Viens – The village

Viens, hilltop village from the Luberon, 500 habitants in winter, 1500 in the summer.

Picturesque to say the least.

The first hike

As a great way to start the day and also stretch the body after the very long drive, my dad and I took off for a small hike on Sunday morning. Based on the IGN map, there is a loop starting in the village. 8km or so. Easy for a first hike.

Of course this hike took us in the bush. More than half of the loop was in the middle of trees, bushes, etc. Very often we were following the path that water would take in the spring. We fiercely went through it all, getting scratches, but also having nice surprises like ending up in a lavender field when getting out of a bush. Definitely worth the scratches.

It's 10:30am and I feel great!

The house

The house we are renting for the next 2 weeks is in the village of Viens. It’s in the middle of nowhere, there is no swimming pool, but it’s quiet and has an amazing view as it’s up hill. House is big with sleeping for up to 11 people (incl. kids). With 6 adults there is plenty of space.

I was positively surprised by the house as it did look exactly the same as on the pictures and it is a very good quality place. You can see that the owners put a lot of effort in it and used quality materials and furniture. It feels good and I look forward to the coming 14 days. See all details here.

Now what makes this house unique is its terrace, right on top of the hill, with a view on the valley below like you can only believe it if you’re standing there and seeing it with your own eyes. Something tells me we’ll spend most of the time on this terrace.

4:10am

Once again Wolfram had to wake up extremely early on a vacation morning. This time for a good reason (as always) as we had to drive 1000 km to Viens, in the Luberon, in the South of France.

This weekend is rated as “black” by Bison Fute, the French organization managing traffic. Simply it’s the weekend when the people who took vacation in July are driving back up from the South of France and those who are taking vacation in August (like us) are going down. This means thousands or hundreds of thousands of cars on the French highways translating into gigantic traffic jams.

Thus we had to leave as early as possible to beat the crowd. And we did. At 4:10am we left the house and started our long drive to the sun.

5am

We’re crossing the French border. Highway is pretty much empty, but who would be driving at 5am on a Saturday morning?

6am

First stop and first coffee for Wolfram. Apparently it was surprisingly good for a coffee from a vending machine. I couldn’t tell as I don’t drink coffee but the Starbuck’s fan behind the wheel was happy.

7am

We’re passing by Reims enjoying the new ring around the city. All empty and big fun as the GPS couldn’t figure out where we were. When the map of the GPS was put together there were fields there, not a highway.

Emilie has given me some advice on how to get to Lyon with the minimum traffic and the best roads. Going via Reims was one, taking the A39 was another one. It’s 20km longer to take the A39 than the A6 but it’s all empty and you avoid the traffic coming from Paris. And she was right. In this “black” Saturday we drove all the way from Brussels to Lyon without a single traffic jam!

11:45am

We are at the toll station of the A7. Highway A7, also known as “Autoroute du soleil” is THE highway to go to the south of France. From Lyon it takes you to Provence directly.

We are now only 250km away from our vacation destination. And of course shortly after we entered the A7, the traffic became very dense, extremely dense and we experienced the first “traffic en accordeon” i.e. on/off, slower/faster drive. Let the fun begin.

1:10pm

We’re done with our improvised picnic on the parking lot of a service area. Traffic was getting denser and denser and we were hungry. After all we woke up at 3am and have been talking about lunch since 10:30am. If we have to be stuck in traffic let it be with a full stomach.

I had promised Wolfram we would stop in a nice service area and have a picnic on a blanket. Well that did not happened because the service area was packed with people. Luckily I spotted a lady walking back to her car and we waited for her to leave to park there. We ate next to the car, watching this madness around us.

Feeling better we hit the road again, ready to face the A7 and at least 50km of accordion drive.

2:10pm

We’ve been driving for 1 hour and successfully completed 50km… it’s going to take forever.

4pm

We’re leaving the highway, finally, after what felt the longest 150 km ever.

5pm

Here we are, we’ve arrived in Viens, very small village from the Luberon. We parked the car in the parking lot outside the village. The house is in the village which is pedestrian. Actually given the width of most streets, there is no way a car can get through.  My parents were getting the keys so we waited a bit until we could access the house.

After emptying the car, touring the house, taking a shower and changing to summer outfits, we’re ready to start our vacation with a glass of rose wine.

Now vacations can start!

Counting down

Only 5 days to go before vacation.

Cosmopolitan

After enjoying a very good Lemon drop cocktail, Silke and I decided it was time for Wolfram to try a new cocktail. We browsed the 2 cocktail books available in the house and settled on the Cosmopolitan.

Saturday night, Wolfram grabbed the recipe and all the ingredients and made us Cosmopolitan cocktails.

The outcome of this trial was not exactly what we expected. 2 reasons for that:
- It’s important to follow the recipe. There is a reason for each ingredient. Mixing vodka, cranberry juice and lime, surprisingly tastes like grapefruit juice with vodka. The Triple Sec (orange liquor) does sweeten the mix.
- It’s important to have the right cranberry juice. The one I bought, the only one I could find, was too diluted compared to what we saw on videos afterwards. Thus the color (too white) and the flavor (too bitter) were not quite there.

After 2 attempts we didn’t reach the right balance and agreed to stop there for the night. Now all we need is the right cranberry juice so we can try again.

Bruges, one more time

This year it seems people visiting us have a passion for Bruges. Maybe because it’s been many years they come to Belgium and Bruges was part of the first trip. Many years later they all wish to go back to Bruges. So on a rainy July morning, we drove to Bruges.

Wearing our rain jackets and full of hope that the weather would change, we started our journey through the city. Luckily in the afternoon the sky cleared up and even the sun showed up, cheering up the day.

This time I decided to only take pictures of little things I’ve missed so far because I was focusing on the bigger buildings and towers. Every building in Bruges is full of those little statues, pictures or sculptures. Therefore there was plenty for me to choose from.

Like a basket on top of the building

or a beard made of snakes or dragons (not quite clear what it is)

or a little house selling chocolate

or a collection of statues

 or lions

or ladies

or a bear 

and because one should develop from day one to right reflexes when it comes to photography...

and I could not not take a few pictures of the typical architecture in Bruges.

No matter how many times I have visited Bruges, it always surprises me.

Sadly it’s broken

Last night an alarming sound woke us up. Broken glass.

The cats had managed to break the vase with flowers. I’m pretty sure it was Mokka as she was always playing with the flowers but in the absence of evidence I will not make any formal accusation.

That vase was a gift from my sister and my brother. I received it one of the first Christmases I was in Paris. It was in crystal and weighted at least 2kg. It was so heavy when filled with water I needed my 2 hands to carry it.
I still remember flying back to Paris with it in my hand luggage and having people telling me it could be considered as a weapon because it’s glass. Given the effort it would require from me to throw it at any one, it’s very unlikely I would use it as a weapon. Not to mention why would I want to break my vase?

Anyhow last night, one of the cats somehow pushed the vase or the flowers or both and it fell on the tiles, breaking in millions of pieces. Wolfram and I cleaned up the mess in the middle of the night. Good bye my beloved vase and with it the beautiful flowers I received for our 3-year anniversary.

Like my Dad always says when something is broken, it's an opportunity to get a new one.

Next time Wolfram gets me flowers, he will have to get me a vase as well.

Beautiful Brittany

 

Thanks JHM for sharing.

Help needed

Anybody knows a hotel or apartment we can stay when we go to New York end of the year?
Seems most hotels are hugely expensive :(
All suggestions are welcome.

Souvenirs

Some old advertisements that marked generations of French people, well at least those who joined the BBQ last night for July 14th even though it happened on July 15th due to the rain.
Bah oui... on est nostalgique de la France le 14 juillet.

Depressing

These days I need to remember it's July.
Looking forward to the south of France. 2 weeks to go before vacation.

Canada here we come

After playing with the idea for some time and careful examination of the fares from at least 1 million airlines, my family has decided to spend Christmas in Canada, with my brother.
He is going to rent a lodge of some sort in the Horse Shoe Valley and for the first time since forever, we will have a white Christmas!
Cherry on the cake, after the white Christmas, I will meet Wolfram in NY city (in case you wonder, meeting point is of course the top of the Empire State Building) for an unforgettable New Year's Eve.
True this trip requires planning in advance, but the feeling of preparation and the anticipation of what will happen somehow is already getting me in vacation spirit. Can't wait to be there!

Kung Fu Panda 2

Last night Alice, Flo and I went to the movies to watch Kung Fu Panda 2. Kung Fu Panda 1 was one of the first movies we watched on DVD in China and therefore we have a bit of a connection with this improbable story of a panda become a Kung Fu Dragon Warrior.

We were both hopeful and doubtful as movie #2 can be very good or very bad. Based on what we've seen out there you have a 50/50 chances that it will be great.
And it was great. Not only great, really funny. They literally didn't take one minute of seriousness. It was even better than the 1st one. If you find yourself with a bit of time in your hands, don't miss Kung Fu Panda 2.


PS: 2D is enough, no need to go for 3D.
PS2: thanks Evan for bringing out another great animation movie.

Walking playlist

Now that I have installed Nike Plus on my phone and bought an armband, all I'm missing is a good playlist. In case you wonder I already have shoes and outfit for training. Still need to decide what I will wear in Paris.

My first walk I just went with my whole library shuffling but that didn't work. When the music was slow, I slowed down and vice versa. I understand better why there are playlists by pace available online. Your pace is basically matching the pace of the music. If it's slow, you will slow down. If it's fast, you will speed up which is good but maybe not feasible for 3 hours in a row. This means I need a playlist that makes me walk at the right speed and my pace will be the right one.
I prepared a first playlist on Monday and tried it out tonight only to find out that I have it 80% right. There are a few songs slowing me down to be replaced.Thanks to Nike Plus tracking system I could see where exactly I slowed down and match it to the song in the playlist. Sometimes it's amazing what technology can do.
Let's see this weekend how the new version goes.

Disappointing sales this year

I have to say the sales this year were not so great. It’s partially due to the fact that the collection for this summer was not the most exciting and therefore even on sales, I struggled to find something I liked.

This said, I need clothes.

Sadly I reached the point where there are many empty hangers in my closet and I need to do something about it. Most of my summer clothes from last year are too big now. I’m not complaining as I hardly need a reason to go shopping and I believe the niece of my cleaning lady is happy to get all my clothes. BUT after experiencing tailor made clothes in China, it’s harder to buy clothes that are not 100% perfectly fitting me. Not to mention the quality of many brands is not what it used to be and I struggled paying a lot of money for a top in 100% polyester. I might as well get it from H&M for cheap.

Something tells me it’s going to take time to refill my wardrobe, one item at a time. In the meantime, I’ll have to protect my share of space as I understood someone did quite some shopping in the US.
I probably also need a trip to Paris when the new collection is out.

Et le bijou crea la femme

Aurelie has discovered a jewelry maker in Brussels about 1 year ago. Joelle van de Voorde designs and makes her jewelry in Ixelles and on Saturdays the workshop of Et le bijou crea la femme is open to public. Of course while touring stores on the 2nd day of sales, we stopped by. Consequently, there are now 3 new pairs of earrings and 1 necklace in my jewelry cupboard. I tried hard but could not resist her original creations.

And it might get worse when you know that she can design pieces on demand to match an outfit or a special occasion. Food for thoughts.

I also promised myself to bring my mother and sister next time they come to Brussels, as I’m sure they would like her jewelry as well.

20 hours door to door

Friday I had to go to Barcelona to prepare products for a test.

Because it was last minute decision and for once I had plans over the weekend, I took the early flight to Barcelona and the late one back to Brussels.
I left home at 5am and was back at 1am the following night, after 9 hours of assembly work reshuffling and repacking products and of course delayed aircraft.
There are parts in my job I love, some I like, and some I wish I could avoid. Friday was one day I wish I could have avoided.