Time to say goodbye to the girls

Our dinner with the English couple, John & Jean on Boxing Day night was good fun.  Their daughter Christine and another English couple Roy & Linda were also invited.  When Roy walked in the door he baulked, he appeared stunned for a moment.  As it turned out he has a friend who lives in Australia.  His name is Ron Beasley and looks like Jim.  For a moment Roy said he thought Jim was Ron.  He was a funny guy.  The night passed quickly with quite a few bottles of red wine being drunk and lots of laughs.  One disappointment, the promise of plum pudding didn’t come to fruition but there was a yummy baked cheesecake with dried fruit and lemon. 

Lunch on Friday, our Christmas treat at La Bruceliere in Issiegeac was delicious.  The food was typically French.  Lucky I translated the menu before we went so we had a good idea of what we wanted but the waitress was very accommodating and spoke good English.  

The first course at La Bruceliere - the start

The attack

The finish

Tomorrow is New Years Eve and we’re going to stay the night in Bergerac at a hotel, not to see the New Year in but for easy access to the train station.  It is a five-minute walk from our hotel.  Our train for Paris leaves at 8.30am on Wednesday morning.  It is 6-hour train trip.  It is the only train to get us to the airport in time for our flight at 9pm.  We fly to Delhi via Dubai, arriving in Delhi at 2.45pm on Thursday 2 January. 

Jim and I will spend Thursday and Friday nights in Delhi together before we say goodbye for 2 months.  Jim will fly to Srinagar and make his way to Gulmarg for the winter while I fly to Trivandrum in Kerala to stay at the Sivananda ashram for a yoga course for the month of January. 

http://www.sivananda.org/neyyardam/yogavacation.html

On February 3rd I’ll meet my parents in Surin Beach, Thailand for two weeks then my friend Sharon from Melbourne will join me for a week before Jim arrives on February 26 for a few days.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/VacationRentalReview-g1224250-d2433800-Phuket_Vacation_Apartments_Baan_Puri_Resort-Choeng_Thale_Thalang_District_Phuket.html

On March 1^st we go to Koh Lanta for a week where we will celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary on March 5th. Whew! lucky we made it.  

We have rented a house on the beach for the week.

http://amazinglanta.com/koh-lanta-pool-villa-klong-khong/

We are ready to say goodbye to the girls.  They are lovely but have been naughty at times.  For the past few days we have been taking turns getting up to them during the night - 3am and then again at 5am or 6am to prevent any mishaps over night.  Not sure what is worse – getting up twice through the night and having interrupted sleep or waking up to mess in the morning if we don’t.   

Lone apple - Jim's arty shot

Our 'penultimate' walk together this afternoon

Christmas Day in Larocal

Queen Fizz (wearing the crown of the traditional Three Kings cake)

It was like being children again.  We were up at the crack of dawn but not for presents from Santa but to Skype with our families.  We set the alarm for 5am but were both awake at 1am because of the silly rooster who lives across the road.  His timing is always out but especially early this morning.

At 6am after our Skype sessions with family we went back to bed till 8am to get up again to Skype with Mary-lou and family in Tawonga – short but sweet due to a bad connection. 

Mid morning I am growling ‘I don’t want to be doing this on Christmas Day’.  I was cleaning up after Fizz who is on heat and totally lost the plot.  Jim is hopeless at helping, he keeps heaving.  She is leaving little presents around the house (coming out of every orifice) not the type that Santa leaves.  Poor girl, she is suffering extreme PMT – I Googled it, apparently a dog’s behaviour can alter and become erratic and that she is.  Lola is normally the more dominant of the two but even she is keeping her distance.

I wish that piece of information (the dogs being on heat) was in the ad on the Trusted Housesitters site and the bit about mice living in the house.  Another growl.

Meanwhile back to Christmas morning, the stuffed chicken roll is in the oven cooking nicely with the roast vegetables, the table is set and the prawns and champagne are on ice ready to go. 

It is now Boxing Day.

Our Christmas Day turned out quite an unusual one – in and out of bed basically.  Up at 5am back in at 6am, up again at 8am and so it went throughout the day.

  

Jim and I shared a bottle of champagne (our last from our Dormans housesit) over the first course of prawns.  We were having a fun time. 

With our second course of chicken and roast veggies we opened a bottle of local red.  I spilt my first glass while trying to rescue our Christmas dinner out of Fizz’s reach.  I poured and successfully drank a second glass.  By the time our dessert of chocolate torte and vanilla yoghurt was eaten I was thinking, “Oh, I need to lie down, I don’t feel so well.”  I put myself to bed and Jim had a snooze on the lounge.  Later in the afternoon I felt a tad better so we took the dogs for a walk.  Returning home I felt the need to return to bed.  I got up for a bowl of soup for dinner about 6.30pm and by 8pm we were both in bed.  We watched the final episode of Miss Fisher Murders.  

Lights out, that is Christmas Day over or so we thought.

The dogs woke us up with their barking at 11.30pm and then again at 3am – we took turns to let them out to prevent further little (or big) presents being left for us to find in the morning. 

Five sleeps to go, no more dog sitting or should I say babysitting.  I need to go to the ashram to dry out. 

First course 

Jim doing what he does - in between courses

Second course, having trouble keeping my crown on  - I wonder why

Third & final course - time for bed

Merry Christmas from Larocal

To all our family and friends we wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy new year. 

Our Christmas decorations & cards

Tomorrow, Sunday we are off to the Issigeac market to buy goodies for our Christmas lunch.  Can't wait.

We have a dinner date.  How funny is that!
We have been invited to dinner on Boxing Day by an English couple (John & Jean) who live down the road and around the corner.  We have noticed their place as it is large, more like a small farm.  They passed us the other day on their bikes when we were walking the girls.  They recognised the girls as they know Melinda.  Anyway, they stopped to chat and they must have liked us because this morning they turned up at the front door to invite us for dinner.  That's nice isn't it and guess what,  the best part is there will be plum pudding for dessert - another English couple is bringing that along.
Now, that is a Christmas present.

Returning to Larocal

Eze to Larocal – Sunday 15 December

It is another beautiful winters day and our last sunrise in Eze this morning was as spectacular as ever.

It is now 11am and we are on the train enroute to Bordeaux.  We have just left Cannes train station.  We will arrive in Bordeaux tonight at 7.15pm where we change trains for Bergerac.  We will arrive at Bergerac at 9.30pm.  From there we’ll catch a taxi to the airport to pick up Melinda’s car and drive to Larocal.

This part of the train trip runs along the coast, literally following the sea.  It is very pleasant with the sun streaming in through the windows.  The train has few passengers today and SNCF (French railways) haven’t bothered lighting up the seat numbers so everyone is sitting wherever they like which is great because we can spread out. 

I saw the sign this morning on the train from Eze to Nice in regards to travelling without a ticket and I quote ‘ you can approach the conductor on the platform before boarding the train OR on the train’ Grrrr!!! wish we had enough courage the other day to find the sign and point this out to the nasty blonde.  I must let it go!

Yesterday we caught the train to Monaco.  What an interesting place with an interesting history.  It was only a 15-minute trip round the coastline from Eze.  We went on the open bus tour which is always worthwhile.  It was a great way to have a quick and informative look around the place.  Lucky for us we were in time to watch the changing of the guard at the Prince's Palace.  

In the harbour area a Christmas park was set up similar to the one in Nice.  We had lunch there – Jim had a hamburger that he really enjoyed and I had French onion soup.  Thought I should try it at least once before we leave France.  It was yummy not like eating a bowl of onions as Jim thought it would although I admit it did repeat on me later again and again.

Tuesday 17 December

Here we are back in Larocal.  We arrived 10.30pm on Sunday night as planned.  No hiccups - Whew!  The girls, Lola & Fizz were happy to see us even at that late hour.

The weather seems milder than when we were here three weeks ago.  It has been frosty in the mornings but the days have been reaching 9 degrees and the sun has been out for part of the day, that helps.  Melinda turned the central heating on while we were away, what a big difference it makes to our comfort level. 

 

Yesterday morning the girls were keen to go for a walk remembering that is what we do together.  It is now Tuesday afternoon and time for our afternoons walk, so off we go.  Talk again soon. 

Have a look at Flickr; we have loaded photos of Grasse, VillaFranche and Monaco.

View from the look out from the Prince's Palace

The Prince's Palace

The French Foreign Legion wandering sightseeing

Christmas decorations with the Monte Carlo Casino in the background

French rail saga continues…

Melinda, the homeowner of our Larocal housesit suggested we should visit the town of Grasse while we are in Eze.  I Googled Grasse - it is known as the perfume capital of the world and then remembered Patrick Suskind’s novel ‘Perfume’.  Both Jim and I have read the book and seen the movie adaption ‘Perfume: The Story of a Murderer’ while I was working at the Mt Beauty Library.  Based on the book and the movie Grasse seemed worthy of a visit.  Anyway, the easiest and most direct route is to catch the train from Eze to Grasse - via Nice & Cannes, an hour and a quarter one-way trip. 

On Wednesday we were ready to brave the trains again.  Surprise surprise! The ticket machine at Eze was still out of order – no worries we were prepared to approach the conductor ON the platform to purchase our tickets.  The conductor doesn’t speak English but he understands what we are saying and we understand enough of what he is trying to tells us - sit behind his door and buy our tickets after Nice.  We arrive at Nice and he packs up and gets off the train.  Jim and I look at each other in a mild state of panic and say ‘what do we do now’ but it is okay he is explaining to the conductor who is taking over from him about us (we assume because he is pointing at us, smiling and winking).  The new conductor hops on and says he can’t sell tickets, as his computer is not working.  Jim is calm and says great ‘they owe us 70 Euros’.  My concern is the ticket police are going to board the train at every station and we would have to drag the conductor out to verify our story.  It all ended okay, arriving in Grasse the conductor waved us goodbye so we did get the trip for free, it should have been 20 Euros but it wasn’t a relaxing trip.  The return trip was more relaxing as the ticket office was open and we purchased our tickets prior to getting on the train. 

The old town (village centre) of Grasse was a steep climb up from the railway station.  It was cute with the typical French of old, rocky windy narrow streets now full of shops and a few perfume museums with shops attached.  Needless to say we didn’t’ buy any perfume but it was interesting to visit the town and we visited one museum.  That night we downloaded the free version of the movie Perfume and watched it again.  It was surprising how much Grasse featured in the movie, I’d forgotten. 

On Thursday morning Nicola, our apartment owner informed us the train and buses will be on strike Thursday and Friday but there will be a limited timetable.  She says this is normal for France.  The railways often strike on Thursday and Friday so they can have a long weekend then the buses go out because they feel overworked due to the extra load of passengers from the train strike.  Another interesting thing that happens in France that I think is a good thing, they have ‘jour rouge’ – red days.   The government declares red days throughout the year.  On these days the electricity usage can be charged up to 9 times the normal rate between the hours of 6am and 10pm.  It is to make people and in particular businesses more aware of their usage.  Most householders do not wash or use their dryers on these days and some businesses even close for the day.  This week it ran from Monday to Thursday, lucky it went back to normal today we were running out of undies and I only hand wash in India and if Jim had to hand wash he would just go without.

Today, Friday another sunny day.  We walked from Eze to Ville Franche-Sur-Mer beach.  It only took an hour and that was at a slow pace.  There was one restaurant/café opened on the beachfront.  We thought it would be nice to enjoy a drink in the sun but 2 coffees was going cost 9 Euros ($12).  We could have paid it but thought no, that is a silly waste of money. 

Tomorrow we plan to visit Monaco.  The buses will be back to normal and it is only a 15-minute bus ride.  We don’t plan on doing anything special in Monaco like visit the casino.  We'll wander around and look at things as we do. 

Sunday will be a big day on the train as we make our way back to Larocal.  We leave the apartment at 9am and arrive back in Larocal about 10.30pm.

Will write again early next week when we are back with Lola & Fizz. 

The old town of Grasse - residential street 

Sculpture in Grasse

The shopping area of the old town of Grasse

VilleFranche Beach - beautiful clear water

Looking up from VilleFranche Beach

Happy & Jim swimming - oops, I need my glasses - it isn't us afterall

Endless sunshine

It is day 14 for us in Eze.  We are amazed the sun has been shining every day since we arrived bar our second day when it was rainy and windy.  It really is a magical place with its microclimate.  Every day is ground-hog day, we wake to a brilliant pink sunrise shining through the window – it is beautiful looking out over the sea. 

Since my last blog we have had a couple of day trips.  

On Saturday we visited the village of Eze.  It is the medieval village that sits on the rocky outcrop behind Eze Bord de Mer (Eze on the sea – where we are).  It was a 20-minute bus ride up the mountain.  The village is amazing the way it sits on top of the mountain.  It is a labyrinth of windy rocky streets.  Now days the houses of past are shops, art galleries and restaurants.  At the very top there is an exotic garden of cactus and succulents.  The gardens are dotted with sculptures of ladies and each lady has a plaque with a comment.  We loved it all – the views, the gardens and the ladies.  It is amazing to think the sculptor was a man.  Sorry no offence but, the comments were so in-tune to a ladies thoughts. 

Sunday was a quiet day spent enjoying the sun and views from our veranda and a wander around the streets in our neighbourhood as hilly as it is.

Monday – we caught the bus to Nice (I am over the trains for a while) to wander around the flea market.  The flea market has been running for at least 20+ years because that is how old the ‘visitors guide’ is in the apartment.  The market is a mostly antique affair which I love, shame we couldn’t buy anything.  After the market we took the tourist toy train around Nice.  You remember it is one of our favourite touristy things to do.  We were so excited when we saw it pass by.  Jim ran into the middle of the road to ask the driver where we boarded.  We made our way to the starting point and half an hour later we were on our way.  The views from the top of the mountain overlooking Nice were fantastic. 

Today, Tuesday was another quiet day here at the apartment.  We searched for accommodation for our two nights in KL.  We found an appealing B&B near the airport.  It will be ideal as we only have one full day in KL after leaving Phuket in between our flights home.

http://www.rumahputih.com/Rumah_Putih/Rumah_Putih_Bed_and_breakfast_hotel_near_KLIA_and_LCCT.html 

Catch up with Jim’s great photos on Flickr of the gardens at Eze village, the tour of Nice and the beautiful sunrises from our apartment. 

A streetscape of Eze village

View from exotic gardens overlooking Eze Bord de Mer

Jim - with the endless sea behind him

I liked this plaque from the sculpture of Isabeau

One tiny section of the flea market in Nice 

A 'selfie' with Nice in the background

Do you know what this is?

Bloody bloody bloody!!!!!!

It is a fine for ticket evasion – can you believe it?

The story is today we went to catch the train into Nice.  The ticket machine was not operational which, is a common occurrence we have been told.  Obviously we have been lucky up till now we have been able to buy our tickets without any problems. 

No worries, we will buy our tickets from the conductor on the train that is what our German friend from last weeks train trip to the market told us. 

We have been on the train only a few minutes when Jim catches the eye of the conductor.  He asks for two return tickets and extends his hand to her with the 10.40 Euros ($15) fare whilst explaining the ticket machine wasn’t working.  She looks down on us dismissing Jim’s offer of cash and says that will be 35 Euros ($50) each because we boarded the train without a ticket. 

Jim tries to explain again about the machine and us buying a ticket now.  The stoic good looking blonde is as hard as nails and relentless in demanding 70 Euros ($100) from us. 

Jim explains we were told we could buy the ticket from the conductor – she says yes that is correct but you have to approach the conductor on the platform before you board the train. 

What !@?**  you are kidding me – how are we to know this.  

The technicality being buy the ticket before you get on the train as the sign says BUT the sign is on the inside of the train as she also points out to us.  

I said to Jim thinking back our German friend from last week may have mentioned this & we have both seen the notice in regards to travelling without a ticket but nothing about having to purchase the ticket prior to boarding the train - too late to piece it all together after the event and lacking confidence to find that sign to prove a point. 

I was so upset I felt like crying but I thought I wouldn’t cry in front of this robotic blonde.  I was feeling so good up till then with my new smart looking haircut and blow wave from the hairdressers visit earlier that morning. 

Now that I have come to terms with our loss of money and the unfairness of the situation I will tell you about the hairdresser.  It is common in France for hairdressers to do home visits so we asked Nicola if she knew of one and she gave us Meri’s number.  Meri was lovely, an American about our age who has been living in France for the past 14 years.  

Jim had a hair and beard trim and looks very neat again.  He was looking very woolly.  I had a trim and she blow waved my hair straight.  It looks good for a few days till I wash it again and it goes into it’s normal state of every which way. 

New hair always makes you feel good until........

Looking neat and tidy again

Jim standing in front of Bono's (U2) house on Eze beach

Sunrise this morning from our bedroom window

One year on!

Sunday 1 Dec  - It is a year today since we flew out of Brisbane for our time abroad.  Looking back it has been many things; exciting, exhilarating, fun and then the other not so good things like feeling scared, anxious and apprehensive at times.

Obviously, being together every day with very little time to ourselves, has not always been easy.  Jim can suffer from anxiety in situations where he feels he doesn’t have control and that is a lot when travelling.  My dreamy attitude as he puts it makes his anxiety worse – difficult at times to find a balance for us both but we have survived this far – experiencing occasional days of quiet times, both needing our own space also difficult to achieve when having to share the same house or hotel room where outdoors for me to walk and get away on my own has very rarely been an option.  Jim is happy so long as he has TV and his IT gadgets to play with.  I am so grateful I can practise yoga anywhere well, almost anywhere.  It has not always been easy but here in Eze it is a joy to practise overlooking the ocean.  It helps to keep me balanced both emotionally and physically.  Enough of that emotional stuff most people don't like discussing it.  I’ll put you off reading the blog I just felt like being honest about how we are coping during our time away.  

Looking towards the marinara on our walk for lunch

Mussels for lunch

After a wet and windy day yesterday (Saturday) today was brilliant sunshine.  We walked along the roadway between the mountains and the coastline into Beaulieu Marina for lunch.  A promenade of restaurants line one side of the marina and the boats line the other.  We walked along and ooh(ed) and aah(ed) at the impressive boats docked side by side, so many, so much money – typical of marinas the world over.  Forgot to mention the apartment has a set of binoculars that are great for looking at the cruise ships, sailing boats and other craft sailing by.  It is quiet at this time of year but I can imagine how busy it is out there over the peak summer months of July and August.

For lunch I had mussels cooked in white wine with French fries – moules & frites with a Belgian beer Grimbergen.  It goes together really well.  There were so many mussels; there must have been half a kilo.  I did this for you – Peta and Frank.  They were great.  Lucky we walked to and from the marina to walk off the meal.  Jim had a hamburger, salad and fries.  He said it was good.  He finds it amazing he has been asked the few times he has had a burger in Europe ‘how would he like the burger cooked’ – that doesn’t happen in good old Oz.

Jim admired the cars which drove past while we were having lunch: Porsche, Bentley, Maserati, convertible this, convertible that.  Our convertible mini would have been right at home here.  They are as common as muck as the saying goes but mind you we haven’t seen a burnt orange one yet.  Stu, would love it here with all these beautiful cars – we even saw a few ‘new’ rangas.

Tuesday 3 Dec

Today we caught the train into Nice, only fifteen minutes along the coast.  For a large town the city centre had a good feel.  In a large park near the beach there is a Christmas village of sorts set up with stalls selling all Christmas paraphernalia; food, gifts rides and even an ice-skating rink.  We had a ride on the ferris wheel.  It was fantastic value for 7 Euros each ($10) and the views were spectacular.  You must look on Flickr for the views – you’ll work out which photos they are.

Beautiful Christmas decorations along the streets of Nice

The ferris wheel

View from the ferris wheel

In the Christmas village we had ‘Socca’ a traditional Nice dish for lunch.  It is made of ground chickpeas and olive oil cooked in a super large pan in a wood oven.  Looks like a pancake or flat bread or pizza base, you get the idea.  It was yummy.  It would have gone well with olives and cheese.  

Needing a toilet we decided to venture into McDonalds, always a good toilet stop if you see a McDonalds that is.  Anyway, this McDonalds you had to buy something to get the code for the toilet door – they are obviously sick of people abusing their toilets so Jim bought a thick shake and I bought a hot chocolate and a macaroon.  Yum! The French are very good at hot chocolate and McDonalds is no exception, it was real chocolate.  A bit embarrassed to admit being in the home of the macaroon we hadn’t had any (as yet) they always looked a bit sweet, I know that sounds rich coming from me who loves cakes and biscuits but I don’t like overly sweet things.  Anyway I chose a rose one and it was delicious.  A bit of worry really because know I won’t hesitate to buy more.  I would like to try one of each colour before we leave France.