Postcards from Provence and beyond

After a busy, but fantastic last week we’re on the final leg of our journey, taking the TGV from Nice back to Avignon.

It’s hard to believe that this time yesterday we were just getting off the train in Menton having left Rome shortly after 6 am.

We love Menton, it’s a gentle place and feels very different to the glitzy, glamorous resorts of Monaco, Nice & Antibes, which are just a stone’s throw away along the coast. It has a beautiful old town, with a delightful old market and a lovely promenade along the beach. The old houses seem to cling to the hillside above the Marina, dominated by the elegant Basilica, its brightly painted bell tower rising high above the tumble of tiled roofs.

It was only a very brief stop on this trip, as we’ll be back in a little under 3 weeks time for the Fête Du Citron to celebrate our wedding anniversary. What was fascinating this time, was to see the teams starting work on creating the huge citrus display pieces that form the central feature of the event in the Jardin Biovès. We are used to seeing the finished pieces in all their glory….

But as we passed by, the wire frames were in place, surrounded by scaffolding, whilst the first pieces of fruit were being slipped into place. It’s a mammoth task, with each orange or lemon being slipped into a matching elastic band, before being fixed to the frame.

This year’s theme (quite understandably) is The Olympic Games, and we could see the outline of a skateboarder, a swimmer in mid stroke, a rowing team and of course The Olympic Flame. Even with the first few fruits in place it was easy to get a sense of how they will look when they are finished.

I’m even more excited for our visit now than I was before and with another period of separation coming up between now and then, it will be even more special.

We spent the afternoon in Menton wandering along the seafront and relaxing a little, enjoying the slower pace of life there, after a hectic few days. We had even treated ourselves to a hotel room with a sea view for our last evening of the trip, and simply sat on the terrace watching the sea and the evening settle on the day, tucking into shop-bought salad for supper. We really have had enough of eating out for a while!

Whilst we sipped our wine, wrapped in layers of clothing, dressing gowns and blankets (yes it was that chilly) watching the sky darken, we reflected on what has been a wonderful last week (even the experience of Naples, now it’s in the rear-view mirror ).

It has reaffirmed what we thought, that getting away is really rather lovely. We may live in a beautiful part of France, with its picture-postcard villages and stunning landscape, but living there has day-to-day responsibilities and it’s actually good to leave them behind for a while.

Even though a few bits may not have gone as planned Mainly our romantic reunion in Paris it’s fair to say that the days have passed in a blur, in a good way, as we have dapped from place to place using a mix of trains, with a plane, a bus and a boat thrown into the mix too.

It’s been rather a European Grand Tour for us, as we’ve whistled our way between cities, walking for miles exploring the sights, and carrying everything we have needed for the week in small (in my case flowery) backpacks. We laughed about these being our ‘back-packing gap years’ as we missed out on those when we were young. We went straight into work, not going to Uni or having any other opportunity to travel, but now we are retired we realise we have an opportunity to travel light, travel on our terms and simply enjoy what we want to do. I have to say that in my later fifties my terms include having our own space, a decent bed and a shower, so at least we don’t have to carry tents!

I’m sure our approach isn’t everyone’s idea of a restful getaway. We’ve been up early, have somehow (according to my pedometer) walked over 110km in the last 8 days, just exploring the places we’ve visited, and have been in bed before 10pm, so it’s hardly living the high-life. But I make no apologies for it, we enjoy spending our days being busy, eating on-the-go and being healthily tired in the evenings too. Perhaps that’s why we enjoyed our cycle tours so much last year, there’s no expectation on us to be anything other than ourselves.

So, after setting the world to rights, we took an evening walk along the Promenade, out to The Marina, where The Bastion that houses the Jean Cocteau Museum is lit with his images, celebrating his connection to the town, before we arrived back at the room, falling asleep to the sound of the sea below.

Unfortunately, during the night something went wrong with the heat-pump, which was on the roof above our room, the noise becoming deafening and the vibrations filtering through the walls. At 5am, we gave up trying to sleep, calling reception to tell them about the issue and being offered the chance to move to another room. But we were wide awake, so instead of moving rooms, we got dressed and went for a pre-dawn walk along the beach, being rewarded with the sight of the most perfect sunrise. So even the bad night’s sleep had a good ending.

After breakfast by the sea, we explored the little Friday Brocante market.

Before hopping on the train to Nice, where we sat on the beach in the sun, excited to see the preparations well underway for this year’s Carnaval, which will be the second part of our anniversary trip at the end of the month.

So now we’re on the TGV heading back to Avignon, and our thoughts have turned to our summer bike adventure. It appears the train tickets have just been released to get us to Amsterdam, so as I type this Andy is finalising the booking for the end of May and the start of Our summer cycling adventure bike-packing, rather than back-packing though….

It’s shaping up to be quite a year