Frejus

Our visit to Frejus was yesterday, but due to having a few wines, and chatting with Walter, Hans and Gerrit, my blog was never written last night.   It was a really lovely evening though.  

Today we did nothing, just coffee with a friend, and then grocery shopping.   I finished off the book I found on my Kindle, the one I had downloaded and then forgotten.   The weather was glorious today, and the campsite was filling up with people, not just retirees, but families as well.   As I write this I can hear children's voices.   

But back to Frejus, a lovely old town with heaps of history attached to it.   It was not as charming as the hill top villages we have visited or as well looked after but it certainly had heaps of character.

It was market day, so we arrived to find stalls everywhere and crowds of people.  

I took the photo below so that I would know which street we needed to walk along to get back to the carpark.   One time we parked the car, and in our attempt to find somewhere to buy lunch, we did not look at the street sign, or take note of anything around the car.   It took ages to find the car again.  We learnt our lesson well.  In fact there were no worries in Frejus as it was easy to find our way around this town.

Another narrow street.

 The beautiful plane tree shading the market square.

 I saw a stall selling women's cotton trousers, and I thought a pair would be perfect for next summer in Adelaide.   The seller pointed to the extra long ones and insisted that I needed an XXL size.   Now I know most French women are very slim, and a 42 or 44 trouser often does not fit me in France.  However I did not think I was that huge.   Anyway I parted with twelve euros and off I went.   I tried them on  this morning and they were hilarious, the bottoms come down below my feet and the waist nearly came up to my armpits.   And I am going to have to take them in as well.   Never trust a man.   I washed them today, hoping they will have shrunk!

 It was time for lunch, not long after we arrived, so we chose a pizza place in the old square.   It was a glorious day.

 The view of the restaurant next to us.   Remember, Aaron and Kylie, this was were we chose to eat lunch when we were with you.

 A very large vegetarian pizza, with a thin crust, so we managed to eat one each.

 The Mairie, the town hall.   A lovely well maintained building.

 Now before I continue with the photographs I must give a little information about Frejus.  The Roman city of Forum lulli was established here under Julius Caesar about 49 BC on the banks of the River Argens, and on the edge of a large bay.  It was an important place in terms of communication routes, either by land or by sea.   Later on an amphitheatre, a theatre, an aqueduct and thermal baths were also built, and it became a town of great status.

Last time we came here with Aaron, Kylie, Mia, Abi and Raphy we visited all the Roman buildings and they were most impressive.   Yesterday we decided that we would explore the streets instead.

The Medieval Cathedral with its cloister in the centre.    This photograph is taken from the side of the building.

The inside of the Cathedral, dark as usual due to the lack of windows.

 The Cathedral from the front.    There is an archaelogical museum beside the Cathedral.   So much history in this building.

 We continued on and found ourselves outside the Museum of Local History, which portrayed the social, economic and cultural life of Frejus in the 19th and 20th centuries.   The building itself was fascinating, as it reflected the changes it went through in the 19th century, although probably originally built in the 16th century.  It had a huge stone sink in it, a wide fireplace, beautiful stairwell and every floor was tiled.   We also noticed that the steps at the back of the house were made of marble.   A house which belonged to people who had the means to live extremely comfortably.

There were various scenes set up through out the house.   This one was the kitchen scene.

 The back garden, with the beautiful old plane tree.   Various scenes were set up out here showing farm land village life in the area.

 The beautiful staircase and tiled floor.   The house was also large, and spread over three floors, with two or three rooms on each floor.

 I loved the lace caps that women wore in the 1800s.

There were also displays showing a grocery shop and a living room, plus lots of pottery and other artifacts.   Plus a display of the costumes that were used in the yearly procession of the Bravado, in honour of St Francis of Paolo.   He was a Calabrian monk who was said to have stopped the plague in Frejus in 1482.

The school room.

 We went back outside again and were immediately drawn to the elegant building opposite.   Very grand.

 I could not resist taking a photograph of the electricity lines that were attached to the side of the building in the lane way.   One would have to be careful about sticking one's head out too far and getting zapped. 

So after a couple of hours of wandering around we decided it was time to head back to camp.   This took some time as we decided to go back via the coast road, and it was extremely slow going until we passed the turnoff to St Tropez.   It is certainly not our idea of a holiday to stay in such cramped and busy areas, even if they are deemed to be very upmarket and exclusive. 

Caravan repairs

It is now 9.30 pm, and my head has been glued to a story I found on my Kindle.   A story that I had forgotten I had downloaded, a bit of a find really as I am desperate to find something to read, other than newspapers.   I think I have read everything about Brexit, and governments, and elections, and none of it is great reading.   Depressing really. The bar has been closed since Sunday so I cannot look for a book in the stack of books that people leave there.  I cannot download books onto the Kindle reader, as the wifi that I have paid to use, only allows two electronic devices, and I have used that up with my telephone and laptop.   Woe betide me!

We spent the day in the campsite, with the idea of fixing up all the problems with the caravan.   It has been a windy day, but mostly sunny, so a good day for getting washing dry, and sticking strong waterproof tape to the windows of the caravan.

But first, a lovely coffee with a friend, and a catch up on what has happened during the past year.   By this time the washing had dried so we were able to get it in and put away.    The washing was done in the big washing machine here for nine euros.    No handwashing, those days are long gone.

Then it was lunch time, followed by the required rest for an hour.   Nothing to read though except for online newspapers.   Bah.

Finally at 2 pm we made a start on the caravan.    Walter got out the new roll of waterproof tape, plus a bottle of acetone, great stuff and freely available from supermarkets here.   Not the same stuff for removing nail polish, a little too strong but smells the same,   It is fantastic for removing old sticky tape or adhesive from caravans.

First off, the back window of the caravan which has a large crack in it.   In fact three of the caravan windows have cracks in them, which we have taped up over the years.   The hot weather and general climate here plays havoc with the caravan exteriors.   A few years ago we bought a caravan cover, which lasted less than two years before it disintegrated.   The joys of having a caravan in storage and exposed to the elements.

First Walter took off the old tape with the acetone, which I then washed down with water.   When it was dry he put the new tape on, lots of it.   My job was to take off the temporary insect screen inside, which was falling off anyway.   We will no longer be here during very hot weather, so no need to worry about mozzies in the little room.  I also put up the blind, which had fallen off, and it works. 

Walter is not wearing appropriate colours for working on caravans.   

 Now one may wonder why not replace the windows.   They cost thousands of Euros to replace, which is why we have not done so.   Expensive parts of a caravan.   They are double glazed windows here, unlike in Australia and New Zealand.

Walter looking a bit cheesy, as he pulls another strip off the roll of tape.   We chose grey tape, which is decidedly better than the orange tape we put on the windows previously.

 After taping the side window and the front window, Walter took his trusty acetone up onto the roof in order to take off old adhesive around the broken vent.   He then applied plenty of adhesive to a new vent, plus his hands, shirt and shorts.   Luckily the acetone took the adhesive off his hands, shirt and shorts, especially as the white shirt is new.   He maintains his white shirt is only a little dirty now.

 In the meantime, I washed the net curtains, cleaned the edges of the windows and fixed the corner of the side window.   The curved part in the photograph below.   The curved part is a separate piece and not attached to the rest of the frame.  it had moved downwards and was no longer stopping the window from sliding sideways when opened.   All I did was unscrewed the curved part, moved it back into its correct position and then screwed it back in again.   And hey presto it was fixed.   Why did I not do this years ago.

 

So now the caravan is looking good and secure for another year or two.

So to celebrate we sat down to lovely red wine for me, and a delicious non alcoholic beer for Walter.   We were feeling very pleased with ourselves.

And now back to my book, which no doubt I will finish tonight and then I will have nothing to read again.   The joys of being idle.   Well nearly idle.

Lunch in Collobrieres

The village of Collobrieres is most definitely our favourite village.   And if people think they have seen all these photographs before, you are most certainly correct.   I have written quite a few blogs about Collobrieres.  However each experience is different, as we usually go there with family members, or friends, and we see it through their eyes.   So hopefully my blogs have been different.

  This time we were on our own, and it was definitely a quick walk around the village, no lazy meandering around discussing various buildings, streets or plants.

I still managed to take quite a few photographs though.

Collobrieres is a Provencal village at the bottom of the valley of the Massif des Maures.  This is a range of hills where Camping Manjastre is also situated, although we are near the coast, and Collobrieres is further inland, in a valley.  

At the top of the village there was a ruined church, St Pons, which we have not walked up to for years, which gave an excellent view of the village below.   This church was built in the 12th Century, so a significant building.   

The village is known for being the centre of chestnut growing and production, and in fact it is still an industry, albeit a much smaller one these days.   We decided against having a chestnut ice cream. However I did have a chestnut dessert, Creme de Marron, which is creamed chestnut, topped with yogurt.   I really like it, but an acquired taste I think.

As there is a range of hills between us, and Collobrieres, we can either take a long route towards Hyeres, and then across to Pierrefeu, and then down the valley, or go through a pass via La Londe or go over the top of the hills.   

The latter route is loved by cyclists, which adds to the terror of driving on this road.   It is narrow, with steep sides to one side of road, twisty and added to the excitement or terror, whichever way one looks at it, there are the cyclists coming down, either on our side or the Collobrieres side.   They travel in the middle of the narrow road, and usually at great speed   It is very scary to see a cyclist come belting down towards you, and there is no where to go, on one side a sheer cliff face, and on the other a sheer drop down.   We have had some some near misses.   

Today we drove the leisurely way there, through the lovely hilltop town of Pierrefeu, which we often say we must visit.

Lunch at our favourite restaurant, a very popular one, as it is always crowded outside on the terrace.   Walter ordered a local salad and I ordered a prawn casserole, which came out as a small bowl of creamed fish soup, with a pastry top.   It had two prawns, and one scallop. in it   It was mouthwatering delicious.  I noticed other people had this as an entree, but it was under the main course part of the menu.   It was enough for me.   Plus the Creme de Marron.   Walter ordered ice cream for his dessert.

The inside of the restaurant had been renovated, and it looked really glamorous.   Even the front has had a face lift, with a repaint job, plus new tables and chairs.

The square, with plane trees and town hall at the end.   I always love this square.

The main street, which was very quiet during siesta time.

More houses on the main street.

One of the narrow streets which leads up to the square at the top.

The Catholic church, at the end of the square, with the school on the left hand side.   This church is relatively new, regardless of its appearance.   Probably built in the late 1800s.

The inside of the church, with the 3D diorama of Mary and Jesus, behind the altar.   Another dark church.

I think this is the presbytery.   A beautiful building with blue shutters. There is no religious significance with the blue shutters, it is just a popular colour in this part of France.  I think we made up a story a few years ago, and connected the shutters with the blue of Our Lady.   It sounded good at the time.

This was a very beautiful garden. 

Collobrieres is made up of narrow cobbled streets, and the higher one gets, the narrower the street.

A lovely collection of plants and pots.

We love this little square.   Once Walter took a photograph of an old woman sweeping the pavement, but I think she has passed away, as the area was very untidy.

Walter took this photograph of me, having a little rest in the square.

He also took this photograph of a narrow flight of steps leading up to the houses above.   There were no Bougainvillea growing against the houses here, too cold in winter I think.   Instead there were beautiful climbing roses, many perfumed, plus Jasmine.

And the last narrow street, but no cobblestones here.

We took the marrow road, which I guess was a pass, and it came out at La Londe.   A very beautiful road, running between the forest of cork oaks.

This morning we went to La Faviere to have our coffee, due to the electricity being turned off in the area of Camping Manjastre.   Apparently there was tree pruning near electricity wires.   The upshot of it was, we could not make our coffee.   We sat around for half an hour and then decided we were getting desperate for our coffee fix so headed off to the nearest cafe, which we knew had decent coffee.

Our view from outside the cafe.   There were not many customers but we enjoyed looking at the people walking past, or often running past.  It is an area where people like to exercise in the morning.  Lots of people in shorts and lycra.   Even the dogs looked energetic.  Quite different from Cafe Centre in Le Lavandou, where people get dressed up to go out and have coffee or generally just leisurely take a slow walk.

So we have finished another great day in the south of France.   Time is going by too fast.

A quiet Sunday

It was definitely a quiet Sunday, here at the camping ground.  Unfortunately the weather was cloudy, rainy and quite cold at times.

But what does one do on a cold and rainy Sunday.   Shops are closed in the afternoon.   We could have gone to a restaurant, but we had already ordered a chicken from the bar here.   

So our day went like this.   I went to Mass at Bormes les Mimosa and found out it was Mothers Day in France, and like Britain, they prefer to have their own day, rather then join in with most other countries.  All the mothers were handed a red rose as they came out of the church.  A nice touch.

By the way my religious French is improving.   Luckily some of it is in Latin, that helps!

It was cold and wet up on the hill so I did not feel like lingering too much.   I decided to come back via the twisty road behind  the village and then down the equally twisty D98 to the campsite.   Now that was a mistake, as there was a cycle race going on and I had to contend with mad cyclists all the way down.   I could not pull over to let them pass, nor could I travel faster then them, so they passed me, risking their lives, as they could not really see what was coming up the hill.   I was given a few finger signals for getting in their way.   Mad cyclists in this country.

Walter waiting for his take away chicken   He was also starting to feel cold in his shorts.

 Our lovely chefs at the campsite, who cooked the chickens in the new rotisserie oven.   I think the rotisserie will be a big success this coming summer.  We also ordered frites, and I had cooked green beans to go with the chicken and frites.

It was very jolly in the bar, with people having pre lunch drinks, but we had our wine and beer already on the table outside the caravan. 

Walter, now dressed in tracksuit bottoms rather than shorts, ready to start a delicious lunch.   And it was too.

 After lunch, and a short snooze, we decided to drive to Cabasson, and then on to the Port of La Londe.  The area we drove through had been devastated by a bush fire two years ago.  Amazingly the cork oaks, like eucalyptus trees, spring back into life again after being burnt.   The undergrowth had also grown back and it was hard to believe that the area was a scene of desolation a year ago.

I was driving, so no photographs.

The Port of La Londe is quite a beautiful spot, and not really on the tourist trail.   Quite the hidden gem.   Today it was very busy, with loads of people celebrating Mothers Day.   We each bought a huge ice cream, which we enjoyed very much.   We sat on the orange plastic chairs, which the ice cream place generously provided, and watched the world go by.   Very pleasant.

 The sun was out by now, and it was lovely and warm, so off came the jackets again.  Sunshine really makes such a difference.

 A photograph of another restaurant that we once really liked, and went to often, and we took different members of the family to eat there.   Then on the last visit, we received indifferent service and food, so that was the end of that restaurant.

A large boat, which looked very comfortable.   Still not large enough for my liking.

 A view across the small harbour.

And from there we drove home, and spent the rest of the afternoon reading.  As one does on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

And it rained again this evening, just as we sat down to chicken and salad.   When will we get some decent warm weather I wonder.

I have now finished the day off writing this blog.    Sundays.

A walk from La Faviere to Le Lavandou

A walk from La Faviere to Le Lavandou, and plenty of steps achieved on this walk.   Sadly it was a gloomy morning but there were plenty of people out walking or running so we were not alone.

Housekeeping in the morning takes no time at all when there are only two of us, and we are usually ready to go out at 10 a.m.    The sun canopy at the front of the caravan is great for protecting the outdoor kitchen, and for two of us to sit under, but hopeless if you have any more people, especially if it starts to rain or there is a chilly wind.   This we found last year when Emma, Jackson and Isabel joined us for the UK half term break.

A gloomy day, with an easterly wind.   However ideal walking weather.

The fountain was on in La Faviere.   Not often we see it on in the square.

A collection of beautifully maintained grasses.

The market was on, this Saturday morning, so we had a quick look around, but of course no point in buying anything as we have not the weight allowance.   I saw some really lovely colourful bowls too.   Such a pity.

We started on the walk, and the first point of interest was 'The Bird of the Soul' statue.   The naked muscular man, holding a dove (I think) up high.   I looked it up on the internet and found the name of the statue but not much more information, unfortunately.

The view across the Port of La Faviere.    It was once the port of the hill side village of Bormes Les Mimosa and is still known by that name, I think.

As we walked around the point there was the view of the first beach and Le Lavandou in the distance.
A deserted beach, except for two people sunbathing, full clothed, in cloudy weather.   I do not think they went for a swim.

The first part of the walk was on a board walk, and it was very busy.   Great to see.

The lounges, plus the restaurant.   They are certainly becoming more sophisticated in their layout.

A green and stripy theme.

And the teal theme.   I notice that there is always an outside lounge area, plus different sunlounger arrangements.

The high rise apartments are very well cared for these days.   I can remember when many of them were leaching rust and peeling paint.   It is definitely a much more prosperous area.

The Cote D'Azur did not live up to its name today.    No clear blue sky colour at all.

The La Rotonde restaurant, which is the first one in this photograph.   We used to go there on every trip we made to the south of France, and then the waiter left, and the place went downhill.   So we stopped going there.   However, it now looks like a thriving restaurant again, as do the other restaurants alongside of it.  The council have made new garden beds beside the pavement, and it all looks very smart. 

Remember the photograph of the colourful chairs, with the name Le Lavandou cut out on the backs.   The chairs have been placed in groups along the beach front, and we wondered how long they would last.   Well we noticed today chains placed around poles every so often.   It would appear that someone brings the chairs together every evening and chains them up, with a lock of course.   Then the next morning someone unlocks the chains and then puts them out into groups again.   A very thoughtful council, with a bit of money to spare. 

In the supermarket today I noticed these very long succulent leaves.   The leaves from an Aloe Vera plant.  Huge leaves too.  The gel is excellent for skin complaints but not sure why it is being sold in the vegetable section of the supermarket.   Very interesting.

The sun came out this afternoon, and it was altogether very pleasant back at the campsite.