Onwards to Talairan (Saturday 14th July 2013)

Today we complete the last part of our southward journey through France. Rather take the easy way along the autoroute we opted for the more picturesque road along the D559 by the Mediterranean coast from Antibes to St. Tropez. Shortly after we started hit the coast at the famous of Cannes. Emily spied the Hotel Palm d'Or which confirmed we were indeed in Cannes. We grabbed some croissant, OJ and coffee for breakfast and lobbed on the Promenade to enjoy it and the wonderful view across the water. Many people were out and about strolling by the sea and even more were down on the sand (yes, sand!) and in the water.

The road hugs the coastline all the way to St. Tropez, and beyond. There are many small villages along the way and a few larger towns. At other places the road clung to the rocky headlands which afforded uninterrupted views up and down the coast. This was the beginning of the first week of school holidays so the traffic was busy and slow but we didn't mind as we were in no hurry and it gave us plenty of time to take in the sights and sounds along the way.

We never quite made it to St. Tropez. At about 14kms out the traffic became very congested in a single lane. The GPS was predicting about 45 minutes to get there so I ducked into a service station, filled up the Clio, did a u-ey and headed for the autoroute. The drive along the A8 (and others) took us past Toulon, Marseilles, Nimes, Montpelier, Narbonne and other well known cities.

We turned onto the autoroute to Toulouse just near Narbonne and before too long we in amongst the little villages we had envisaged arriving at our destination, Talairan, at about 5:30pm. The village is a sleepy little place of winding streets and lanes set amongst centuries old stone walls, houses and sheds. The street are lined with beautiful, large and shady plane trees. No grass or open lawn areas just trees and shrubs improbably growing in the stone lanes and bitumen roads.

We parked the Clio ouside No. 7 Avenue du Grand Bassin, the rendezvous point with our host M. Daniel Remon. Before long an elderly gentleman, Marcel, arose from his bench outside his house to advise us that M. Remon had just left pick up his wife from the station. We waited by the Grand Bassin (the large trough were women once gathered to do the washing) until about 7pm for M. Remon to return. It was a very pleasant and peaceful wait by the watering-hole listening to the water tumbling in from on high. M. Remon and his wife Olga showed us through our home for the next week at No.9 Avenue du Grand Bassin, directly across the street from the Bassin. The house is two-storey, whitewashed walls on the inside, a narrow, winding stair-case to the second floor where the bedrooms and bathroom are. Everything else is on the ground floor, which has a kitchen/laundry and meals area (right inside the front door) and up seven steps to a lounge area with french doors out to the back garden.

M. Remon and his wife spoke very little English, so every time he spoke to me I looked at Emily and she translated. Pretty soon M. Remon just looked at Emily and spoke to her. Although she would never admit it she did an excellent job understanding what was being said and relaying it to Kerry and me. M. Remon is a vigneron (one of seven in the village), an artist, a B&B proprietor and an officer at a local bank. He proudly showed us through his house and garden and let us park the Clio in his backyard behind No. 5. To try to describe his rambling backyard which extends across all three adjoining properties, behind great stone walls and his private residence at No. 7 would be difficult without spending pages and pages of this blog doing so. So I'll let the pictures do the talking.

We unloaded the car while Emily and M. Remon went off in search of Peter and Kaye Coates. They found them at the village bar waiting for us to arrive. It was good to see the two of them again. We strolled around the corner to the Coates residence, enjoyed a tour of their three-storey house, shared a cool Rose and then went to the bar for dinner on the verandah. The meal was excellent. Emily and I had Confit du Canard (duck) and Kerry a very generous steak washed down with beers, a couple of local reds and Perrier. For dessert I had a platter of local cheeses, the highlight being a goats cheese dipped in local honey. Magnifique! It was a beautiful, warm and still evening and it was very hard to leave. But it was now approaching midnight so a quick night-cap at Château Coates some tourist advice from Kaye and it was off to bed after a great day.