Wine on the beach

We have just spent a week in Collioure on the French Meditteranean coast. The vineyards come down to the beach here from the Pyrenees Mountains. The town is very French with endless food shops, markets, cafes and 3 tiny beaches crammed with people. It is amazing swimming out around an ancient fort that juts into the sea. The first night we had dinner on the beach - a Pizza and bottle of local red wine, watching the passing parade. You can eat very cheaply in France if you do what we call "Self Catering" which involves going to stores that sell lots of yummy food then grabbing a bottle of wine and eating outside.

Tammy spent each day checking the progress of a cute little duckling with its mother that lived in the fort. (Editor's note: Miles also followed the progress of this little duckling closely and was often able to give me a petite canard report after his morning walk : )
This was a great place to have a coffee and watch people from all over Europe arriving on holiday. It's a tiny town so by midday it is packed with people, shopping, eating, swimming, buying silly souvenirs, floating on inflatable rafts, eating ice cream and trying to get sand out of their crevices.

Next stop Badalona (5kms up the coast from Barcelona on the beach)

Lady Marmalade and La Petite Maison

Last week we had one of the highlights of our trip staying at a Bed & Breakfast outside of Carcassone, in the Languedoc Roussilion wine region of southern France.
We started out staying in a fantastic room overlooking the pool and garden in Martine and Thierry's old stone house built in the 1500s - with massive oak beams, winding staircases, ivy covered walls, and authentic French shabby chic, mixed with real antiques. For breakfast, we feasted on fresh bread and croissants, slathered with Martine's homemade apricot and fig marmalade. Then the second day,

we discovered that they had a little stone house with a kitchen tucked away in the garden, so we moved in there and were in seventh heaven for 5 days! I told Martine I was very happy with La Petite Maison ( the little house) but I missed her magnificent breakfast. So she gave us a jar of her apricot jam to help us over the separation anxiety and install us into our maison properly. Perfect!!
Every day, it was like waking up in a Town & Country magazine shoot, only without the posturing photographer and stylist dressed in black : ) We had french windows opening out into the garden and the shaggy horse next door, with rusted old french metal garden furniture, lavender in the flowerbeds, the works! We nested, cooked, ate cheese (a common french paatime you may have heard us mention before), drank wine, and picked blackberries on the way to the shop down the road - see, blackberries aren't just for checking your email!

We also hired an impossibly small, unairconditioned car (remember rolling down the windows??) to tour the gorgeous surrounding countryside for 2 days. Imagine fields of swaying sunflowers alternated with craggy hillside castles, and miles and miles of vivid green grapevines. Towns were straight out of postcards, with tree shaded cobblestone lanes, ancient stone houses and peeling wooden shutters, bridges loaded with flower boxes, and gnarled women shaking rugs over tiny wrought iron balconies.
When it was time to go, we were very sad to leave our petit maison and took about a million photos. Here is a smattering to give you a taste.
Now we are in Collioure for a week, a seaside town on the coast just above Spain. But that's another chapter. Stay tuned (yes, there will be more cheese - of both the literal and the metaphorical variety).

The Rhodes to Ruin

Hi everyone. Sorry we've been off the grid, but we've just returned from 14 days on the island of Rhodes in Greece, and we are groaning from the all inclusive, all you can eat and drink buffet at the French resort there.

It was kind of weird, being the only English speaking guests at the Club Lookea Rhodes, surrounded by French people on holiday. We were minor curiosities at the resort, and had to explain to many people why we were such a long way from home (in French, mind you).

However, it was also fascinating to us, to see how 500 French people do holidays. It seems many are not interested in mixing with other nationalities or perhaps only speak French, hence the all French resort. But the pluses abounded, such as great food, playing petanque, and not having to listen to other tourists complaining in English :  )

We also lucked out with the best room in the hotel, in their brand new block, with a massive terrace overlooking the hills, olive and pine trees, and the herds of wandering goats. Love those goats - they're responsible for the impossibly rich and delicious fetta that I ate a small mountain of in just one fortnight.You go, kids!!

Our days were filled with eating, drinking and swimming in the pools, alternated with eating, drinking and swimming at the beach at our sister hotel which was filled with Italians and Poles. Talk about being Poles apart! It was like going to a different country at the beach, with the beer drinking, mustache sporting Polish (just the men, that is) and loud Italian families eating gelato at the beachside cafe. It's hilarious how Italians will calmly go up and order a coffee wearing nothing but a tiny speedo and some flimsy thongs - I mean the footwear, not the g-strings! Miles started going up and having an espresso in his speedos too - when in Rhodes, do as the Romans do, I say.

Back at the French resort, we also dove into all the activities organised by the Lookea Animation team. All the all inclusive resorts (Club Med was the first to start this, I believe) have these animation teams who organise games, sports, dancing by the pool, and nightly shows. They all spoke English to a more or less degree and all expressed a desire to go to Australia. Whether they show up some day remains to be seen.

We had a bit of Greek culture thrown in too, with the hotel staff, and our visit to the famous acropolis in the cute, but hot and touristy town of Lindos. Many Greeks have relatives in Australia or America, so we ended up being friendly with a few. Our French also improved a bit. However, our resolve to avoid rose wine and desserts is definitely in ruins, just like all those Greek temples.

Now we are back in Toulouse for two days before heading off to Carcassone, in the Languedoc-Roussillon wine region of Southern France. We cannot really recommend Toulouse, though it has some lovely old buildings in the centre of town, as it is filled with a lot of homeless drunk beggars with large dogs. Overall, fairly missable. The one bright spot is that we are staying at a swanky boutique hotel, and just celebrated our wedding anniversary drinking complimentary French champagne, as you do. More soon from the vineyards!