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.