From the hectic activity of the Côte d'Azur to the gentle pace of holiday life deep in the Ardèche mountains. Via a narrow, hairpin road, we finally reached the Mas de l'Elze late on Saturday afternoon. We took canapés and a glass of rosé wine on the terrace, gazing out as the sun shone down on an idyllic scene, bathing the old stone buildings and rolling, wooded mountains in soft light. Then we moved indoors for a rather tasty table d'hôte dinner, albeit without les hôtes. An auspicious start to a lovely relaxing week.
The days that followed melded into one, following much the same pattern. Rise late, light breakfast, gentle morning/early afternoon amble along one of the multitude of footpaths that criss-cross the area, late lunch back at the mas, afternoon spent lazing and reading by the pool, interrupted only for a quick dip and cool-down, and a display by dog-fighting jets overhead. Finally, dinner on the terrace, sipping wine and gazing at the view. Only minor black mark - a failed barbecue on Wednesday evening. I blame the equipment. Still, the beef and lamb kebabs tasted just as good grilled in the oven.
Deviations from the norm - a trip into l'Argentière on Tuesday to re-provision at the market - a 15km drive, which took more than half an hour due to being forced to follow a small herd of cattle at a safe distance down the single track road as they moved pastures, and a tour bus trying to squeeze along a hairpin road with parked cars on one side and an aged driver who refused to back up behind us: the joys of driving in deepest France; a short driving tour on Thursday, visiting la Tour de Brison for a panoramic view and a winding drive through the gorges de la Beaume; and a few gentle thundery showers today preventing the swimming and sunbathing.
And so a lazy week ends, and it's back to Lyon tomorrow and work next week. We may be back...
The celebration of underwater sightseeing and above water restaurant visiting that is the annual dive budwigs trip to La Favière turned out to be one of the best ever. Seven days of uninterrupted sunshine, calm seas, superb diving and gourmet dining.
The warm, sunny weather lured the crowds onto the roads and the drive down on Saturday took somewhat longer than usual, but the Lyon contingent arrived in time to take possession of our two apartments and await the arrival via Nice of Dr & Mr Wig and Professor Margarita. Alas, the sixth member of our happy band cried off at the last moment, pleading tiredness and stress brought on by overwork. No matter, we dried our tears, raised a glass to the missing Miss Colonel and tucked into our first dinner and mousse au chocolat of the week at an old favourite, the Brasserie du Port.
Late start to the diving on Sunday, due in part to a mass invasion of Bormes Plongée by two large diving clubs, but after the discovery six years late of the rather excellent swimming pool the gentle first dive on La Fourmigue was welcome, no less enjoyable and notable for a profusion of octopii. Dinner was taken at Cartoon Beach, the 'restaurant on the corner'. Thumbs up for the Marmite du Pecheur from the SdP connoiseur, and thumbs down for a bowl of water from the local stray moggy.
Monday morning, another old favourite, from a different angle - Pointe du Vaisseau: grouper city and nudibranch heaven for our macro expert, mini-diver Sogs. In the afternoon the over-chilled Margarita man and the merely chilled Caipirinha kid skipped the dive and missed a surprisingly excellent plunge on la Pointe de la Galère, previously named as my least favourite site. A couple of perfectly posing scorpion fish and an octopus in full display changed my mind.
In the evening we ventured further afield, a whole half a kilometre along the coast to Le Lavandou, where a new favourite, La Favouille, was found. Soupe de Poisson with a tentative JeB rating of at least 8, a Meli-Melo fruits de mer entrée off the scale, melt in the mouth agneau, and the best mousse au chocolat ever.
Tuesday - armed with a toastier wet suit, Prof M enjoyed a deep morning dive on the Sec de la Gabinière with the rest of us, except 1st class diver S who floated on the surface with a lighter than expected cylinder and not enough lead. Eventually she put on weight, found new buddies and enjoyed a dive on the algae infestged Gab east wall. After the usual gourmet lunch of bread, cheese, paté, saucisson and tinned fish, everyone was newly enthused and enjoyed a dive on a ski slope. Pointe de Montrémian the site, hide and seek in the sea grass the game.
Un nouveau depart in the evening - dinner in. Taking advantage of our uninhabited spare apartment, a rather tasty salad and fritata was cooked up by the resident master chefs, preceded by apertifs and the new cocktail of choice for the discerning drink-diver, caipirinha. Two thirds of a bottle of rum and two bottles of rosé later, we watched the Sands big adventure holiday video - great white shark cage diving amid heckling from the rum sozzled audience.
Wednesday morning, hurrahs all round. First and only wreck dive of the week, but what a wreck. Le Donator, 45 narcotic metres of wonder: coral and gorgonian covered metal, merous playing cache cache, and only a stuck dump valve to spoil JeB's delight. Nothing a bit of clawing at the neck seal can't solve. Afterwards lunch of delicious leftovers, and then no afternoon dive: siestas all round.
Another long trip for dinner, all the way up the hill to Bormes village. Excellent meal, excellent wine, excellent company. Little more to say.
Thursday morning - Pointe de la Croix, notable for a wayward swim over lots of sea grass, lots more groupers and a highly amusing lesson on how not to deploy a delayed SMB by the Professor. 1st lesson: it's useful to have a weight on the end of the line to avoid it floating in tangles about you. Second lesson: watch your depth otherwise you might end up finally getting some air into your buoy just before it reaches the surface. At the same time as you.
The giggles of hilarity subsided just in time for the afternoon dive on a site new to us - la Pointe de Maupertuis on the Ile du Levant. And a beautiful site it was too, a succession of ridges illuminated by the sun, and a couple of giant sea slugs made it one of the best dives of the week. The Gardiner DSMB deployment take two added to the fun too. The weighted line worked well. So well that the weight hit the bottom before the line was even half unreeled. Diver bouyancy was better controlled, but buoy buoyancy less so. A small puff of air eventually got it to the surface and it stayed there. Just.
Another trip to Le Lavandou in the evening. A half hearted attempt to seek out restaurants new ended with us back at Tuesday evening's haunt. Another gourmet dinner followed.
Friday - last day, last dives. The morning, back to the one of the jewels in the crown of Côte d'Azur diving - the east wall of La Gabinière. Rather good it was too, though the profusion of algae covering the rocks and coral somewhat dulled the glitter. The Margarita DSMB deployment drill finally went off smoothly and even ascertained the length of line to be 12 metres exactly. The dive finished with a heroic rescue of Dr Sogs (FCD), swept away on the tide, Spain the next stop, by her hero JeB.
The afternoon, and then there were two - the diving die-hards, Dr S and moi-même. The Mistral had whipped up a choppy sea in the intervening few hours, meaning we had to make do with the short return trip to La Fourmigue. Another interesting tour of a rock, an interesting navigational technique to find le Spahis, and finally the diving for the week was over. And a great week's diving it was too.
Final evening, final dinner of the week. Another new restaurant, tasty moules frites Chez Mamie for most, charred magret de canard for the non-seafood eater amoung us. Back home for a farewell game of tête de merde, and it was all over bar the shouting and apartment cleaning the next morning.
We will be back.
La bienheureuse has been in hot and steamy Bulgaria since Wednesday, but she was here to celebrate my birthday earlier in the week, my years on this earth equalling the unbeaten run of the famous Invincibles of 2004. As is only right for an idle layabout, I cooked dinner and the wage-earner bought a rather excellent bottle of Pope's Newcastle. Lovely it was too.
Otherwise, a quiet week, the weather gets warmer and sunnier in thoughtful anticipation of our upcoming holiday, in the French home of rosé wine, where the vignerons should be in a good mood following their victory against the despised blended red & white wine. Not the real stuff at all.
The European elections in France followed the rightward trend elsewhere in Europe. The lowest ever turnout allowed the UMP to buck the normal trend of governing parties and get the most votes and seats, though 28% is hardly a thumping majority. The Socialists emulated their cousins across the Channel, failing dismally with only 17% and were almost beaten into third place by the suprise package Green alliance.
On another European battle front, France has claimed victory in the rosé wine saga. Outrage was caused here by the EU's initial plan to allow wine that is merely a blend of red and white to be called rosé, but French viticulturists have now seen justice done with the reversal of the decision. "The death of a product with great history and quality has been averted thanks to the intervention of France and Italy, two countries with a common passion for wine and its intrinsic culture."
Quite so.
In an area of modern culture with rather less tradition, the government has recently received another bloody nose. The law criminalising illegal downloading on the internet, passed recently at the second attempt after an amusing ambush by the parliamentary opposition, has been declared unconstitutional by the Conseil constitutionnel, which has the last word on law making in France. The power of a judge to withdraw internet access for those caught making illegal downloads three times is the main point at issue. Contrary to basic human rights, apparently. The saga continues...
The middle of a quiet couple of weeks on the home front before we start another two at the weekend. Holiday this time, a week on the Côte d'Azur for the annual La Favière diving and dining extravaganza, followed by une semaine à deux in an isolated gîte deep in the Ardèche. Life can sometimes be tough...
Quiet weekend at home, too, for a change, apart from a couple of excited skype conversations in anticipation of next week. We ventured out on Sunday afternoon/evening to watch Arnie terminated once again, and finished the evening with a meal in the Brasserie de la Cité Internationale. Rather nice pavé de thon and foie de veau, followed by an enormous tarte aux poires. The half hour walk home failed to work off the excess.
On the work front, it's been less quiet, for la bienheureuse at least. Three days working in Prague, with time out for an afternoon sightseeing. This week another 3 days away from home, in Sofia, teaching the Bulgarian authorities the ins and outs of the European Union.
Meanwhile, my second publication/third work arrived in the post this morning, complete with obligatory first edition printing error - the prologue printed twice. I blame the proof-reader. And the type-setter, editor, and author. Self-castigation is good for the soul. Still, might make this unique first copy valuable one day. Or maybe not...
Travel - the theme of the last couple of weeks and the coming month. Between the 2nd week in May and the 2nd in June, la bienheureuse will have spent 15 out of 18 working days abroad - Monheim twice, Brussels, Guildford, Prague and Sofia, a veritable European tour.
My own travel schedule has been more limited and self-imposed - the week just gone in the UK. Late night Saturday flight to Lyon ten days ago for the final game (of any personal interest) of the season. Lovely late spring sunshine on Sunday, and les cannoniers responded with some sunshine football of their own. Then, the UK spring bank holiday spent chez J&C, where le maitre chef continued his outdoor DIY campaign with some water-jetting of the driveway while ms beaucoup et moi hid indoors. Afterwards the sun came out in time for a late lunch in the garden accompanied by a drink, or two.
In an attempt to spread the load, I spent Monday evening chez the Margarita Man. Saumon for dinner and an introduction to his latest squeeze were on the agenda. Tuesday the sun had been replaced by rain and wind squalls, so I settled down to some work, with a break to rescue the garden furniture from the fish pond. I think the carp survived the shock of having their home rudely invaded by a heavy wooden table.
In the evening, I made another selfish move, back to J&C's, where les vrais Gooners watched the under-19s cap an all-conquering season by completing the thrashing of the scousers in the final of the FA Youth Cup. Second trophy in a week. The future is coming...
On Wednesday, another move inspired by a selfish desire to watch football. While la bienheureuse was jetting in to Stansted I caught the train down to deepest Berkshire where the DeB and I watched the Champions League final with differing degrees of satisfaction. La Tizz cooked a delicious dinner and ma bien-aimée arrived in time for a glass of wine.
Thursday, work for us both. La bienheureuse went off to Guildford for a meeting during a power cut, and I ensconced myself with laptop in a corner of the conservatory being distracted by hunting cats and suicidal blackbirds while Madame et les garçons came and went to various daytime rendezvous. Another lovely dinner in the evening, then we bade farewell to our gracious hosts and set off for Guildford again. While la salariée finished her meeting, I did a bit of sightseeing - cathedral, castle, then a blistering five mile stomp along the North Downs way.
An early end to work for the day meant la bienheureuse was able to meet me for an early afternoon drink in ye olde Ship Inn before we set off for Horsham, the final stop of an itinerant week. We eventually found our way to the singular bungalow of Mrs J, where we renewed acquaintances with the missing spice girl, back from NZ to look after her mother's hip. The wine and the girls' chat flowed late into the night.
Saturday, a walk in the park, tapas and a flying visit from the motor man for lunch, shopping for sunglasses and sandals in the afternoon, and a less satisfactory bit of tv football viewing. In the evening, the Doctors C arrived for a bbq on the patio. More wine, more chatter and another late night followed.
Sunday morning a parting of the ways was nearly derailed by a motoring mishap. A successful attempt to jump start a car which hadn't moved for 3 years was followed by a less successful attempt to turn off the alarm, which ended with the keys in the car, the engine still running and the doors locked. Several attempts to break in failed before le beau-père hit on the bright idea of using the right spare key.
Crisis over, we waved goodbye to our prodigal antipodean friend and set off for another rendezvous with the motor man and his lady. On the second attempt we found a nice country pub and enjoyed lunch and beer in the sunshine. Enjoyed it for slightly too long to make the trip and Gatwick experience comfortable, but eventually we made it past check-in and security in time for the flight home, which was of course delayed.
And so, home to a warm and sunny Lyon. La bienheureuse is currently on the Czech republic leg of her European tour while I managed to get book 3 prepared and sent off to the printers (DIY variety) yesterday. Looking forward to a rare weekend at home already...
