Last Weekend in Provence.

Our last weekend at Mas d’Oscar in Saint-Remy de Provence was spent in town.

Our “voiture”  aka our automobile was only moved for a few minutes by the Monsieurs to go get the tank filled for our departure on Monday.

You see the driveway to our “home away from home” is down a narrow, narrow (did I tell you it was narrow) lane with a tight right hand turn around a curved wall and immediately a tight left hand turn ... not good with a larger vehicle! 

Our Monsieurs became experts at negotiating the tricky turns! 

We used our shanks’ ponies to get around this weekend.

Madame Susan and I headed out on our own for a walk about town.

Join us on our walk ... here’s some what we saw and experienced.

The teddy bears are hanging around ...

We found a very different art gallery ...

A fromagerie ... there has to cheese here for everyone’s taste ...

Cute café/bistro ...

Beautiful home decor shoppe ... 

We picked up our few must haves on our shopping list before heading back for some rest and relaxation in the courtyard ... oh maybe we found a few wants too! 

Some yummy treats for tonight’s dessert ... each one was delectable, we shared of course.

Did I say rest and relaxation ... mmm, we’ve taught Monsieur Honey a couple of card games. 

It was fun, even more so with French cards. 

.......

Sunday was another day of doing just a little of this and a little of that. 

Monsieur Honey and I headed out early in the “heat” hot temperatures to check out the vide grenier (literal translation- empty the attic) that was happening at the large supermarket’s parking lot.

We weren’t really looking for anything for us ... Monsieur Mark was in search of some “ pastis “ glasses. 

We saw lots of various glasses and messaged our travelling  partners to let them know and they found their way here later. 

Monsieur Mark was successful in his search.

On our return walk we discovered an interesting wine/ liquor shop.

There was a “street market” with various vendors and products.

We stopped at the Domaine de Lagoy and did a tasting of rosés. Delicious!





Time for some Sunday lunch ...Italian today. 

Aperol spritzer to quench the thirst, tempura shrimp with salad and shared pizza ... delicious! 

We strolled back home and did a bit of packing. 
Tomorrow morning we are on the road to our next destination.

I’ve enjoyed our stay at Mas d’Oscar in Saint-Remy de Provence.

The house was perfect for USA! 

The courtyard was a wonderful place to relax day or night.

Victory Day in Villeneuve-Minervois

Wednesday, May 8th, 2019.

May 8th is a holiday in Europe, called Victory in Europe Day/ VE Day commemorating the end of WW11 on May 8th, 1945. 

It is a day of celebration and remembrance with church services, ceremonies and parades. We were in time to watch the parade as they marched to the monument with music playing on a loudspeaker. 

Wreaths are laid during the ceremonies at the monuments honouring those lost in the war in each village, town and city.

We planned to visit the village of Villeneuve-Minervois where a vide-Grenier was being held plus we had made reservations for a special lunch at a restaurant Monsieur Honey & I discovered five years ago and luckily it was still in operation. 

It was a foggy, misty morning ... 

And at times rainy ... and the GPS took us thru the Alaric Mountain region to reach our destination.


We first visited this village in 2005 where we almost became French landowners. 

The property was almost everything we wanted. I say “almost”.  It was missing the most important thing for our life in France an outside area either a courtyard or terrace. This was the deal breaker. Imagine what our life would have been like! 

The property is now a pharmacy located on this plane-tree lined street.

We wandered thru the  village and headed to the “vide-grenier” which literally means “empty attic” ... like a flea market, garage sale. It was being held inside at the “Salle de Fête.  

There were many tables set up with a variety of items ... we acquired a trivet depicting the French tradition of “faire chabrot” 

and a juicy melon! 

We had hoped to visit the truffle museum however it was closed today due to the holiday. We checked out the Church and several monuments as we headed to the restaurant. 

La Grande Fontaine ...

A beautiful streetscape ...


We arrived at the restaurant “la Table de Pareur” where we celebrated Jenn’s recent birthday. 

It was a good thing I had made a reservation as they were full and not taking walk ins. 

The courtyard entrance ...

Father and daughter ...

We had an amazing meal from the amuse bouche to dessert with great service.

We ventured further in the Minervois area after out lunch ... I will be writing a separate post. 

"May Day in Gourdon".

The first of May is a national holiday called "Fête du Travail" (Labour Day) or May Day in France, and is the first of numerous holidays during the month of May.

We spent the day in Gourdon, first strolling the Boulevard and checking out the habitants' tables of wares at the annual Vide-grenier.

There was a gorgeous set of French porcelain dishes for a reasonable price but some discussion was held about how to transport these fragile items back to Canada.

The service would be handy when we have a houseful for our family dinners.

Today, I found a tiny silver-plated mustard pot with a cobalt blue glass insert and spoon.

Monsieur Honey was looking for some "Trench Art" from WW1 (1914-1918).
The soldiers would chase, hammer and engrave patterns and pictures into spent brass gun shells and send them home to their families as souvenirs.
This was an activity that the soldiers did in their down time in between battles.

A young entrepreneur with his wagon full of lily of the valley.
French tradition is to give your friends and loved ones a bunch of lily of the valley as a wish for good luck.

Baskets and more baskets.

Need something for your bathroom renovation...what do you think of these, Plumber Mike?

The porcelain dishes.

Some pie irons for the camp fire?

Today's treasure....

We enjoyed a lovely lunch at one of Gourdon's many cafés, Le Pot Occitan.

In addition to the Vide-grenier, there was an antique car and moped rally and display.

A bicycle made for two.... Tandem Moped.

The town streets and cafés were bustling with people enjoying their day off.

Here is a token of good luck to all my family and friends.