A Trip Down the Garden Path

The home stretch took us right  through the region of Champange.  And I figured well, I suppose I must sample some of the fine champagnes in this area, really I had an obligation to keep this fine industry running with my contribution to the cost of a tour and wine tasting.  And so it was.  We set up camp outside of Reims, the major city in this region, and headed in to visit some of those famous champagne houses.  Do any of these labels look familiar?

Did you know there are about 6 sizes you can get your champagne in> Check out the jumbo bottle below

We went down into the tunnels below to walk through the process of production. And it all strats with these little things...

Storage of the bottles, they're like this for months (or years, depending on the vintage). Traditionally a person will turn these bottles little by little each day. This is so the sediment settles at the neck of the bottle, to be extracted later on.  Many bottles are still turned by hand.

The library.  Some of the oldest bottles of chamagne ever made by GH  Mumm are stored here...behind bars...

Ah nice reward.  I'm a fan of the demi-sec...

Monacco, what a sweet little immaculate place. Glen tells me the it's about 10km x 2km.  Not the biggest plot of land to call a country, but all the same, a picturesque location and a tidy and sophisticated little town of Monte Carlo. The drive along the coast was just beautiful.  High along the edge of a cliff, looking out onto the ocean.

View from the road

And just a million dollar mansion on the hillside, who needs that many day beds beside their pool?

We drove into the city and headed to the Casino first.  The gardens out the front were really classy, elaborate fountains making impressive patterns with water and red and white flags flapping in the wind.  We decided not to go into the gaming rooms though, didn't really want to pay 10 euros to go in and stand behind a rope gawking.  So we had a look in the foyer (no photos allowed) and wandered back through the gardens.

Looking down towards the casino

Glen's going inside 

Following the casino, heading up to see the Royal Palace. It was a hike up this slope!

And at the top!

View over Monte Carlo

(In my best French) Me: Excuse me, could you please tell me where the Royal Palace is? Security Guard points over my shoulder Me: (turns to look) Oh! (laughsto hide embarassment and turns back to face the secuirty guard red faced) Security Guard smirks slightly.

The Palace, there's work going on for the Royal wedding coming up

Touristy shopping

A little slice of home in a souvenir shop

 We really liked it in Monaco such a beautiful location, towns nestled into the cliffs facing  the sea, and Monte Carlo was so clean, and sophisticated looking, impressive.

Well last leg of our trip to come next, and it involved champagne...mmm....

Carcassonne - Cassis - Saint Tropez

Well we hit the Cote d'Azur, the south coast of France, famous as the playground of the rich and famous, not that we met any of those while we were there :( but I was a lookin'. As you can sort of see by now, we steered clear of the bigger cities on this trip.  One big city is almost like the next, and there are only so many fountains, statues, churches and parks you can ooh and ahh over. It was nice to keep it simple.  We saw some amazing stuff, and this area was no exception. I'll give you a little running commentary...

This is in the centre of the town of Cassis.  A little village with a touristy edge as it's the gateway to the Calanques (which the translate to mean 'creeks' - but I disagree). The Clanaques are more like large inlets or bays, crystal clear waters and sheer cliffs enclosing them.  We took a boat ride around the Clanaques, you'll see soon...

More of Cassis

On the boat ready to go

Pretty little harbour as we sail out, you can see why it attracts the tourists

One of the Calanques, pretty!

These photos don't really do them justice, they were pretty amazing. There's also a 10km  hike you can do along the coast from Cassis to Marseille that takes in the glorious scenery. It sounded like a good idea if we had more time, It would have been nice to stop for a dip now and then along the way

Just before we got absolutely soaked by the water, it was a sunny day, but pretty choppy

Back from our boat trip and into the water....and it was freezing! My legs braved about 20 seconds, but by that time they were aching with the cold. I told Glen my veins felt like they were going to pop!  He assured me they wouldn't but all the same I high tailed it out of there...freezing!

Our camp in Cassis.  It's pretty much the norm to camp on gravel in France. grass is a luxury.  Other strange camping grounds things in France  include communal showers and toilets (not that that really bothered me) and sinks in cubicles, lockable ones just like a toilet cubicle, not out in the open - that was strange.  Also, wifi everywhere, even in the most isolated places - yay for the iPad!

lavender is a big produce in this region, Provence.  Smells so pretty! I bought this little plant from the local market and lugged it all the way home. It's now in our flat next to the window in our bathroom.

A camping fridge

Me and  Lavy (my plant) at L'Occitane factory and museum. If you're not aware, this is a famous skincare/fragrance company. Shops all over  the world and Australia and I think I've even seen the products in Target. We went through the museum and then I covered myself in the smelly stuff. Didn't buy anything though, a little too expensive. I did find out the correct pronunciation of this name though, it's 'loc-see-tane'. Go figure, there's even irregular pronunciation in French too

This is in St Tropez, doing a little exploring and yacht spotting

We spent a day at the beach.  The water was much more bearable here and crystal clear. Some topless sun baking was going on, which is pretty normal on French beaches, not my think though, being the prude I am...

Our camping grounds was a flash one in St Tropez, it even had a 2 slides! Glen got banned from them and the pool though, for wearing board shorts.  Apparently these are not allowed in the pool.  Speedos or tight little lycra shorts acceptable only

Walking along the front of the marina, some more million dollar yacht spotting

luxury

Glen's purchase, pretty impressive hey?

And a cute little market we went to in a nearby town

Yumo local produce, I bought some of the tomato pesto you can see in the bowl in the right lower corner of the photo. Olives are also heavily produced in Provence, you can see some of these here too

Another view of the markets

We had a lovely time down here. The weather held up nicely and it was actually pretty hot, a bit of a dilemma for me as my wardrobe consists of nothing with short sleeves. Ah well, good excuse to buy a few things.  The interesting thing is I'd heard people say how dingy and overrated St Tropez was.  I would have to disagree.  It sort of reminded me a bit of Airlie Beach, maybe not quite so touristy, but even so, just simple and nice.  We had a lovely few days down here, would love to get back to it again...maybe one day.