Nice Tour Guiding

I'm writing from Belle de Nuit, a bed & breakfast in Oppede le Vieux, in the Luberon Valley in the Provencal region, in France. Mom and Dad and I are sharing a room a lovely room in this 400 year old hotel, which is very cold in a very cold February in southern France! A bit of a change from Nice, but it's been a good visit. We drove out from Nice on Thursday, visited Aix-en-Provence and then headed north-east to Oppede. Oppede-le-Vieux is town, several hundred years old, castle and cathedral on the top of a hill (350 meters), which is now crumbled and ancient, but provides a lovely view of the valley. Our proprietors, Laurie and Roger, are lovely, and given that she is Canadian, (he's from Marseille), they both speak English, which is nice for my parents.

We spent Friday in Avignon, walking through the old town, looking out at the Pont d'Avignon on the Rhone River, eating a picnic lunch in the gardens of the Palais de Papes, and then enjoyed coffee and a beignet in the sun at an outside cafe in town. We followed that by a drive to Gordes, a perched town in the Luberon Valley, and a quick visit to the Monastery in the area. We finished the day with dinner in the town on Bonneaux, about 20 KM from Oppede. The stars were out in force tonight.

Mom and Dad arrived in town on the 13th of February, and that night we went to the center of town to watch opening night of Carnaval in Nice. See pictures alongside! The next day, Priscilla joined us for the Bataille des Fleurs (Battle of the Flowers), a kind of Rose Parade along the Mediterranean, where mimosa flowers were the predominate flower being showcased on floats and being flung into the stands of parade watchers. My friend Christiane joined the four of us for dinner that night (ratatouille, basmati rice, cheese, bread, and brownies for dessert). It was a festive evening.

Sunday my parents joined me at church at the Eglise Reformee on Boulevard Victor Hugo (see earlier posts). I introduced them to my friends Odette and Philippe, who promptly invited us over for dinner. We not only met them for dinner on Tuesday night, but had coffee with them after our visit to the Chagall Museum on Sunday afternoon. Odette and Philippe are both very good in English, and they invited a neighbor of theirs who also spoke good English to dinner at their home. It was a lovely evening of sharing, and getting to know them better.

More when we get back to Nice!