Chateauneuf du Pape and the Last Day in Avignon

On our second last day we drove down to Chateauneuf du Pape to taste some of the more famous wines of the region. The town was charming, and well prepared for wine tourists. Armed with a map from the tourist office, we visited probably 7 or 8 different houses.



We took a break for a picnic lunch and visited the chateau neuf, which wasn't looking so new anymore.



We just couldn't escape from the great views!




So much wine!

Our last day in Avignon started at the local market where we decided to buy a picnic lunch to enjoy on the island across the Rhone.


Erik and I joined the locals for a glass of wine inside the market. Steve and Yoshimi thought that 11am was too early, but that didn't seem to be stopping anyone!



Boarding the water shuttle to take us to picnic land. It was HOT this day, and after lunch and a nap we wandered down to a little cafe on the edge of the water for cool drinks. We spent the rest of the afternoon in the musee du Palais enjoying religious art and sculpture. We had dinner at an Italian restaurant before racing to get our train back to Paris. After a nice nap on the train, we rolled into Gare de Lyon at 2am on a Sunday night, well after the end of the metro service. A full TGV full of people headed straight for the taxi queue, and there didn't seem to be any taxis. We ended up walking almost all the way home with our suitcases, it wasn't until we got close to the place de Nation that we were finally able to get a cab to stop for us. A very unpleasant end to our four wonderful days in the south of France.

Avignon: Ready for More?

After leaving the charming village of Mirmande, we drove back down the Rhone river in search of castles. We stopped at these ruins, and had the pleasure of having them all to ourselves because we happened to arrive around lunch time.



It was quite a hike all the way to the top, and we were all wearing the wrong kind of footwear, but we were rewarded with incredible views of the valley.











The disadvantage of visiting over lunch time was that by the time we were done we were starving and couldn't find a restaurant that was open.


Did I mention that our rental car was a beamer? Driving wasn't such a chore after all :)

Back to School

I've been back at school for two weeks now, and things are still going well. The kids are getting used to me, and to being back to school, which is a nice way of saying that they are perhaps not always as sweet as I initially thought. But I still have no complaints. I'm also enjoying my half days on Wednesdays, it's nice to have a bit of a break in the middle of the week, and certainly makes the week move along more quickly.




We've been out for dinner twice this week, on Tuesday with Julia and Thomas and again last night with Anja, who managed to sneak out for a quick dinner break at 9:30pm before going back to work. It's two weeks before Paris Fashion Week, and that means non-stop work for Anja as her employer gets ready for the show. We had a great little meal in a cute restaurant on rue Cherche Midi in Montparnasse, not far from where we used to live (our old neighbourhood was so pretty!). The waiter was charming, and we realized that it had been a while since we had a good, unpretentious meal, with good service, and great company. We hadn't seen Anja since before we went to Russia, so we had lots of catching up to do.

Hello September

Summer, where did you go?

No pictures today, and I know I have to finish posting about our trip to Avignon, but my computer hard drive is too full for more photos, and I haven't had the time to shuffle things onto the portable hard drive yet. Plus, the lovely photos from hot, sunny Avignon will be so much better once we get back into the doldrums of our work routines, right?

Anyway, you can tell that the summer is over here in Paris. When we returned from Russia in the middle of August, the city was dead. I could go running and rarely have to stop at an intersection there were so few people. It was lovely. But ever since last weekend, slowly but surely people have been returning from whatever sunny spot they spent their holidays, and Paris is coming alive again. Kids running you over with their trotinettes, cars and people making running at any hour past 7am difficult (hence this blog post...:) ), restaurants and bakeries opening their doors again after a month of closure (well, that's one good thing). We got our income tax statement today, asking us to pay the balance, and I figure that's a sign that even the fonctionnaires have gone back to work. And it's getting dark sooner, around 9pm at the moment, and I'm already missing our long summer days. I'm already dreading the Sunday in October (or November? I should really look into that) when we'll turn the clocks back and get to leave for work in the pitch dark. I have never understood the logic of daylight savings. It's just depressing.

Yes, it's la rentree tomorrow for most public schools, and on Friday for me. Erik and I reluctantly dragged ourselves back to work last Thursday. I have to admit that I do like the familiarity of the routine and am looking forward to meeting my class in a couple of day, but I am already missing having a trip just around the corner to anticipate, and the luxury of not having to wear a watch or set the alarm clock at night.

I guess the summer has to end at some point so that we can actually appreciate what we did, but I'm still allowed to be grumpy about it, right?

And with that, I'm off for my run. No more excuses :) I'll try and get some photos up next week.