Dublin, May 2019

This summer we were going to Provence in southern France. One of our humans wished to see lavender fields, and since we'd be driving a car ourselves, McBear made sure we had a great road map.
"Good Lord!" he said. "They do have some pretty long placenames like Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer."
"Howabout this one: Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume." Roger added.
Roger was all excited. Going to Provence would give him a chance to practice his French skills. In the weeks after the news of the trip had gone out, we could hear Roger endlessly waffling:
"Je suis Roger. Je suis la fameuse Roger Viking de ... eh ... Deupleene."
"Deupleene? What's that?" Tom wanted to kow.
"Dublin, of course."
"I thought it should be pronounced as in Dap-lang." McBear said.
"Well, it could hardly be Doop-lanne." Tom pointed out.
Roger sighed.
"It's getting unbearable - I am surrounded by twats'n imbeciles..."

Click each photo to enlarge

We left Dublin on an Aer Lingus flight bound for Nice. Here we are above Antibes on final approach to Nice Airport. The met office reported a heatwave engulfing western Europe, and it was just after France had broken its heat record with 45.9 degrees centigrade, phew! We needed to prepare ourselves for some sweaty weeks ahead.
"It's like in Vietnam," Tom sighed.
"Will we have to shower?" McBear asked.

Antibes, June 2019

We were going to stay for the night at the Best Western. Lansdowne was with us. He wanted to make friends with French rugby players and exchange shared view points against the common enemy in the famous Six Nations Rugby Cup.

We had a fine room with a large balcony and we could see Nice in the horizon.

The French Reviera, June 2019

The next morning we headed southwest along the French Reviera. We were excited to be going through Cannes - especially Roger of course - however, the trafic was a show stopper and we just wanted to get out. We stopped near Sainte-Maxime to get a selfie.

We stayed a couple of nights in Aix-en-Provence and drove around to find lavender fields. At Bonnieux just north of the Luberon mountain range we stopped at a purple field. The smells and colours were unbelievable, wow!

The photo is a bit of an outtake in that first: poor Lansdowne's hairband had slid down in front of his eyes and second: McBear happened to be studying a large beetle walking by. Our photographer was getting impatient while trying to get the group to pose for our selfie. He never discovered the glitches until it was too late...

Calavon, Provence, June 2019

While staying in Aix-en-Provence we went wine tasting. Tom pointed out it's good to have humans who value the art of tasting good wine. Roger claimed that alcohol is not good for you, and McBear said he only likes tea with honey.
The first couple of wineries we went to were actually closed even though they had wine tasting and wine sale advertised. In fact it wasn't easy find out whether a winery had winetasting or not. Instead we went to the nearby Calavon winery in Lambesc. We had a guided tour through the production - and bought some fabulous wine. Calavon actually makes its share of the fabulous Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Le Jas des Papes, though it's not among the wines they sell themselves.

From Aix-en-Provence we headed north toward Sault. Sault is said to be at the heart of the lavender area. We stopped at a lavender field to have a selfie with the famous Mont Ventoux as a background. Although it was a true lavender field, we had hoped for something a bit more purple-ish. Maybe it was too early in the season...

Reilhanette, Provence, June 2019

We reached Sault and went further north to Reilhanette, a tiny village in a beautiful area surrounded by mountains.

We stayed for the night in a gorgeous room at the B&B Oustau de la Font. The view from our balcony was fab. It was however, a bit hard to sleep as there was no air condition, only a noisy fan.

Beaucaire, Provence, June 2019

We left Reilhanette and the area around Sault - knowing that we'd be back. We headed south west. Today's destination was Carcasonne in Languedoc. South of Avignon we got lost and had to consult the map.
"It looks like we'll be bypassing Gaviscon." Roger concluded.
"Gavisc... What??? Do you mean Tarascon or Graveson?" McBear asked.
"Whatever!" Roger said a bit annoyed - he could hear Tom giggling.
"Maybe people from Tarascon and Graveson suffer from heart burn." Tom pointed out. "That would explain a high consume of Gaviscon..."
We stopped for coffee at the canal harbour in Beaucaire just west of Tarascon.

Getting lost wasn't too bad, because suddenly we came across an entire field of sun flowers, wow!

Carcasonne, Languedoc, June 2019

Late in the afternoon we arrived Carcasonne in Languedoc. It was a real medieval fortress with city walls and towers and all, wow!
Boy, it was hot - the temperature had soared to 36 degrees centigrade, phew!

We would be staying at the Best Western Hotel Le Donjon in the center of the medieval town. Roger was blissfull as the hotel is located in the street Rue Comte Roger.
"I shall make my entrance noticed!" he said with joy.
McBear and Tom looked at each other - they worried about what was to come.
"I need a word with whoever booked that hotel!" McBear mumbled to Tom.

Carcasonne, Languedoc, June 2019

McBear and Roger entered the hotel lobby. Confident, Roger went to the reception.
"Bonjour mesdames et messieurs!" He said with a clear voice. "Je suis le comte, Comte Roger."
McBear was relieved to learn, that we were most welcome...

It was truely a fantastic hotel and we enjoyed the lobby. McBear wanted some tea and called on the waiter.
"Eh-uhm... monsieur, est ce que je me pouver un petit tea?"
"Pardon?" the waiter asked.
"Uhm... eh... peut-etre vous avez a... eh... quelle que tea?"
The waiter looked at McBear with dispair.
"Do you speak English, monsieur le Bear? Then perhaps I would be able to understand what you're asking..."
After McBear had got his tea, Roger concluded:
"Maybe we should let go of attempting to speak French..."
"I couldn't agree more," McBear nodded.
So, our English speaking bears gave up speaking French to the English speaking French waiter.

Carcasonne, Languedoc, June 2019

We went around the midieval town and also went to see the old castle inside the city walls. The oldest parts were built by the Romans during the dark middle ages. It was extended in the 1200s.

We went to see the Museum of the Inquisition. It was awful to see how the catholic church treated non-catholics in the 1200s hundreds.
"Wonder if people today have changed," Roger pondered.
We tried out the garotte in front of the museum entrance. Tom and Roger put their heads through the openings.
"Now what?" asked Lansdowne.
McBear laughed.
"We could lock the upper barre and run like Hell... But we won't do that..."

Carcasonne, Languedoc, June 2019

Then the inevitable happened: Our humans' pile of clean clothes was in dire need of a top up and we were faced with reality: Laundry! No holiday without laundry. By chance we found a nearby laundrette only to discover the instructions were in... French! We were worried that we'd be spending much of the evening deciphering the "hieroglyphs", but thank God the laundry owners had made the instructions easy to understand.