Busy Couple Weeks, please enjoy!!

We did some traveling, visiting, hiking and exploring the region, so this newsletter will include a bit of all of that.

Lyon from the Basilica. What a Beautiful city! We made this trip to return my daughter Camille’s car, which we had had for 2 months. She was going to loan it to us for 2-3 weeks, until we were able to purchase our own car, but she and her partner Claire ended up buying a house, and they got immersed in their move, so she told us to keep it until she headed down this way in April.

This is a picture of the Museum of Fine Arts, fronted by a square with a bunch of restaurants and bars.

The pictures above are the inside of the Le Basilique Notre Dame de Fourviere. It is up on top of a hill on the opposite side of the Saone river, which is one of 2 rivers that divide parts of Lyon. You can walk up there, but it is a long and winding road, or you can take a bus, or a so we decided funicular, which is a bus/train hybrid kind of thing, that goes up a steep hill while staying more or less somewhat level. It is a Beautiful cathedral, as you can see, with more color than most!

We spent 1 1/2 days visiting with Camille and her friend, who were on their way to Barcelona. Then Sharon and I walked and walked and walked the city for another day. Well, ok we stopped for some awesome food and a couple beverages too:-) . We Love Lyon, as this is our 3rd trip here, the 1st being at least 12 years ago.

We had left our car at a train station not far from where we are staying, so we took the TGV back to Bollene, and enjoyed what turned out to be a Very busy couple weeks.

We arrived home on Saturday evening, and on Monday, we took a trip to Saint Victor Lacoste, which is a Beautiful little village near us. There is a castle at the top of a “mountain” which we decided to climb, so we could explore the castle ruins up close. The picture below is of the castle from in front of the office of the Mairie (Mayor).

This is a view out one of the castle “windows”.

Here is a closeup of the castle as we approached to top of the trail.

Tuesday, & Wednesday we continued to explore a number more of the villages near us. We went to visit a couple who produce Spiruline (or Spirulina, depending on where you are) and Saffron in the small village of Sabran. They are called Manjolive, and they gave us a small tour and tasting of their products. They also manufacture CBD products in various forms, but we didn’t try those:-). Wednesday we went to the local Farmer’s Market in Bagnols, and took care of a bunch of business errands.

Thursday we went into Orange and toured the Museum and the Theater which was built in the 1st century. Then we had dinner at a wonderful restaurant, Le Parves, with a new friend we had met on our trip to Narbonne a couple months ago. Below are a couple pictures of the theater, which has been “updated” with concrete bleacher-type seats. The picture below is the actual stage.

Friday, we returned to the town of Tresques for an art exhibit we were invited to on our previous trip (when we had the personal tour of the Tour de Guet, which is a small 4 story tower, currently managed by Akoi, pronounced Aqua), who hosts different artists every month or so. This showing was for 2 artists, Addy Mafuila, who is from Africa and paints Beautiful and Very Colorful works of mostly people & flowers. There was also a Sculpter named Stephane Szendy, who creates Incredibly Gorgeous pieces from metal, wood and some other materials. Below are a couple examples of their works.

And to end a Very Busy couple weeks, on Saturday we drove a short distance to Chartreuse de Valbonne, a monastery built in 1204 by Monk-Hermits of the Carthusian order. This is the same order as the Monks who actually make Chatreuse, the green Liqueur used in many classic cocktails, but this is Not where it is made. (That order of Monks is about 3 hours north of here in an area called Aiguenoire, near Grenoble.)

So, as you can see, we have been quite busy, getting to know our surroundings, as well as a side trip to Lyon. I did not provide as much detail as I normally do, but thought the pictures would say a lot. There are Many more pictures on our website, so please check out the “Photos Here” section, as we are adding more folders each week or so.

Toulair, the AirB&B is still being worked on daily, and the progress, though slower that we had hoped, is going quite well. We are still hoping to get to move into our new house some time in the next few weeks. We are just waiting for a few things to be booked up, like electrical, fiber and water. We kind of need those to survive:-)

Thanks for tagging along. We Love the company!!

Ray & Sharon