That night cooked dinner and had a relatively early night – midnight. For some reason the days seem to be longer perhaps aided by the 22:00 sunset.
Sunday morning and I left around 13:00 towards Nice where I was picking up my bridge partner Paul Gosney (26 Australian living in London for 6 months) at Nice airport at 20:25. I stopped in at Boit which is a lovely village with a number of glass artists and many studios of various types. I saw a nice lamp I would have bought had I known how to get it back in one piece.
I have a nice dinner in Nice and head out to the airport having checked the arrival time. However it wasn’t till I arrived at the airport that I found out that the plane was an hour late – GRRR!!
Anyway collected Paul and drove around Nice to show him the city as he wasn’t going to get back here again and then to Monte Carlo for a late supper. Finally got back to Aix at 02:00 Monday morning.
Nor surprisingly we didn’t get going to fairly late and headed to Ilse Sur La Sorgue, Menerbe and Bonnieux followed by a lovely dinner at the Jules Cesar in Arles.
Tuesday we headed south after sitting in the traffic for close to an hour at one point alone in Aix. We lunched at Bastide St Antoine, a Michelin one star restaurant. The meal was superb but I guess I should have done better than order the John Dory. Sitting in the garden was stunningly beautiful and very relaxing.
We then headed to Tourettes Sur Loupe and St Paul de Vence (where somebody backs into my car but luckily no damage) which is probably my favourite village in the South of France - full of galleries with lovely pieces and all surrounded by the most charming of Village environments. I buy some steak and vegetables and we dine in the backyard in a beautiful sunset.
Next morning we pack up and head for Biarritz which is a 06:15 drive which takes 9:00 with stops at Toulouse and Lourdes – nope didn’t feel healed after being there.
Now came the fun and games. I wrote to the owner of an apartment to rent a two bedroom apartment for what was originally the two of us and made an offer for it. The response was: “offering j rent an apartment (Réf. 681010) to 0,7 km from casino, j can do 800 €/8 night”. What had not registered was that she was offering me a different property of just one bedroom at the same price I had offered for two. No sorry I cant let you have that one I’ll let you have this one I simply assumed she had accepted my offer. This all came to light when I told her there would now be three of us as Boye’s brother was coming to babysit and would be staying with us rather than paying €280 at the Palais where Boye is staying.
In the meantime I had tried to get another place fully prepared to write off my €250 deposit, sent emails etc. and nothing worked. When I arrived the owner and I had some direct words in different languages luckily for both of us and agreed that I would stay there for one night utilising my €250 deposit while I looked for somewhere else.
My luck was in when I found a five bedroom house which was ideal for our needs http://www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/p663051a and she accepted an offer of €900 for the remaining seven days. It is better located and we each get separate bedrooms making it work perfectly. She asks me if I have an insurance policy in case I set fire to her house so I send her my travel insurance. She sends me a 9 page contract in French to sign which I will do not intending to cause any damage as she seems quite precious about her house.
After arriving and finding the new place from tomorrow we go to the bridge where I meet a number of people I know and finish up having dinner and walking back to our apartment for the night.
Well there you have the last four days in a nutshell. Am too tired for any more…..
Love to all
David
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