Summer Holiday

That's where we've been.

We've spent a week in the Pyrenees region, enjoying the lush green scenery - corn, sunflowers and spun-gold hay.

Quite different to the landscape here in Provence which is more vines, lavender and pine trees interspersed with sun-bleached rocky outcrops. 


Our week away tied in with the mister's big race - he participated in the Etape du Tour (an amateur event where participants ride one of the Tour de France stages before the professionals come through). The course was some 180km in distance and finished at the peak of Col du Tourmalet's 6,900 bottom-cramping ft. 

He knew it would be hard, but he was riding for Australia!

Some 10,000 riders started, but only 6,800 finished. And the mister was one of them (he was in the first half of all those who finished; I'm so proud of him!) 

It took him 9 hours. He's already thinking about doing it again next year *mumble negotiations mumble*


We took a car ride up to Col du Tourmalet two days later, but unfortunately couldn't get to the top as it was shut off in preparation for the Tour de France. But I did get to see the area, which was breathtaking. Perhaps unfortunate as those riders need all the breath they can get. 

A valley full of caravans and mobile homes waiting for the Tour

We also came across a kilometre or so of messages on the road as part of Lance Armstrong's LIVESTRONG campaign. A chalk robot prints messages of inspiration and remembrance on the road along the Tour de France route. 

Some offered general encouragement.

Others were personal messages to lost loved ones. 

We thought it was a clever and very touching idea.


We went to see the Tour de France when they passed a town close to where we were staying. We sat on the side of the road for about 40 minutes and when the TV helicopters appeared we knew they were close. The four or five riders in the lead flashed by, followed by the main peloton 10 minutes later.

Here they come...

And there they go. 

(Complete fluke - but that's Contador, the eventual winner, there in his yellow jersey)

I'll get in trouble for saying this, but it's much more exciting watching it on the telly.

It was amazing the huge number of support vehicles following behind - must have been close to a hundred cars and motorbikes. 

More to tell about the holiday, but I must get back to sewing for now. The inbound baby I mentioned has made his appearance 4 weeks early. Mum and baby are fine and hopefully his blanket will be finished within the week!

Happy Bastille Day!

A national holiday here in France, today went something like this:

• omelettes (courtesy of the mister)
• swim in the pool
• Tour de France and sewing
• lunch
• swim in the pool
• DVD
• Tour de France and sewing
• dinner
• rush out and take photos of sewing in the dying light

In other words, a fantastic day.

The sewing started with this:

I meant to start on the baby quilt, but quickly realised I had no solid white on the shelves. I know, day one stuff.  So instead I thought I'd try one of these journal covers, a tutorial (from Roslyn at Bloom) on the Moda Bake Shop site. 

The linen was bought locally in Provence, the basket weave is from Denyse Schmidt's Hope Valley line. The little orange tree shape, punched from felt, was found in a craft shop in Marseille. 

 

I adjusted Roslyn's tutorial as I went given my notebook was quite a bit smaller.

I really enjoyed stepping away from the machine and hand stitching in some details. The mister outlined the many strategic and tactical considerations for cycle teams on the Tour, but, well, I was a little distracted by all the lean lycra-ed bottoms.  

And before I knew it, the little sucker was done. 

Thanks France for another wonderful day!

Jouques

Another weekend, another village to visit in the Luberon Valley. This time it was Jouques. It's a hard life, but someone has to do it. 

Signs of human life from 11,000 years BC have been found in the immediate Jouques area, and the village also saw plenty of action in the Roman and Medieval ages. 

We arrived a little late for the markets (one in the afternoon), but took a stroll along the Réal river that runs alongside the newer part of the ville. 


After lunch the mister supervised the kids playing around the fountain while I hauled myself up the hill into the older part of the village. 

The narrow streets on the way were of course gorgeous. Being Sunday, the day when most French like to sit down to a large family lunch, these alleys were full of delicious smells and rowdy family sounds. 

Past these streets I found the more medieval part of town and, thankfully, a sign pointing to the Notre Dame de la Roque chapel, which I was looking for. 

Up this way

Getting warmer (and wishing I wasn't wearing flip-flops by this stage)

Finally: Notre Dame de la Roque

Unfortunately the chapel wasn't open, but it was still worth exploring the exterior. 

And the view down over the town was fantastic.  

Somewhere down there is a fountain with my kids in it.

One of the great things about blogging is that it forces you to do some research instead of sitting around drinking wine all day. A bit of googling revealed the chapel was built in the 11th century, but unfortunately the interwebs couldn't tell me what the inscription on the steps means. It shall remain a mystery. 

Another great afternoon spent exploring southern France and we all returned home more wise and sunburnt than when we left. 

Finished the weekend with a little bit more sewing - piecing together the log cabin triangles and then cutting the result to size. Now, what to do with the off cuts. 

Roussillon

While our friends were here the other week we took them to Roussillon for a day.

Roussillon is a lovely village in the Luberon Valley. The earth there is rich in pigment and the town had several ochre mines in 'ye olden days' (mining ceased in the '30s).  There is a mine site to tour and plenty of shops peddling gorgeous artworks painted with the colours of Roussillon.

The best way to see the various colours of Roussillon is to wander through the streeets of the town itself. Most of the houses are painted in the beautiful bright hues we've come to associate with Provence.

I'm a sucker for a red door. Or shutters.

Also snapped, this fab trompe l'oeil painting in the centre of the village:

Another fantastic day in Southern France.

More bugs

2AAE8E4YZS23 One of the fun things about living in another hemisphere is discovering new things in the garden. 

Not just plants. These caterpillars were one such example (who have greatly disappointed me by skulking off and chrysalising in a place I have yet to find). 

And it's great to investigate these new bugs without fear. In Australia, if you find something unusual in the garden you leave it the hell alone, because chances are it could kill you. The bugs here are so much more sociable. 

Our lavender hedge across the back patio emits a sound much like a World Cup soccer match, it is being harvested by so many bees. There seems to be more bee species 'in the wild' here in France.  I've found three so far.

Your regular honey bee; these are the only ones I see at home in Oz.

Then there's this little guy - bigger, fuzzier, super stripes. 

There's an even bigger and fuzzier one out there too, which sounds like an aircraft carrier, but I've yet to catch him on film. 

While stalking bees I saw another strange flying creature darting around the lavender. 

It was the size of my thumb with wings flapping so fast they blurred. My first thought was hummingbird - but then I saw the antenna. 

Turns out it's a moth.  (A Bee Moth if you're European, a Hummingbird Moth if you're American, a Macroglossum stellatarum if you're a nerd of any nationality.) I'm glad I managed to get a few photos so I could actually see him - he was near impossible to see with the naked eye with all that darting and flapping. 

Interesting and non-venomous; fantastic combination. 

In other news, the new cushion cover is (slowly) taking shape:

Who needs fennel, anyway?

We've inherited a crazy-prolific herb garden in the house we're renting. It's so overgrown I've started having flashbacks to 'Nam whenever I wade in to fetch some rosemary.

The kids love it and often collect various leaves and crush them between their fingers to release the aromas. My oldest boy has even asked for butter and herb sandwiches for lunch, and goes out to pick his own herbs (I send him with a pocket knife and three days' supply of water).

The other day I realised a herb I'd thought was dill gone to seed was in fact a fennel plant. I've always wanted to try cooking fennel - apparently slowly pan-frying the root-bulb caramelises it into a state of awesomeness. That sounded like something else to add to my very long list of what tastes good on buttered baguette.

So I headed out there yesterday to dig up a bulb, but before I could I noticed something already snacking on our fennel.

This guy and about six of his mates. 

He looks like a stack of liquorice all-sorts, which is fitting given fennel's aniseed flavour. 

I spent a few minutes googling and learned two new things:

1. Fennel is a member of the carrot family, and 

2. These little guys are most likely Old World Swallowtail caterpillars.

The kids are hoping they'll catch them turning into butterflies. I'd like to see that myself. But I'm also pretty happy just looking at the caterpillars.  

That is one good lookin' bug. He could be a Cherri House quilt. 

Caramelised fennel on hot buttered baguette will just have to wait. Guess it's herb and butter sandwiches for me too.   

What we're up to...

At the moment we are eating these fresh from the garden:

Enjoying the last of these:

Loving how our lavender has gone from this:

To these sweet-smelling, bee-luring beauties:

And just enjoying the garden in general:

Inside, I'm working on a new cushion cover, which will be pieced together from these log cabin triangles. I've got a whole lot more of these on my sewing table.

I can't look at these fabulous colours from Anna Maria Horner's Good Folks line all together and not hug the next person I see.*

These fabrics are gorgeous and cheerful and exactly what our living room needs.

The idea for the log cabin triangles came from the book Le Log Cabin...Libre by Shizuko Kuroha. The book only comes in French and Japanese, and while my French isn't parfait, it's practically university level compared to my Japanese, so I bought my copy here (a great link as it lets you leaf through a few pages). I love the book - plenty of unusual quilts and inspiration for your own designs. For the non-beginner quilter I think there are enough diagrams and photos to overcome the language barrier, should you ne lis pas français.

But sewing will have to wait for a few days - we have very good friends arriving tomorrow and I can't wait to show them all our favourites (food, wine, markets, villages) in our little corner of Provence. France is twice as fun when you can share it with the folks you love!


*I'll admit this was a bit embarrassing when the man came to pump the septic tank. Well, embarrassing for him. I just don't care because I'm going to have a pretty cushion.