St Remy-de-Provence and around

What a feast for the eyes as well as the stomach! Every market stall, every shop window display, every meal is a lovingly-produced work of art.

We have been so warmly welcomed everywhere. All who encounter our group compliment us on how lovely the kids are. I don’t think they are used to such well-behaved, considerate and responsible young people. As well as this, we are Kiwis, and even better, we speak French. This all makes for a winning combination in the eyes of the locals, who are amazed and fascinated that we have come so far at such an expense and can speak to them in their language.

We have eaten prawns, pasta, pizza, crepes and giant strawberries, but no snails as yet. We put together a delicious picnic lunch from market ingredients, made friends with some French kids and did a haka for them even though they thought New Zealand was part of the United Kingdom.

We have visited a chocolate shop, a biscuit shop, a truffle shop, walked through magnificent Roman ruins, followed in the footsteps of Van Gogh admiring his paintings along the way, we have visited three completely different Provençale villages, climbed to lookouts, discovered bidets and swum in 14 degree water in the hotel swimming pool.

We are discovering as much about France and its people as we are about ourselves, that we have a place in this world, that even though we come from ‘le but du monde’, we can be proud of who we are and what we can do.