Day 41: Villeneuve de Berg to Barcelona

No photos from today I'm afraid! 

Started by going to the swimming pool for the kids to have more lessons, and had a good swim there, even with my frustrations of this pool having more rules than any I've been to before!! (You can't even wear your clothes on to the pool deck - need to leave everything in the change room!)

Then time for me to leave! So caught a bus, then 2 trains to get to Barcelona that night, then a quick metro jump to my new and final home for the trip.... Oh wait maybe I have photos of this...

Day 40: French family life

So my plan here is to just rest and do whatever the family do. Easy. Today is a Saturday so at the nearby town of Aubenas there's a market worth me seeing, so I get dropped there for a couple of hours (while one of the kids at swimming lessons). And nice and early before it was busy which was awesome. Lovely markets filled the old streets, nougat, cured meats, all sorts of meat and veggies, preserves, clothes. All the usual, but damn nice stuff!! And I also had a chance to check out the local castle..

Back home in time for more yummy food!

And then off to the river for a swim in some icy but beautiful waters. We all got in eventually and then it was gorgeous! I didn't want to get out... And then realised my feet were numb and I was a bit dizzy... Water must've been colder that I realised!!

Then home for Dahl!

Day 39: Ajaccio to Villeneuve de Berg

Early flight from Ajaccio the next morning to Marseille, where I caught a train to the Ardeche region in the Rhońe Alps - an area in the south of France just north of Provence. Here I was to be staying with a family who are the friends of a guy that I met on a train from Paris to London a few weeks back! Philippe, the father, collected me from the station and we drove to their little village Villeneuve de Berg, which is close to Aubenas. Philippe was a cool guy - has lived here for about 7 years and before than in Paris and has also spend a lot of time abroad, and travels to places like Brazil regularly for work. He runs a supply business for world percussion instruments!

At the house I was greeted by his 3 children, wife Charlotte (Mum on the right) and three children Doris, Merlin and Solal, as well as their friend Aurelia visiting from Paris with her son Adrian (back left). After settling in it was time for lunch and I was greeted with this! Heaps and heaps of healthy fresh organic produce. Turns out this tribe only eat organic (and basically no meat), and I don't blame them, the soil must be amazing here. During my stay with them I had by far the best tomatoes I've had in my life (all colours), the best peaches, pears, feta and more. The quality really did amaze me. Everyday they would eat these gorgeous healthy meals, maybe with a risotto or something, just what I was needing after the last few indulgent weeks!!

One thing about the French life is that they do they're summers well. The standard annual leave for a French person is 5 weeks, plus extra for any accumulated hours over 35/week. So in other words they (like much of the rest of Europe) take half of summer off, and a large majority of them go to Brittany (as these guys did for 4 weeks). Philippe was working however, but the rest of us went off to a relatives place to use the pool and laze under the willows that afternoon....

But I didn't swim, instead the much needed rest I was after begun the minute I sat on this love swing. Got a few pages into my book and dozed the rest of the afternoon away. Bliss!!

(Oh and also ate a yummy crepe that Charlotte had pre made and brought with us!!)