Le Lavandou for coffee, on a bitterly cold day

We went into Le Lavandou last Friday, for coffee.   It was such a cold day, bitter wind, raining and the temperature just managing to reach 15 degrees.   We also looked around the shops, and I bought a thick cardigan, 40% wool, plus a new scarf.   It was that sort of day.   Even the beautiful cotton shirts at my favourite shop did not cause me to stop and browse and buy.   It certainly was a nasty day, weatherwise.

We went to our favourite cafe, the name escapes me, just at this point.   But we have always loved being there, sitting on comfortable chairs, looking out at the people walking by.   On this day everyone was rugged up.   They reminded me that I needed a new scarf!   

We chose to move inside, partly due to the cold wind outside and partly due to the woman sitting beside me, who was blowing cigarette smoke in my face.   We sat by the large window with a great view of the people walking by.   We also thought about how much money we have spent in this cafe over the years.   Ir was definitely one of those days.

The view outside the cafe window, minus the people walking past.   I am positive they did not want to be in the photograph.

We walked down the shopping street, and luckily the wind was less cold here.   Walter posing beside one of the newly pruned plane trees.

I could not resist take photos of the plants.   No doubt people will be absolutely sick of palms, succulents and such like, by the time we leave the south of France.   But so important for my garden plans.   I hope my head gardener, Darren is reading these blogs.

I think this is a very stubby Yukka.

An assortment of council plantings, beautifully cared for too.   Plus the palms in the background.   If this happened in Aldinga Beach, then I would really grow to love palms and succulents.

More sculptured Yuccas.

In front of the town hall there is the yearly garden display.   This year it has a farm theme, with live chickens as part of it.

Sand plus succulents and palms,

and Australian grass trees too, or am I mistaken here.

While I am talking about plants, the following ones will not be in our garden in Aldinga Beach.

The enormous stripy succulents, with spiky points, loved by Camping Manjastre.   There are quite a few oversized specimens here, one is opposite our site.   It looks fantastic in the photograph.  The demolished looking one on the right is in a corner of our garden.   Wrong position.   It is nowhere near the size of the one on the left, but I am having great trouble getting it out.   I cut all the leaves off, but it is waiting for me to return and try and dig the roots out. 

The Prickly Pear!   I think it is banned in Australia anyway.   It used to grow in the scrubby outback of Australia, which made the land useless for cultivation until someone found a herbicide that killed it off.   A bit drastic but it is not a native of Australia.   The Prickly Pear has red fruit which apparently is delicious once the spikes are taken off, and I have seen them for sale in Harrods, in London.

Scott found out the hard way, when he was a child.   He tried to pick the fruit of this prickly pear, which was at the campsite, and ended up with a handful of prickles.   It took him ages to pull them all out.

 The Oleander, a very poisonous plant, but with beautiful flowers.   We had a couple of Oleander bushes in our garden at Henley Beach, and the rabbit used to nibble on the leaves, and not be affected by the poison.   It was a tough rabbit.   I am not taking any chances though, so no Oleanders in our garden.

 I actually have a tiny specimen of this overgrown succulent.   It is in a small pot with coloured stones around it.   And that is how it will stay.   What a giant.

The remainder of last Friday was spent in the caravan, with the heater on, reading and snoozing and writing a blog.   I think I needed a good rest.   Luckily the weather has started to improve, with the promise of temperatures in the twenties in the future.

Hyeres, an historic city, plus an interest in plants

As I sit here about to write my blog, I cannot help but dwell on the result of the Australian elections.   It dominated our thoughts and discussions a fair bit during the day, as we waited on the results.    Of course the result was not to our liking, I might add, but the realisation that most people in Queensland voted Liberal really hit home.    Environment means nothing in this state obviously.   One overseas newspaper reporter commented on how sensible Queenslanders were, as they put employment before environmental issues.  I might add that the huge conglomerates that are behind the mining in Queensland, are into profits mainly, rather than ensuring employment in the state.  Queenslanders have always set themselves apart from the rest of Australia.   However we are talking about serious damage to a very fragile environment.   Scary!

We voted by the way. before we left Australia.     Voting booths were set up at various points for people to vote early.    Lucky for us there was an early voting booth at the shopping centre in Aldinga Beach.  

But back to the Cote D'Azur.     We are determined on this trip to visit all the places that we really love, plus a few more.   So today it is a visit to the historic town of Hyeres, with the main aim being the gardens at Castel Sainte-Claire, which are part of a villa high up above the town.   The garden surrounds a villa, and the then owner, an American novelist called Edith Wharton, developed the garden during the 1920s. 

Before I continue, I must explain that I am now fascinated by the planting of gardens and parks along the coast here.   When we lived in the UK and came to the south of France we took great interest in the forests of cork oak trees, the mimosa trees, the wildflowers, the plane trees in the squares plus the vineyards and olive groves.   I gave the gardens, and council plantings, only a cursory look, as they were mostly succulents, spiky plants, palms and such like.    Most uninteresting I thought, and many were to be avoided when walking along the footpath.

And then we moved back to Adelaide, and lo and behold, these same succulents and palms appeared in the gardens by the sea side there, and in the garden of the house we bought.   The plants had become very popular sometime during the twenty six years we were living away from the place.   I guess a drought, scarcity of water, very dry summers and currently the high price of watering a garden made a huge difference in the type of plants that people chose for their gardens.

Most of the plants in question are not native to the south of France nor are they native to South Australia, but both places have a similar climate.   Interestingly I have seen plenty of Australian bottle brush trees in full bloom (end of Spring here) and some Australian grass trees.  Or Xanthorrhoea I think they are called.

So I am on the lookout for ideas, for planting our garden at Aldinga Beach.    Therefore my blogs during the next few weeks will contain photographs of plants, plus descriptions of why they will be suitable or not suitable.   An innocent small succulent in a pot can grow into a massive uncontrollable garden problem if planted in the garden bed.   I have found this out when we had the big clear out before I left.  My apologies to the non gardener readers.   However I can assure you that some of the overgrown succulents are fascinating in their hugeness.   

But back to Hyeres, which is a beautiful town, with heaps of character.

Walter standing at the entrance to the winding and narrow street, which is lined with small shops.  

The narrow street opens up onto a square called Place Masillon, which has plenty of restaurants.  The bottom of the tower behind Walter belonged to the Knights Templer.  After we walked up to see the gardens we stopped here for lunch in the bar immediately behind Walter.   It was a very casual place, unlike the restaurants in the rest of the square.   This was reflected in the price as well.   Lunch cost us 21 Euros, and for that Walter had a baguette filled with ham, cheese and salad, and I had a home made Croque Monsieur (a baked ham and cheese sandwich).  We also followed up with two balls of ice cream each, in bowls, plus two espresso coffees.   The sun came out and altogether it was very pleasant.

High above Place Massillan there is a square, with a church behind it, the Eglise Saint Paul.  The view over the sprawling city of Hyeres,and out towards the coast is pretty spectacular on any day.   But today I heard the sound of loud drumming type of music coming from the houses below.   It sounded as if there were a band of drummers putting in some practice.   But no it was coming from one house.   On the roof balcony there was a man riding his exercise bike and waving his hands to the beat of the music.   He was also bare chested, but no he was not completely naked as I could see his shorts.   Still it was quite bizarre.   If you make the photograph below larger you will also be able to see him!  On the third roof on the lower right hand side of the photograph.

The inside of the Eglise Saint Paul.   Quite a plain church but the chairs were fascinating as they were made of transparent plastic.  Most unusual.

Hyeres is also known for its Bougainvillea shrubs growing up against the walls, seemingly in a few centimetres of soil, but no doubt the roots are well underground under the streets and houses.

I took note, this succulent needs to stay in a pot.

Finally in the gardens.  An untrimmed Yukka tree. 

The view looking over the town.

A trimmed Yukka tree.  Much better.

A small garden display of succulents.

 And more succulents, and I know that some of these will grow into very large plants, if left unattended. 

 A display of Bougainvilleas and climbing Jasmine.   We have the climbing Jasmine at home, but I am determined to find a place for a red or purple Bougainvillea, which I will keep in shape and not let it grow wild.   Famous last words.

 And finally we walked back down a narrow street to the carpark.

Looking forward to our next trip out tomorrow.

Europe awaits!

Finally the time has come to say a temporary goodbye to Adelaide, to the family and to Piper, our dog.     I found it quite hard to say goodbye to everyone, especially Piper who was being well looked after by the Palmer family, and to leave our lifestyle in Aldinga Beach.

However it is time to head back to Europe, to see Aaron, Kylie, Mia, Abi and Raphy, and to see some of our friends, and to visit Camping Manjastre again.    

Our first stop was the Adelaide Airport hotel, which was not quite two years old, and a very comfortable establishment too.    Industrial in its design, and quite the modern establishment, it came with a pleasant bar area, restaurant and a coffee machine in our room.   The latter being very important to us.   The super king bed was also very comfortable, as was the little lounge area.

The view from our room.    The tiled plaza between the airport and the carpark, which was quite a pleasant area, now that the trees have grown somewhat.   The hotel was attached to the airport buildings so that we only needed to walk a few metres to walk from the hotel to the airport.

And one may wonder why we needed to stay in a hotel, when all we needed to do was be driven to the airport three hours before the plane was due to leave.   This was not Heathrow, where one could be delayed due to the M25 being jammed with traffic, or the possibility of snow making roads impassable or any other likely problems which could delay us or not getting to the airport at all. 

Our stay in the hotel came about due to Walter misreading the time of departure, as he thought it was 9.50 in the morning, which meant someone had to get up early to take us, rather than 9.50 in the evening.  As he had booked the hotel, and paid for it, we thought it best to not waste our money.

And in fact it gave us a chance to have a good rest before the flight, and to be tourists in Adelaide during the day.  Plus we had a lovely coffee with Emma in the morning, as well as having a look at her work place.   We then went on to have a delicious lunch with Donna and Andreena. 

We had such an interesting day too, looking around North Terrace and the eastern end of Rundle Street.   Such beautiful old buildings, although new tall buildings are gradually nudging out the small old ones.   Adelaide loves knocking buildings down.  We are always amazed when driving on the streets, to find a bare plot of land, where only the week before there was a perfectly good house. 

But back to the area behind Rundle Street, which has been done up beautifully and a thriving area too, by the looks of all the restaurants.   A business district surrounds this part of town, where once there was a wholesale market.   A long time ago, but luckily the buildings were retained.

North Terrace with its beautiful park bordering the street, and old university buildings, museum, art gallery and library on the edge of the park.   Unfortunately the buildings on the city side of the street have become a mixture of old and new, with the new not always complementing the old.

We had a look around the relatively new, for us, state library.    Plenty of glass and interesting modern architecture.    And an airy cafe.    It was a pleasure to visit this library.    We walked into the Mortlock library, to have a look at the very old building, built in the Renaissance style with a mansard roof, and its contents, which consisted of displays which reflected life in South Australia, and historical events, plus shelves of old books.

This part of the library was opened in 1861, in the South Australian Institute buildings, and it was designed to house a range of books and cultural collections.  It went through a number of names, The Jervois Wing in 1861, the Bastyan Wing in 1967, the Spence Wing in 2003, until finally it become known as the Mortlake Chamber in 2004.    A man with the surname of Mortlake, who in 1986, gave a large donation to the library, roughly in the vicinity of a million or two dollars, and when the chamber was renovated in 2004, it became the Mortlake Chamber.   It is definitely worth a visit, not just for the building which was very beautiful but also for the displays on the ground floor.

We boarded our Emirates flight, after sitting for a while in the departure lounge in Adelaide.   There is a new international terminal being built in Adelaide, which desperately needs it.   At the moment a few of the domestic departure lounges are partitioned off, in order to create an international departures area.   So small town attitude.   But better times await for the future.

We squashed ourselves into the economy seats, which appear to have become narrower since we last flew economy.   The one trip where we flew premium economy and then business class has spoiled us, without a doubt.    In fact, once we settled in, and relaxed, the 13 hours went by very quickly, and I was even able to sleep for a number of hours.

Dubai was fascinating.    Such a busy hub, more so than Changi, Singapore, I think.   However, Changi has more quiet, comfortable places to rest, Dubai was just full of people.   The toilets were spotless though.   We no longer have lounge access which was why we probably found Dubai not so restful.    Coffee was very good.

Then it was off again, on a big A380.    Lots of room on this big brute, even in economy.   And the seats were bigger too.   A fantastic flight and so comfortable.   Service was excellent on Emirates, and the staff very friendly.  We had not been expecting this aspect when flying Emirates.

We landed in Nice, which was a little scary.  I turned off the camera view on my screen, as landing on a small piece of land, which jutted out into the sea, was too scary for my liking.   Such a huge plane to have to land on a small piece of land.   But they managed thank goodness, but one did feel the braking system coming on quite strongly.    Just as well, otherwise we would have been in the ocean.

Nice airport.   What can I say!   It was a shock to the system.   Dirty and disorganised, plus chaotic.   I have only ever taken people to this airport in order for them to fly back to the UK, or onto other destinations.  I have never actually arrived there by plane.    I am always aware that one has to be careful around Nice, regarding theft, mostly of wallets and handbags.   It is the only airport where I will not use the free wifi either.    There is quite a bit of deprivation around Nice, as there is in all the large towns and cities around here, but Nice has a busy airport, and a prime spot for a bit of crime.   Anyway we survived the experience, but it hit home that there was another side to the beautiful and affluent Cote D'Azur.   The coffee was unbelievably bad too.   So much so I could not drink it.

But things improved, the staff members at the Europecar rental agency were very helpful and  friendly, and we came away with an Audi for a very reasonable price.   A beautiful car to drive, and it has lots of toys in it, to keep us happy.

I drove into the city centre, and Walter helped the navigation system to find our way to the hotel, an Ibis Budget hotel.    The street was very narrow, and with no parking it was a little hair raising.   Walter booked into the hotel while I cruised around, trying not to hit pedestrians, other cars and scooter drivers.   We then parked in one of those French underground car parks that have narrow entrances and even narrower parking spaces.   But we managed, although it took me quite a few attempts to actually park the car.

The Ibis Budget hotel.   The rooms and hallways had been recently decorated, so of course spotlessly clean and fresh.   The breakfast the next morning was superb, no cheap tacky food there.

We went for a walk that evening, along the street with very pretty and well maintained buildings. 

In the centre of the road there were new tramlines, which made the road on either side extremely narrow.   However the trams provide a much needed public transport system.   Interestingly the tram lines were set in amongst beautifully green lawns. 

I am not sure what this building is, but it was rather attractive.

We had dinner at a popular pizza restaurant.   Excellent pizzas and friendly service.

More attractive buildings.    We never did get into the centre of Nice, due to needing to get to Camping Manjastre at a reasonable time.

Instead we headed to the Geant shopping centre to get our groceries, and have a spot of lunch at our favourite restaurant.   Good value meals there.    I think I look a little jet lagged still.

Our view at Camping Manjestre, when the sun was shining.

All set up, and it did not take too long either.   We so enjoyed the sunshine yesterday.

It is very quiet here, only a handful of campers really.   And today it has been cold, and rainy, with the average temperature about 15 degrees.   So after having coffee in Le Lavandou, and doing some shopping, we spent the day in the caravan with the heater on. Now one might say, that we have travelled a long way to spend the day in a caravan, with the heater on, when we could have been sitting in a large home, in Adelaide, with the heater on.    Same temperatures, same type of rain.   

The difference is we are in France!   And in Europe!

Green rubbish removal

Green rubbish removal, done on the worst day possible, with the daytime temperature only 15 degrees, heavy rain and wind.   But we had booked the trailer for this day, and Darren had a day off work, so there was nothing for it, but grit the teeth and get into it.

I am so pleased I bought my ankle length Wellington boots from the UK, and the waterproof trousers.  At least my feet and legs were dry.   I did have a raincoat too.   But sadly the leather gardening gloves became saturated. 

Walter and I had already separated some of the twigs, leaves and branches, into piles for shredding, wood for burning later, and green rubbish.  

Our new shredder!   My reasoning. why pay to dump the green waste, have it shredded there, and then buy it back again as mulch.    It probably would be easier and cheaper in the long run to do precisely this.   Still it is fun shredding small branches and tipping the crunched up debris into the compost bin.   Keeps us occupied.

Darren used to have a gardening business, so he still has all the tools for large scale pruning.   And the expertise too.

The Australian pine tree was trimmed back, and is no longer leaning on the fence.

All the overly large and brown Strelitzia branches were cut out.   They were so heavy, it took two people to carry them to the trailer.

It all looks so much better now, although we have a lot of bare fence showing, but at least we can tell what needs to be planted in between the trees.  Piper loved investigating the cleaned up area.

Now Darren is also a whizz at putting everything on a 6 x 4 trailer, and tying it down so that nothing moves or blows off.   First the pine branches were put on the trailer.   I was given instructions on how to place them with the trunk to the back of the trailer, so that the trunks could be pulled and then all the rubbish would come off with the branches.   Unfortunately I misinterpreted the instructions and put the trunks to the front of the trailer.   Anyway it still worked.

We then put the soft rubbish on, i.e. the succulents, Yukka leaves, and other bits and pieces.   Darren kept tying the rubbish down as we went along, without knots either.   Very clever.   We then placed the Strelitzia trunks and leaves on top, and finally a Yukka branch.   Then it was all tied down and off we went to the local dump.

Darren drove and reversed the trailer.   Such expertise.   I decided not to tell him about the trials I had reversing the caravan in Europe.

Walter and Darren untying the rope. 

And a few minutes later Walter and Darren started pulling the rubbish off the trailer.

Nearly finished.

And now we have a nicely cleaned up garden, all ready for some imaginative planting when we return from Europe.

My new leather gardening gloves have dried out very nicely, thank goodness.

Aldinga Marine Reserve

I am frantically trying to catch up with blogs before we fly off to Europe next week.   And this one, where I visited the Aldinga Marine Reserve, was an old one.   Last October, to be precise.   Emma, Steve, Jackson and Isabel had only been here for one month, and we had been here for four months.   It was mid Spring.

According to Wikipedia Aldinga Marine Reserve was named as such in November 1971, to protect 'aquatic plants and animals associated with the large intertidal limestone reef and the spectacular precipitous underwater cliff known as the 'drop-off' and the surrounding sandy substrate for the purposes of education and recreation'.   Fishing or collecting of any marine organism is prohibited but people can walk on the reef, snorkel, swim, scuba dive and use boats.

The reef extends out to sea for about two kilometres and is located just off Snapper Point, Aldinga Beach.

It is a fascinating place to walk out on, when the tide is out, and especially when the tide is very low, because it is possible to walk right out to the very edge.   It is important to wear old sneakers or sandals as the rock face has some very sharp points, and is quite slippery in places.

The view from Snapper Point as the tide is going out.

The reef is lined with narrow channels and pools of water.    Unlike in the UK where the tide can come in rapidly, there is plenty of time here to get back into shore again when the tide turns.

At the end there are lots of very deep rock pools, with crystal clear water.   On the day we walked out there were two people snorkelling, brave people I thought as the sharks love this area, due to the high number of fish lurking there.

Jackson was determined to jump into the sea at the end, and brave soul that he was too, as the water was freezing.   Forget about the sharks at that point.   He did not stay in very long, I might add.

The bird life out on the reef is fantastic. 

Another beautiful part of the coastline here.