Oh how wonderful to have 2 weeks of luxury in France! After our quite basic last 2 months in rural areas of Spain it was a pleasure to drive over the border and enter the world of good food, good wine and cosy villages (and no kidding every second car on the highway towards Cannes was dutch! Meivakantie...). We spent a great week in St Cezaire (in the hills above Cannes) with Carol, Cliff, George, Andy, Helen, Harry and Archie in a beautiful villa. The weather wasn’t so good unfortunately so we really got into table tennis (want one :-)) and had lots of fun running around the table with the ‘Killer’ version. Nice bbqs, a bathroom en suite, croissants in the morning and lots of fun!
On Dan’s birthday we drove the ‘Route de Napoleon’ through stunning mountain scenery (Gorges du Verdon) towards Menerbes in the Luberon mountains where we were meeting Hugo and Alisha for the second week of luxury. A beautiful house on a hill with views of vineyards and Mont Ventoux on clear days. It was too cold to swim but warm enough to play jeu de boules, do a little cycle and get to know the surroundings. It’s such a picturesque area with hilltop villages, vines everywhere you look and hills in the background. Mama arrived on Tuesday and we had 3 lovely days of holiday with lots of nice wine and dinners (overkill of fois gras in the cooking course Dan and I did!). Too short but very cosy! 
Weirdest thing of all: on Friday we went on a little wine tasting trip to Chateauneuf du pape and Baumes de Venise and on a roundabout just outside Avignon we suddenly saw Jeroen en Jikke in the car next to us! They heard some people yelling but didn’t think it was for them! We met on Saturday in St Remy de Provence for lunch in the sun before they drove further to Spain, what a coincidence!
Now we’re back in the van and staying in Buis les Baronnies, a bit north of the Mont Ventoux. We can see it very well from here but still need to gather our courage and strength for attacking it (there is still snow on the top). Maybe 1 day... xxx
