wattle abroad

At about 3:30 we started the trip home, we stopped off at the cemetery where some of Chantal’s family are, then it was mostly highway all the way home. The countryside was absolutely gorgeous in the sun, kind of temperate like Victoria but more lush and more European type flora obviously. It was late and I was bushed by the time when we got home so we had a little food, I chatted with my mum, then went to bed!

When we got back the adults went to a wine tasting thing but Izzy felt a bit sick/faint so we stayed home and had a rest. She read all snuggled up and I may have fell asleep on her a little bit, and afterwards I did a bit of drawing before dinner and Izzy worked on her sock and talked to the kids. For dinner we did basically did this weird meat roasting fondue where we had three big boils of boiling oil to put bits of uncooked meat into, it was awesome and I ate much mustard. The adults were a bit drunk and they brought back much wine so we dined late into the night then crashed very happy.

(I wrote this post already but tumblr SWALLOWED IT rude) On Thursday we drove to St Chely d'Apcher where Gauthier (Izzy's cousin) lives. It's a little uni town on a mountain, kinda a bit like a French Sale? Anyway we drove for 4-5 hours to get there through winding mountain roads, kinda thought I was gonna die but it sure was beautiful! We stopped off at a little town for coffee/peeing where I met this kitten who wanted to be friends. We got lost and went up at same road like four times but we made it. When we got there is was freezing and we went for a pub dinner basically, got something called aligot with a sausage with is like basically super cheesy mashed potatoes. After that Gauthier's parents went to their hotel and we ended up going with him to like a frat party basically in a tiny apartment (lol straight people), then ended up taking some of his friends back to his house to play poker into the night, was good.

Wednesday was a pretty chill day, we repacked our bags again in preparation for a weekend away and the imminent trip to Paris which we also bought our tickets for, we leave on Tuesday! Izzy worked on her sock and I drew a few ideas and little drawings.

Yesterday we went on a big bike ride! Izzy’s uncle drove us to a cedar forest on the top of a hill and I was a bit worried that it would be too far, but the whole way was downhill and it was SO pretty! The cedar forest was lush and cold, and the views from the top of the hill were gorgeous. Saw (and stepped on) lots of Wilde thyme. We basically coasted to the next town (pictured above) and most of the way to Apt, through beautiful grapevine fields and little plots of trees. In Apt we had a walk and a kebab (that came with chips, best food surprise in France), accidentally found some sweet kittens, then hung out with Izzy’s uncle and aunt for lunch then went home. We skyped Grace a little bit then visited some wool shops to get supplies and ideas, then I drew and Izzy worked on her socks in the afternoon.

The day we left Boisset was a bit sad because we had heaps of fun there! We went for a walk up the road in the morning so I could take photos of the view, then Yves drove us to the train station basically! Some nice Scottish ladies lent us a pen on the train when we had to fill in our rail passes, then this slightly overly friendly Canadian sat across from us and wanted to chat about travelling so I indulged him a little so Izzy could read. When we got to Avignon then took the bus back to Apt Herve picked us up and took us to another little market where Izzy bought a cute little cowboy top and I got a blue jumper, and that afternoon we worked more on our crafting. This part of the holiday is nicely slow sometimes. Also the sunset was beautiful and we had snails for dinner, my first time!

On the 19th we went started off the day (believe it or not) with a jog! We went through the town and along the road that leans of the hill and along a patch of pines trees on the mountain, and Tobi came with us! We ate ripe figs off of their fig tree in the front which was so good and played a game of pétanque! Afterwards we had lunch and went to Minerve which is a gorgeous town nearby and went into the big cave which had heaps of Cairn stones inside. That night we went to dinner in a house on the edge of Boisset which had English people living there, so we spent the night getting drunk off their beer and talking to these two boys around our age (also fed their alpacas which was cool). Everyone spoke varying amounts of English, French and German plus one guy from Slovakia! It was heaps fun, but we has the most terrifying ride home because Izzy’s uncle and aunt left us there and we were going to walk but the dad of one of the boys our age volunteered to drive us. I still don’t know if he was drunk or just a crazy driver but we drove WAY too fast on those windy cliff-side roads and almost hit a damn wild boar on the way back. Longest five minutes of my life, but we made it! Caro had left us a bottle of water and a sweet note on the bed and after we let them know we were back we went to bed.

The next morning we got up bright and early to take the bus and train to Boisset where another of Izzy's uncles lives. We left the house in Les Petits Clements to this beautiful sunrise! Yves picked us from the station and drove us for an hour to get to Boisset, and when you get near the town it's just big green rolling hills next to each other and roads that cute into the sides, it's so beautiful. I took more photos on my camera throughout the stay. We had lunch with her uncle and aunt who are lovely and her aunt wanted to speak English with us to practise. They're both a little odd but in a kind and quirky way that makes you feel very comfortable. Yves took as for a tour of the 20 person town (really just a collection of houses), introduced us to Tobi the beautiful kelpie or collie kinda dog with German owners, and to meet Sophie the town's pet wild boar. Seriously. We thought we were gonna be bored there but we were always doing something! We looked at a lot of old photos of Izzy's family that we're fantastic! They seem to have all the old family photos and Caro (Yves' partner) takes a lot of photos of events! We went to bed very tired but happy I think!

The next day we were gonna skype people but lunch plans got in the way! We went up in the mountains to have a nice lunch (saw a crazy amount of cyclists, they’re all nuts), then went to get some good lavender from a shop nearby. Apparently real lavender only grows high up, who knew? That was the day I started getting my weird, possibly stress related, skin rash which was weird. Then we got ready to head to another country house to visit Izzy's uncle Yves.

On Monday is rained!! It was really pretty, we spent time at home and I got stuck in photo editing apps on my phone because I’m tragic, izzy worked on her crochet pockets for her tarot cards which look awesome! Later when it stopped we went to a little farm nearby where they were selling veges which was super cute, and I did Izzy’s hair in braids! That night her cousin (from her uncle who we visited on the following weekend, I'll get to that) came over with his wife and kid, they were very nice and baby Hugo was a cute baby!

At the end of the day we went home to relax a bit, and I finished the first half of my scarf! It was an awesome day.

The Saturday after my birthday we went to the market with Izzy's aunt in the nearest major town Apt for a brief visit. There were the normal stalls of shitty cheap clothes but also HEAPS of food and lavender, big tables of vegetables and dry sausages and olives in various forms, it was great. We also stopped for a nice cup of tea (or a bad cup of coffee in my case) and a cake, then swung by the wool shop on the way home to get some supplies to start a few projects! There's been a lot of knitting and crochet for us on this part of the trip and it's been lovely.

My actual birthday (Friday the 12th) was lovely! I skyped my parents in the morning then spent the day mostly doing relaxing stuff like drawing and catching up on people’s messages and well wishes. We also went for a birthday bike ride which was hard in the hear but meant that getting in the pool afterwards was fantastic. Probably one of the more chill birthdays I’ve had which is pretty cool!

The next day (Thursday the 11th) was also pretty chill, just hung around and went in the pool, I did a bit of drawing and took more photos, but it was also sort of half my birthday because at about 4pm France time it’s midnight the next day in Australia! I got a lot of birthday messages, got to relax a little bit, and Izzy did a birthday tarot reading for me before we went to bed was very lovely!