Our first international blog

Greetings from Provence...... hopefully it's been worth the wait!!

Ok, Ok, it may have seemed like we disappeared off the face of the earth - actually we hit a few technology challenges with the wifi off the air at Mas la Monaque - ahhhhhh the joys of being published globally!!!!  Thank goodness for IT Dan from Team Watson.

After safe travels (well, safer and better for some) - a little competition for my blog followers - pick the one of us who didn't get to travel business class outbound from Melbourne - those of you who picked Louise would be the winners - but I do respect the older members of the group do need to travel in a little bit of luxury :-)

Ok, so let's start from the very beginning - Jon, Mum, Dad and I met with Peter and Margaret as planned at a rather fabby restaurant in Gare Lyon, Le Train Bleu - a great way to spend Friday night in downtown Paris.  We enjoyed a variety of delicious delights, including asparagus soup, roast duck, followed by a fantastic caramel and chocolate pastry du jour.  The building was beautiful and a great start to our jubilee adventure.

 

All very low cal mmmm...... I was personally very impressed by the selection of Champage Louise - whatever the year, without question, this was a memorable vintage.  A fantabulous start to our French Joie de Vivre Jubilee.  Given our train travel to Provence early Saturday, it wasn't a late night, and with a little bit of jetlag, we were more than happy to hit the dooner in our hotel rooms.

After a wander through the local streets on Saturday morning, we had a yummy breakfast of eggs, croissants (Joycee has declared them the best ever!!!), baguettes with fresh strawberry jam and cafe.  Ahhhh, perfect.

We were then train-ward bound to Avignon where we met up with Team Watson.  There were a few giggles in relation to our hire vehicles - one has been fondy named Big Bertha (I mean seriously, there a boat people who would consider our hire vehicle to have the same georgraphical equivalent as a small European Village -  this vehicle may even come with it's own postcode. 



We then arrived to meet our hosts, Maureen and Jimmy, who patiently waited for our slightly delayed arrival.  Some have suggested Maureen could have used this time to do a little more vacuuming - in the words the Dame Edna, "they have gone to a little trouble for our arrival, not alot of trouble, but a little!!!!"  Ha, ha - just kidding, the Mas is amazing and everything I could have hoped for.



The first couple of days at Mas la Monaque have flown by - a couple of weather challenges with the arrival of the Mistral winds, which, for the first few days, put a halt to our grand plan of cocktails and sunbathing - the Queensland chic in me would say the winds were almost cyclonic, but we battened down the hatches and found our inner strength in the occassional red wine, ooooppps, my mistake vin rouge!!!  Desperately doing my best to embrace the language, however an indication to my level of expertise can be best displayed by the arrival of a dinner plate of dessert tastings with our Cafe Allonge today after golf.  I had thought I was telling the very kind waiter that we were fine to finish up lunch, however as it turns out, I managed to order a few tasy treats - ahhhhhh well, it was a nice chaser to the post golf cleansing ale. 

On the subject of golf, I think I have failed to mention that Geoff was the winner today - personally I suggest it to be a hollow victory.  Dan retired hurt and as always, I was a complete lady, with Geoff forcing me through guilt to play from the men's tees - but eh, I am not one to shy away from a challege.  Geoff was the winner by a massive and soul destroying 2 points, gained only on the last hole. 

I have lots of other news, but it is midnight here now, and I need my beauty sleep - will update you with more news tomorrow now that we are back online.