that hit the spot like you wouldnt believe!), garlic bread and beer. Sat down in front of the tv, and what was on? An hour of condensed action from the Senators' first game in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Not a pretty game - Yikes! But Steve was really glad (and amazed) that it was on tv anyway. Nice to feel kinda at home after all our travels.

Go Sens go (0-1)!!

Hours of walking: 3

Les Baux de Provence

Getting an early start to the day, we went to les Baux de Provence, a small city perched on the top of a mountain with the castle carved out of the rock. This is a very small city (the only public parking available was on the way up the mountain), but the view from the top was great. We got to see a really big catapult in action, and were almost blown off the top of the tower (still so windy!).

Arles was the next destination, but we were so pooped that we caught a glimpse of the amphitheatre, and decided not to pay the admission fee and went for a late lunch instead. Came back to the B&B, then unfortunately fell asleep for 4hours and missed the small dinner window (~7pm-9pm), so for the second night in a row, we had pizza. Eh. We missed our chance for a fancy final french dinner. I suppose our waist lines will thank us for that!

Hours of walking: 4

Les Baux in the distance

A look back at the castle

Big catapult!

More of the castle (those are pigeon holes)

Treacherous steps!

One of the views from the top

Christina's favorite flowers...

Amphiteatre in Arles

In the Camargue

Woke up for a nice big hotel buffet breakfast (slept in a bit and were the last ones to eat!). Then we headed off to the Camargue, a big national park (swamp area). We managed to see warthogs, FLAMINGOS!!, lots of other birds, a couple of bulls and maybe some wild horses (not sure). Thankfully the wind kept the mosquitos away. Steve decided that it was better to risk his bladder exploding than to use the horrible bathroom at the Parc Ornithologique.

We had planned to do some more biking when we got to Sainte Marie de La Mer, but that turned out to be almost as disastrous as the our first cycling adventure in Alsace. We were biking right next to the sandy beach, and it was sooo windy that a thick layer of sand had blown on to the path, making the biking pretty difficult. On the way out, the wind pushed us along and we didn't even have to pedal... nice... but on the way back, the opposing wind was so bad that there were a few times when Christina would pedal without moving forward at all... it was that bad. We also had the sand blowing in our eyes, our mouths and ears, yummy.

We returned the bikes and were about to head to our B&B for the night, when we passed by a small parade of musicians entering a building -- it turns out we were right next to a small bull-fighting arena, and an event was about to take place! The event was a 'Course Camarguaise', a game where the young men in the ring try to grab ribbons that are attached to the bulls head as he charges them (much more humane than a real bullfight anyway!). The whole thing was fairly daring, and we got some good videos of it, including when the bulls decided to jump over the fence and out of the arena and had to be coaxed back in!

We spent an awful 45 minutes trying to find our way to the B&B given terrible directions and a general lack of useful road signage. Argh!

Hours of walking: 4

Hours of biking: 2

Flamingos!

More flamingos!

Even more flamingos!

Now a warthog...

and a monster?

The sea near Ste. Marie de la Mer

Place for dog pooping

Terrible opening band

A bull chasing the 'bullfighters'

Angry bull

You two are on the wrong sides!

Big Orange Roussillon

We said goodbye to Annie and then headed off to the market in Castoulet, which was a bit of a letdown. It was a big market, but we were looking for more arty things, and this was mainly a farmers market. I think Christina still had fun though. We then backtracked and headed to Roussillion. This town was all coloured orange/red -- there was a big ochre mine right next to the town that we were able to walk through. Very colourful! We didn't have any accomodations for tonight, so we headed closer to Arles, and finally found a hotel (this is a long weekend in France, so all the hotels were very busy). On our way, we passed through St-Remy de Provence, which had monster trees lining the road for kms at a time, a very impressive entrance to the city. Tonight was perhaps our fanciest dinner yet, made completely out of local food & wine. We even ordered aperitifs (drinks that whet the appetite)! Tomorrow we tackle the Camargue with the flamingos and wild horses!!

Hours of walking: 4

Roussillon

Ochre mine

Entrance to St-Remy de Provence

Off to dinner!

Aix-en-Provence

This morning, Christina's allergies were at an all time high -- big, puffy watery eyes. We ended up getting a late start (too much relaxing at the B&B in the morning), but then went off to tour Aix-en-Provence (a bigger city like Avignon). We had a yummy lunch of duck, stuffed tomatoes and goatcheese pasta, then took a guided tour of the city known for it's many beautiful fountains.

Congratulations Sean & Melody! Hope you had a wonderful wedding!

Hours of walking: 3

La Rotonde Fountain

Lourmarin Market & Gordes

Today was market day in Lourmarin, so we walked there and bought some nice things. It was really hot again, so we deservedly had a swim before heading off to explore some more villages. We had to pass through Bonnieux (another small city on another mountain) and Christina videotaped the crazy drive up (the drive down was more impressive, when we were on the outside of the mountain road!). Gordes is supposed to be one of the prettiest villages in France, but you don't get to see it until the last minute (it pops out at you on your drive up -- it's pretty unreal). We came home and had dinner by the pool with Annie and fellow lodgers Christine and Cyril, which consisted of aperitifs (?ponche?), wine, cheese and olives.

Hours of walking: 3

Olives at the market

Olive trees on the walk home from the market

Gordes

Gordes again

Ansouis and Cucuron

Woke up to a nice breakfast with homemade jams, croissants & baguettes and the zilliondollar view with Annie (our host). We went exploring the small city of Ansouis which was perched atop a little mountain -- we can't understand how these things got built!! Afterwards we went to Cucuron, a neighboring town for a little explore of the city, but also a nice 3hour hike. This time the map was a little bit more friendly, but Steve was still unsure of where we were for about half of it. Fortunately we made it back to the city, and then came back to the B&B to rest by the pool (got sunburnt, but relaxed). After a quick snooze, we headed to Lourmarin for dinner and a walk around the castle. Stephen won the rock throwing game.

Hours of walking: 5 (Steve thinks he is now skinnier)

Village of Ansouis

Parking in Ansouis

Poppies!!

More poppies!

A lonely asparagus

At the top of our hike near Cucuron

Old sofa

Lourmarin castle tower

On to Provence!

Another travel day. We started off with the hotel's buffet breakfast and headed off to the train station to catch the TGV (train de grande vitesse) from Colmar to Avignon. We had splurged on 1st class tickets this time and enjoyed the spacious leather, reclining seats and the tons of leg room (as well as the absence of riff-raff (other than ourselves) around us). The train went a normal speed for the first half of the ride, then Steve perked up and got really excited for the super fast portion where we really zoomed!

We arrived in Avignon after 5 hours on the train (of which Christina mostly slept), picked up our rental car (super cheap!) and then drove to our B&B in Puyvert (somewhere in Provence). Along the way, Steve was very brave to maneuvre our way through some crazy hillside, hairpin turn, james-bond-esque roads and past some very impatient and daring French drivers, while Christina expertly navigated the way forward. Our B&B is an awesome provencal house with a beautiful pool, vine-shaded patio and view of the Luberon National Park that can't be beat. Next door are two big work horses and a mule (who thinks he's also a horse) who we've fed stale baguettes to on several occasions. We spent the afternoon exploring Lourmarin (another nearby town in the Luberon) and spent the evening relaxing at the B&B watching the Champions League game (the bad guys won).

Hours of walking: 1

Entrance to Puyvert

View from swimming pool

Colmar III

Good grief. We woke up to a weather forecast of thunderstorms in the afternoon, chance of showers in the morning. Since it looked kind of nice for the time being anyway, we decided to go rent some bikes, and head out for a couple of hours. We bought a cycling map from the tourist office which was supposed to show bike routes (which it sort of did), but these bike routes were horribly described, with no markers or signs. So we inevitably got lost and stayed that way for about 5 solid hours of (hilly) biking today, never once being sure of where we were on the map. It was also very, very hot, so we got sunburnt and dehydrated, but on the bright side, we also managed to get some nice pictures. The scenery was really beautiful, biking through hilly vineyards and cute little towns. We stopped for lunch in the small town of Kientzheim just after noon, only to realize that everything was closed until 2pm. Not wanting to wait until then because of the impending thunderstorm, we started on our way back. After retracing our steps about a zillion times, we were really exhausted..and hungry!

Finally back at Colmar, we freshened up and went for dinner. Unfortunately, the meal was terrible for the 50euros it cost us....but we made up for it with cinammon-sugar crepes on the way back to the hotel. We're just finishing up packing now since we'll be getting of to an early start on our way to Avignon (in Provence) -- Steve is very much looking forward to sitting by the pool at the B&B there! We may not have internet access for the next few days...so, until then!

Hours of walking: 1
Hours of biking: 5

Drying our laundry

Bike trip scenery

Intrepid cyclist1

Intrepid cyclist2

Hilly vineyards

Sleepy town of Kientzheim

Storm clouds chasing us back to the hotel

Silly sign - what?

Not impressed

Last view of pretty Colmar