April Showers......Not!

Well we have made it to Provence, just. Following the thunder storm in Barcelona we headed on our 4/5/6 hour journey to Provence. Weather not bad until we hit French border, 1 hour into journey.

Spanish roads/traffic – Firstly I could save the Spanish government billions of pesetas by suggesting when they build motorways they reduce them to dual carriageways as no Spaniard uses the inside lane, don’t know if there are regulations or they are restricted to Barcelona players only, but no-one uses them. Therefore all motorways are 2 lanes. Secondly, Spaniards are really compliant with speed limits and tend to travel slower than speed limit. Therefore when you are passing on outside lane at 85mph and Don Corleone is rushing back with the moll and 3 bambinos to Italy, you are hit with much flashing of lights and waving of arms. Despite the risk of waking the next morning with a horse’s head beside me I retaliate with a shrug of the shoulders and a gesticulation that indicates unless I am driving Chitty Chitty Bang Bang then I have nowhere to go. I was tempted to put slight pressure on break, but feared that the kids would be covered in their Cornettos. Anyway I eventually pulled in when physics would allow it and wished him well on his way.

Next incident is when we approach the frontier and circa 1 mile all lanes try to funnel into 1 lane which is all that appears open, 45 minutes later we get through the one laned frontier and note that there is no-one even manning the gates, must have been a local boules match going on! It also adds to my theory that Gendarmes are like Leprechauns, not sure either exist as have struggled to see any on our trip. (Fingers crossed that I am not tempting fate).

For the next 4 hours we would have been better travelling by submarine as the weather was atrocious and the rain coming sideways. We finally reached our gite after 6 hours, allowing for a couple of stops. Karls had to go out and find owners and was drenched when she finally returned. Gite in an old farmhouse/chateau and we have donkey, pony, sheep, 3 billy goats and 6 of the most raucous geese you could meet, but great intruder alarms. We settled back Karls made a splendid spag bol, trashed a bottle of local red given to us by gite owners and settled by a log fire that I created using all my boy scout skills.

Woke up at 06.43 and it is still tipping it down, but a huge sigh of relief. I feared that my gastronomic excursions in previous weeks had rid France of all rabbit, but fortunately Easter bunny had been and Kiera was well pleased with his kind gifts. She got a lot of eggs mainly chocolate and a few other surprises. Mum and Dad had mixtures of chocolate, lavender and duck entrails.

Headed off in the rain to Haribo factory and had a swell time salivating over the making of sweets with many samples given. We then headed to Pont du Gard, which is the greatest surviving Roman aqueduct in the world, by this time the rain had stopped, briefly, and we tucked into duck hot dogs, I suppose they are called Hot Ducks and crepes filled with chocolate and lavender.

Unfortunately gite does not appear to have wifi, so if you get this today (12/04) it will be courtesy of some unsecure French resident who has had their wifi hijacked.
Hope all had a good easter and the Easter Bunny was good to them and thanks to Fiona for taking my place and reporting so artisticly on the concert, which sounded great.

Well Karls on a run with the cooking and presenting a chicken in red wine dish tonight, with a local white to compliment. I will continue stoking the fire.

Tatafurnoo.

R, K & K x