A day of beautiful French cliches

Uzes market 

Uzes market

Uzes market

Russ the washer woman

Goudaruges

Photo of the day in lavender fields

A very funny moment, it was all happening

Nearby borie

Its a balmy 22 degrees as we set off for the famous Saturday morning Uzes markets. I have heard all about this town and the markets from James and am eager to see. Russ is a bit of a whiz in his Peugeot handling corners with style. The markets are big, there is every type of fruit and vegetable, spices, nuts, clothes, but what I like best is the lavender bunches and products. Finally, we turn the corner and ta da the soap lady is there, 7 for 10 euros, don’t mind if I do. Hmm, lets get 7 different ones so we can try it all out. Jane and Russ effortlessly swap between English and impeccable French chatting with the soap lady. She remembers them coming to the stall with another Aussie. Hmm, wonder who that would be :)

Onwards we go to the chateau and the duke is in as the flag is flying. Russ explains that a chateau is a type of French castle that the nobility of the area live in, they are generally fortified. Russ and Jane are full of interesting tidbits, the one I like best is that the dukes grandmother was the first female in France to get a drivers licence. Finally, its time to skirt back through the market pick up some figs, prunes and almonds and continue the tourist trail.

The car GPS is speaking in French as we head to Goudargues, this amuses me, a lot. Though I am not sure Russ is paying attention to the GPS as he knows where he wants to go. Woah, wait…. Can we pull over? look at those sunflowers! Wow, I am in love with these fields. Snap, snap, moving on. Time to pull over again now we have found some lavender fields. Provence is exceeding expectations.

We are getting a bit peckish now, so onto Goudargues we go. Walking down the back way, I spy a covered area, Russ explains it is a wash house and that people still use it today. Its very cleverly designed with the water flowing in at the top and out at the bottom to then water the gardens. On we go a bridge or ten, untold beauty and lots of photos, no wonder its called the ‘Venice of the Gard’.  Time to pick one of the many restaurants, Russ seats Jane and I so we can see the canal, but what I like best is watching the people go in the bakery and come out with long baguettes sticking out of paper bags, again a cliched image of France but loving it.

We decide its time to move on, Russ has one or two tricks up his sleeve I am sure, the next village is Lussan. Its getting pretty hot now up to 36 degrees and its hard going but we check out all the sites and beauty of this hilltop village. On the road again and I am loving the driving up windy, picturesque roads, I don’t need to do anything but enjoy the views. Now starting to go down, there is some birds, screech, stop, hop out. Black kite we think. Magic views, a vista of rolling green below us. We continue on more birds, pull over. Whats that? Over the fence are some bullocks and here come some donkeys followed by a friendly farmer on a big tractor gathering hay to feed his steers. We just pulled off to see some birds high in the sky, we think they are Short-toed Snake Eagle’s as they are always in groups. This is a magic little stop. Back to base, I need a swim.