Who would have thought that ‘parking’ would be such an issue? It’s not enough to just enter the name of the city, it is imperative to know exactly where to park and, when the parking is ‘complet’, I am traumatised, so when we discovered ‘Espace de la Libération’ I was delighted. Here was a carpark that was easily accessible, relatively close to everything, free and large enough to give me confidence that I would always find a spot. I knew then, I was going to enjoy Saint Remy. 

We were in town to do ‘Apéro’. It was becoming a favourite thing. Bar Tabac des Alpilles was pumping. There was standing room only with some of the clientele spilling into the neighbouring areas which were fortunately closed. The guitarists emulated The Gipsy King’s and we decided to linger longer. John went to the bar for drinks. They were free. It was loud. People were very convivial, and we suspected we had crashed a party and decided we would move on after our drink. Because there was nowhere to put our empties, John headed back to the bar to return them and discovered it was an anniversary. The one owner for fifteen years was celebrating by sharing his good fortune with his customers. We had celebrated too and decided to explore further.

There were plenty of bars to choose from and Bistro Les Pieds Dans L’eau ‘Maison Mistral’, looked very inviting- the music, the ambience, the garden setting! And how many bars do you know have a seven word name? We couldn’t resist.  

An hour and a half to see lavender fields? The harvest takes place in the second week of July- now! It’s Provence. We have to go.

Oh wow! Our trek was rewarded. The Valensole Plateau was blanketed with lavender. It was extraordinary and such a delight to drive through and then a bonus when we stumbled upon a contrast of sunflowers bravely imposing their sunshine amongst the purple hue.  

A thousand photos later we called into the town of Valensole for a coffee and struck up a conversation with a Dutch couple, Nicolette and Ron, the pedagogue and the philosopher. They were cycling from their home in the Netherlands to Corsica and back. They had previously cycled from east to west across the US and from Cairns to Melbourne and on to Adelaide in Australia. We continue to meet the most amazing humans!!!

We are travelling for a while and things like grocery shopping, washing, buying sims and getting a haircut all need to be addressed. We have become quite familiar with Carrefour and Intermarché shopping centres and the latter at Saint Remy was outstanding selling the most incredible range of foodstuff especially cheese, meat, seafood and of course wine. John had to be dragged out! I was very grateful for the washing machine at the mas and we found a very accommodating young man who helped us with the sim and John found an excellent barber who did all the ‘barber’ stuff that hairdressers don’t seem to notice i.e. hairy ears and old man eyebrows! 

Saint Remy has an amazing market on Wednesdays which starts at about 6:30. We were told that by 10 it would be very crowded, and parking would be problematic. We thought we were so clever. We had a covered park metres away from the market at 7:36!!!! Many stalls were still setting up, but it was a great decision because by 10am it really was a crush!  The markets were good with lots of interest, but I think even in France there is a lot of repetition. I bought truffle slices in oil – 40g for €14- or fresh for €360 per kg!!! I never buy food at the markets. That is John’s thing. I have to say I have enjoyed every morsel of my truffles- in omelettes, risotto and even spaghetti. Delicious stuff!!!