(May 8th) Yesterday we picked up our rental car and left Marseille Airport to drive to this place, Vauvenargues, which is a little village not far from Aix-en-Provence in the south of France. It is less than a one-hour drive so not particularly far, but we stopped along the way for a shop and bite to eat, and also took a few random wrong turns. The weather was nice and I did not run into anything as I adjusted to left-hand drive, so that was good. It does require some concentration though, to drive on the other side of the road!
Our new little house is very nice. Rustic, with thick walls and tiled floors and ancient joinery, but a modern kitchen and some underfloor heating. It looks out over a rural scene of sheep and trees and a pond, and a short distance away is "Vauvenargues Castle", which actually just looks like a large house from this angle. That is where Pablo Picasso and his wife once lived, and are now buried.
Today we investigated our wee village, finding a place that sells coffee (and beer and newspapers), another bistro eating place, and quite a well stocked little grocery shop. We then noticed a few odd things - there were a couple of World War II military jeeps parked in the street, and people in uniform were gathering - firemen, police, soldiers, etc. I asked one what was happening and he explained that all over France on every May 8th they celebrate the end of the war (WW II). We were invited to join in, so stood in the small crowd in the middle of the street as speeches were made, a song was sung, children laid a wreath, and they all sang the national anthem. There was even an ancient bagpipe player who contributed to the solemn ceremony. That was all very interesting.
We also noticed a loud racket coming up from below us somewhere, like a hundred angry ducks all quacking at once. We could not see any ducks, and the noise went on and on. It was quite puzzling. Then slowly a new theory emerged - was it frogs? And that is indeed what we were hearing. It is the mating season, and we have learned frogs can make a lot of noise if they want to, and do it all day and night.
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| The castle, from our house. Looks like a large house from this angle. |
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| Our sheep, looked after by two sheep dogs! |
As well as the frog cacophony we have about 30 sheep below, who all break into song from time to time. Many of them also wear bells, so with the frogs, the sheep and the bells it can be quite a performance. There are no visible fences, and the two dogs seem to be there to look after the sheep. They stay with them all day, and mingle with them, only occasionally running and barking if they perceive a threat. We did eventually see a man who came and patted the dogs, and presumably fed them? |
| The little library cabinet outside our house. |
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| Our house. The tall lighter-coloured bit. |
So far the village fits our aim of finding a small traditional place where we could stay for long enough to get to know it reasonably well. We will be here for almost two weeks, so much longer than we have stayed in one place before.
