Provence

Hello everybody out there!

 

Finally we left the hot hot hot coast and headed inland to a place called Provence. On the way there we drove through a massive canyon that had huge cliffs and even one place we had to drive under the rock. Freaky sneakers! We stopped off for a swim at the most crazy lake we had ever seen. It was like fiji with clear blue water. The temp in our car said it was 43 degrees celsuis! World record for us!

 

Provence is an area in France that is famous for lavender, sunflowers, wine and food. Unfortunately we just missed the flowers but it was still very beautiful! We had hired a villa (in a villages called Cabrieres d'Avignon) with a pool with the cousins - yay! It was happy and sad as this was exciting but it was also the last week we had with our couzzies. After this week we were going back to the coast and they are heading to an area called Montpellier. They are off to help with the wine vintage.

 

Anyway - we made it to the coolest house we have ever seen! It was huge and roomy with a cool pool - all to ourselves!! Everyday we went visiting different villages around where we lived and then in the afternoon we spent by the pool because it was soooooo hot!

 

Most of the villages we had to park outside and walk as the streets were so small and windy. It was really fun to get lost and find our way through them. They also had really beautiful fountains with cool running water that all had good luck coins in them.

 

We also had to do school work everyday. We are trying to learn all our times tables which has been hard but Mummy makes it really fun. Speed maths! We are also writing in our books and drawing pictures to go with them. It can be fun but it also can be really hard too - Mummy said that she could never be a teacher - haha. We would rather be in the pool but Mum said that we would have to repeat a year if we didn't do it. We don't think she was joking...

 

Another exciting thing we did this week was to plan a show to perform to the parents. Up behind the house is a stage area surrounded by a cedar forrest. It was so cool and perfect for a show. We all spend agers working out three dances - all in secret from the parents! We made tickets and the parents had to book their seats and pay 5 euros each to come to our show! We also made food out of paper so they had something to nibble on at half time. We were very excited and it was fun planning costumes and our roles. Show night was a huge success and it ended with the parents joining in with our disco. The Mummy's even did cartwheels and it was very funny.

 

One of the coolest villages we did visit was called Les-Baux-de-Provence. It was high up on hill in rugged mountains. In the olden days it was a fort that was very strong. People still live there but in back in the old days they lived in the rocks and made houses in the cliffs. It was awesome. They used to collect the rain water off the cliffs by making a channel and collecting it in huge clay pots. They were very resourceful. We also watched a live performance of medievil sword fighting - it was all in french but it was still very funny.

 

Other villages we saw were called Gourdes (very pretty and the day we visited they had a busy market - Violet accidently held a stranger-ladies hand and she growelled her becasue she thought she was a pick-pocket!), Bonnieux, L'Isle-sur-la-sorgue (antiques), Fontaine-de-vaucluse (biggest natural spring in the world), Lacoste (fancy castle owned by Pierre Cardin the fashion designer), Lourmarin (Mummy brought cool sparlkly shoes, Chateaunerf-du-Pape (wine heaven where Dad brought a bottle of wine that will be ready for our 21st's and a cool retro swimming), Avignon (Mum made us visit IKEA but it was actually very cool).

 

On our last morning we had a farewell morning tea at fancy-pants pastry shop. It was so pretty with so much pink and lots of girly chairs. Even the men loved it! It was sad to leave our family as its been so fun spending so much times with them. They are special friends and we are so lucky that they let us travel with them!!!

 

Phew! Busy busy times. Next stop is back to the coast to a place called Cassis. See you then....

 

Love Isla and Violet xx

 

 

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