So here we are summering in the south I

Aaaah, 'tis the rentrée today : the kids are marching to school under a cold grey sky, autumn fruits are appearing at the greengrocer's and the supermarket cashiers are back, sullen, except when they talk about the fruits de mer they ate last week at La Rochelle; gloom and the prospects of another 11 months until August are in the air.

So to start this blog rentrée it may be useful to go back on the summer holidays a little : post CELTA I zoomed down south, first with my parents to stay with an old friend of my dad's who lives in the small village of M., located between Avignon and the Mont Ventoux. (That's in the south east of France, you geography philistines). From then I went a bit further south and a bit further east to beautiful Ampus (see last year's post) with my buddies.

********

So, first to M. : here is what I wrote at the time, laziness prevents me from doing more. This is piccie of mum & dad, and our lovely hosts, Bob and Sookiang.


From the outside it looks like a tall skinny town house squatting between the intersection of two quiet roads that cross the village, inside it is like stepping into a post renaissance mansion.


You come in through the garage which is on street level and enter a massive wooden front door, the kind you find in churches and adorned with huge iron studs. You enter a windowless hall made of light stone. A magnificent wooden staircase winds upwards, to the left is a room full of storage and crap, to the right is a room leading to the garden. There, to the right is a terrace with tall hollyhocks and other flowery shrubs invading it, down a couple of steps is the covered terrace with the huge table and, get this, an open kitchen with air conditioning! Vines, ivy and flowers grow all around it, you forget you are in a village.

Down a couple more steps is another terrace, for sunbathing and the inescapable pool, which is just a bit too small to be useful and too chlorinated to be agreable. Still good after two hours baking in the sun though. Going round the pool is a door leading to the wine cellar (built like a Fort Knox bunker, full of incredible bottles), and above it is a roof terrace perfect for getting skin cancer.

Beyond the pool is a wrought iron gate that leads to the ornamental garden, designed like Versailles with an olive tree filling the symmetrical paths and a gorgeous potager/verger at the end. All in all? probably about 400 sq meters.



So back to the house. You walk up the staircase, all polished wooden bannisters and beautiful square tommettes (200+ years old). On the first floor there is a large pallier filled with dark old polished furniture, 18th century cabinets all carved with twisting collonades, embroidered chairs, large dark paintings of bowls of fruit. Looks like some of the rooms in a lesser known chateau.

On this floor is the massive kitchen and dining room (more wooden furniture, ultra modern kitchen, bookshelves full of first editions) and a huge sitting room, a mix of pastel ultra modern leather couches and plasma TV screen, more dark antiques, huge bookshelves and a wall of books, all with view on the layers of countryside with a backdrop of Mont Ventoux. On the other side of the pallier, overlooking the village are the « official » sitting and dining rooms, full of valuable furniture and.... Bob's pewter collection. Shelf after shelf, imposing tables and desks covered in pewter candlesticks and dishes, jugs and statuettes. Like a museum.

Another flight of stairs to the floor with bedrooms, four again, huge, antique tommettes inlaid with wooden beams on the floor, en suite incredibly modern bathrooms, more medieval, renaissance furniture and paintings and sculptures. The last floor is where the master bedroom is, two offices (each comfortably larger than our flat) and... a room for their clothes. The view from this height (fourth floor) is just stunning.


So the setting is nothing short of incredible. When they are all having their afternoon naps I sneak around and look at the stone walls and floors and the 500 year old collections, the gleaming oak furniture and the paintings. It's like being in a haunted château only here there are no guards and you can touch the paintings and read the books.


Other than mum, dad, Bob and Sookiang there are other guests: Bob's daughter Kate and husband Andy, with three month old Oona, the fattest and most cheerful baby ever. Kate spends most her time fretting and breastfeeding, but is very nice, as is Andy. His brother Dave, a nice, quiet guy who works in IT (my parents are hassling him to get wifi to work...) and has good taste in books is also here, as is Kate's brother James, who is really good fun. We've discovered a bit in common as Dad and Bob seem to be similar fathers.



Food of course is amazing: we went to an awesome restaurant the other night and have generally been eating very well : coq au vin and gaspacho, terrines and fresh fish and incredible cheeses, tonight paella and yesterday I made my mint and mango tabbouleh which went down pretty well. Wines I won't even start on; we are drinking rarissime bottles of chateuneuf du pape and other incredibles. Unfortunately I know nothing about them, much to dad's dismay.

Went to village fête with James and Dave (Andy and mum joined
us for the dodgems) after super boozy supper in a nearby village (red mullet with hazelnuts and avocado ice cream, overcooked bull and a nasty lime tiramisu). We danced to the local [lack of] talent, went on the dodgems, shot balloons for ugly teddies, had a couple of pastis, good fun!