A Festival in Arles + Relaxing on a Kayak

We were still in Village of Gordes when evening approached and so we started to make our way to Arles, where our next accommodation is located. It was about 2.5 hours drive so by the time we arrived at the motel it was about 10:30pm. We checked in and headed out for a late dinner. We didn't know this but we found out from the motel receptionist there was a costume festival at Arles called Les fêtes d'Arles the very next day. We counted our lucky stars as we visited Arles on the right weekend!

On Sunday morning, we made an early start towards the heart of the festival. We didn't know exactly where it was but we followed a few festival goers who were beautifully dressed in traditional French costumes. We arrived at the square and immediately felt as though we have just stepped into a historical French movie set!

Everyone from men, women to children were immaculately dress. Details were everything. There were French umbrellas, dated prams for kids and bowler hats. Every costume was unique and styled to their gender and age.

Even toddlers and babies were dressed in their heritage clothes.

Unfortunately, we couldn't stay for longer than an hour as we were scheduled to go kayaking down the River Sorgue at Fontain de Vaucluse. On the day before, while driving to Gordes we happened to discover this kayaking place on the outskirts of L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue. Break-Away in Canoe/Kayak rents out canoes and all the necessary gear for 2 hours and allows you enough time to canoe down the river towards the town.

Kayaking haven just past this beautiful bridge.

We decided that we were going to do this on our last day, and it was one of our best ideas. The river that we were going to kayak in was pristine, clear and oh so very cold! It is the clearest most beautiful river water I have ever seen. We could clearly see right down to the floor of the river bed and even the fishes.

Idyllic, pristine river.

We dipped our feet in the icy cold water, till our feet went numb!

Getting ready for our kayaking expedition!

Andy and I.












Left: Group photo. Right: Linda on her kayak.

Fin. Finish.

The kayaking trip was such a relaxing activity as we lightly paddled down the river. We also saw many locals enjoying the river as we ventured our way down. Some brought picnic baskets, others their pets and young families.

Once back at the base, we sat down for a scrumptious meal on their onsite restaurant. It was one of our best meals in Provence.

The restaurant on the same kayaking venue.

Carpaccio. This was a beautiful plate of raw beef. Thinly sliced with pesto and parmesan dressing.

BBQ beef skewers.

BBQ King Prawns.

Andouillette. French pig's colon sausage.

It was our first time tasting the Andouillette. The only clue the waitress gave was, "some people love them, and some people hate them" - so we had to try it, just in case we fell within the former half. At the time of eating, we knew that it was made of sort of intestine but I never knew that it was colon. I probably wouldn't have wolfed it down with such gusto if I knew. But then again, for a person who is fairly adventurous with most food, who knows! Andy and Linda couldn't quite eat it but I honestly enjoyed it. It reminded me of the intestines found in a Malaysian dish that love, called Bak Kut Teh.

Either case, we were all super hungry after our 'exhausting' kayaking expedition our mains disappeared within minutes. Later, we topped it off with melt-in-your-mouth chocolate pudding dessert and an iced coffee (it had lovely little chocolate bits inside and creamy ice-cream!) Yum!













Our meal was a perfect cap to our kayaking adventure!

Summer Fun in the Lavender Fields of Sault

Our main goal in Provence was to see the lavender fields in full bloom at Sault - and this, we left to the last! After our kayaking adventure, we drove our way to Sault town where the lavenders are known to grow in abundance.

The ride from Fontain de Vaucluse was a good couple of hours. We arrived at the town but didn't spend too much time there as we wanted to venture into some lavender fields! The town however, did give some spectacular views of the lavender fields and French landscape. It also had a variety of merchandise shops that sold lavender in all sorts of shapes and form - from soaps to dried lavender fragrance pillows. About half an hour later, we drove away from the town in search of some nice fields to invade!

Landscape of Sault.

We found the best field and decided to jump out for some picturesque photos!

Sault town in the distance.


Close-up of the lavenders.

Me in the field.

Peek-a-boo.

We had the whole field to ourselves with no other person in sight, and so we happily pranced around the fields for our photo shoot. We were however, ever conscious to not disturb the bees happily buzzing around the field.

Andy!

Karen!

Linda!

Andy and I.

Me and Andy were relatively untouched by the busy bees, but we couldn't say the same for Linda who had a couple of stings and scratches. Luckily, she recovered quickly. So other than a few light scratches from our field invasion, the lavender fields at Sault nicely rounded off a memorable trip to the beautiful country of Provence.

Town of Avignon

The decision to visit Provence came in a spur of a moment. Linda invited us for weekend trip to visit the Lavender fields which just recently bloomed in Provence. We jumped at the opportunity, bought our tickets 2 days later and was on our flight to Provence that same weekend. We hired a car and drove through 5 towns in Provence in 2 days. It was one of the best weekend trips ever.

On our arrival in Marseilles late Friday night, we picked up our car and drove to the city centre to spend the night. The next day, we began our 1.5 hour drive to Avignon. With just our iphone compass, and our general sense of direction we managed to arrive at Avignon without getting lost. Amazingly, this set the tone throughout our weekend drive as we navigated like the locals on the road. Andy had quite a bit of getting use to driving on the other side of the car though. However, after a few hair raising parallel parks on the first night, he was a pro by the end of the weekend!

We arrived at Avignon to find a pretty town with a beautiful palace, medieval town wall, quaint shops, narrow streets, French cafes and a broken bridge.

Palace and broken bridge on Rhone River.

We visited the Tourist Information centre there, grabbed ourselves a few maps for our onward journey and made our way to lunch at a restaurant called Le Bercail, located on the Rhone River. We arrived at the banks and boarded a free boat ride across to the other side where the restaurant was. It was on this 10 minute ride that we discovered how much the locals cared and loved their river and environment. I reckon, on this 10 minute ride, 8 minutes were spent fishing after a few pieces of floating logs by the boat captain. It was truly great to see that they are proud of their environment and that it is well taken care of.

Linda and Andy on the boat.

The Restaurant - Le Bercail

The restaurant had a spectacular view of the river and the Palace. We were advised that the BBQ was good here but instead we tried their other mains instead. Unfortunately, aside from the starter and fantastic local wine, the rest of the dishes didn't quite reach our expectations. The view however, made up for what was lacking.

Andy, Linda and a very nice view!

The starter was fairly good. But my main named 'Cannibale' didn't quite cut it. Pun intended. I guess I should have known better by its name but I wanted to try something adventurous. So there it was. A few thick cuts of raw beef arrived. I knew that I have ordered raw beef, but what I didn't expect was how thick the cuts were and how little dressing there was. Surprisingly, me and Linda managed to chow through most of it, but I must say those were the most tasteless slabs of raw meat I've ever eaten.

Left: 6 dish starter. Right: my main - 'Cannibale'

Left: Artichokes and sausage. Right: Fish stew

On our way back to the car, we had a nice stroll through Avignon. It was a beautiful, medieval town which had narrow alleys and shops that sold handmade soaps. This town bustles with activity.

The heart of the town was more commercial and had retail branded shops on the main street. It was a hot day, so we were glad to find flourescent flavoured granitas.

Icy granitas. Just what we needed.

We then made a slow walk back to the car where we started our journey towards L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue. Bye Avignon!

Amazing Village of Gordes + Sunflower Fields

After exploring Avignon in Provence, we drove to the Village of Gordes through the town of L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue. L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue was pretty but unfortunately we didn't get to spend anytime there. Gordes was really where we were aiming to go. Andy was a champion as he steadily drove on for 2 hours while I fell in and out of a drowsy sleep. Definitely, wasn't much of a conversationalist during that leg of the trip, but thankfully, Linda was there to keep up the chatter. We didn't even feel that the car was driving at a steady incline but as we were about to arrive, the view opened up to us and we had a spectacular view of the Village of Gordes from far. Houses and palaces made of stone were perched on the hill creating a spectacular landscape. We were truly amazed.

Village of Gordes.

We then drove our way into the village itself. As the buildings were perched on a hill, steep steps and narrow alleyways make up the village.

Some steep steps.

A couple taking a rest.

We found a small crepe shop where we had some coffee and French crepes.

Our little crepe haven.

Lemon and sugar crepe.

Eventually, we had to say 'goodbye' to the Village of Gordes and make our way to Arles where we will be spending our second night. On the road to Arles, we passed through a massive field of sunflowers. This is by far the most outstanding memory I have of Provence. I was so excited I got Andy to stop the car on the side of road so that we can take some photos and venture into the field! It was an absolutely beautiful sight - straight out of a postcard. I never knew there were fields like this and it couldn't have been more timely or magnificent. The sun was setting behind a backdrop of hills and the sunflowers were standing tall and facing us. We were so excited that we clambered down into the fields to take photos.

Glorious field of gold.

A sunny face.

A couple of sunflower poses.

A beautiful sunset over the fields.

Andy and I.

The sunflowers were almost as tall or taller than we were! As we took photos, passing cars honked at us as they found us amusing. I reckon we would have walked deeper into the fields if we weren't accosted by mosquitoes! They were buzzing all around us, so after a few snapshots we had to run out of the field. Of course, we stayed to watch the sun set over the sunflower fields before continued our journey to Arles.

What a beautiful field of gold...