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!!)
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