The game plan was to spend 2 weeks in France en famille before grand kiddies went back to school, so Francophile Georgia found a fabulous old house in Provence that would fit us all – Grandpa Peter, Georgia, Neal, Silas, Lizabel, Arthur, Mimi, and Grandpa Tony.  I had put poor Georgia’s feet to the fire by insisting we needed a king sized bed with en suite bathroom, but she came through with a house in the village of Puyvert, outside Loumarin, and an hours drive south of Avignon.  It turned out to be a fabulous old house in a beautiful village.

Thanks to advice from our children we had decided to go via Eurostar to Avignon and spend a few days exploring the old city before picking up a hire car and heading down to Puyvert. We booked a hotel called Cloitre Saint-Louis inside the wall of the old city as we planned to walk everywhere.  It was a converted convent dating back to the 16thC with a beautiful courtyard, a pleasant garden, and French efficiency.  We arrived a bit before check in time and were told our room wasn’t ready and to have a drink in garden, which we did. After a couple of beers we returned to reception and was told the room was still not ready – apologies!  Had another beer and back to check in – yep you’ve got – still no room!!  So we plonked ourselves in the reception area and glared at the poor girl manning the desk and threw out the odd loud comment.  At this point we had the concierge, what appeared to be a manager, plus another receptionist dashing around.  Anyway, after a total wait of 1 hr 45 min we were in our room, which was large and comfortable with good wi-fi!

Cloitre Saint-Louis

So then it was 4 days of exploring the old city of Avignon, Palace de Papes, the Pont, etc.

And finding a number of good restaurants, and the market.  Had a fabulous lunch in the market by picking various goodies from vendors and settling down in an area which served wine – yes!

Avignon Market.

We enjoyed Avignon – very user friendly – and considering it was August, not that crowded. Our check out from Cloitre Saint-Louis was efficient and hassle free as we took a taxi to railway station to pick up our rental and head for Puyvert.  Just the two of us so we had booked a manual Fiat 500, which of course was diesel!  Smallest diesel car I have ever driven and vastly over engineered – I was still getting used to the bloody thing when we handed it back 2 weeks later.  Thanks to Chief Navigator Ann assisted by Elsie TomTom we found our way to Gordes, a lovely mountain village where we stopped for lunch, then carried on trucking to Puyvert where we arrived ahead of the Hendey Land Rover.

Puyvert

The house

The house was large and we all fitted in very well, especially us, as our suite was somewhat detached from the main section of the house.  There was a large swimming pool much to the delight of the grandbrats who were in within minutes of arriving.  We had an outdoor kitchen and dining area which basically became the centre of lives for the next 2 weeks. Neal and Georgia had located a Super-U which was a 5 mins drive from the house which had fabulous meat, fish, bakery, and delicatessen sections as well as booze, so we were good to go as they say.  Turned out that son Neal was a dab hand on the barbecue and produced some amazing fish, prawns, and chicken.  The lighting of the grill became an evening event with the children collecting twigs to start the fire, and assisting Dad in the cooking!  Awesome family bonding!  Mind you I think our dear grandchildren found Grandpa Tony and Mimi a shock to the system at times. As Peter and ourselves had our own transport we explored the surrounding villages, vineyards, and co-ops together with odd restaurant or two.  The weather was gorgeous – normally about 28-30’C during the day, and cooling down somewhat at night. The nearest town was Lourmarin, where Peter Mayle of Provence fame now lives, and where there was an amazing Vin de Cave run by a great character called Florian.  We did an extended wine tasting before buying 3 cases of wine and a couple of bottles of really good Armagnac. All the wines were local and way above average, especially the rose,  as well as being reasonably priced. However, evaporation was a factor so we and Florian soon became good friends!

All Provence Rose!

It seemed as if we had only just settled in and it was time to head home.  We were going to spend a few days in Arles before getting the Eurostar back from Avignon.  Like most European towns and villages parking is an issue so we had booked into the Best Western in Arles because it had its own garage and you could walk to everything.  An amazing old town, where the Roman amphitheatre is in use today as the towns bullring!  Being close to Marseille it had a far different feel to it than Avignon, and there was more dirt and graffiti. We did find a great Van Gogh exhibition, well it is Arles, and an excellent Archeological Museum. Explored everywhere and found some good restaurants, which doesn’t ever seem to be a problem in France!

Arles bullring the Roman amphitheatre

L’Affenage Restaurant

It was an easy drive back to Avignon where we gave Mr Hertz his car back and hopped on the Eurostar for St Pancras.  Only hitch was we had to get off the train at Lille to do the UK border control – not user friendly or efficient!  The whole train disembarks and has to go up one level via 2 escalators into a concourse area where there are only 2 border control points, and then all mill around like cattle to get on one of the two escalators back down to the train!  Bloody chaos!  We were pleasantly surprised by business class Eurostar, with the food and wine being quite good, and quite generous with the wine – always good.  Taxi back to Railway Cuttings and more family bonding!