Ginger Biscuit Tour: April 2010

Friday, 30 April 2010

After 2 weeks on the Côte d’Azur we are now crossing France making short stops on our way to Biarritz. The temperature has shot up in the past few days and we now find ourselves thinking that it is getting too hot. Oh why as humans can we never be satisfied, must we drive ourselves mad with our constant complaining?
We voted the campsite at Sainte.Maxime one of our favourite. This was due to the perfect location, upon the water’s edge, an unspoiled view of St.Tropez bay and the great Dutch couple – Hank and Corry next door. While Hank enthralled us with tales of life as an Amsterdam police detective and tickled us with his subtle sense of humour, Corry was always bright and upbeat. Like many women away from their grandchildren, she was smitten with Krista. Krista took a particular liking to their little dog Lotja. However even she could not compete in her affections with the gang of pigeons that popped round to our awning for their daily crumbs of French bread.
As usual we took few trips out in the car, preferring to walk or run along the cycle path into Ste.Maxime or Port Grimaud each day. Graham was the victor in the great race to submerge the whole body in the sea and achieved two strokes of breast on the 19th April. I came in third on the 21st but did swim for at least five minutes. We therefore held our own against our Lyonnaise neighbours who took second place by swimming properly on the 20th.
Krista is now approaching her 8 month anniversary and growing up faster than possible to believe. Keeping us amused with her chatter and songs, we now need eyes in the back or her head as she explores every nook and cranny of the caravan. She sits up securely rolls and almost crawls on all fours, held back not by an incredible strength but a slight lack of technique. She can just about pull herself up to standing and will use any available structure to do so. She likes to play with anything that is not a toy, the more unsuitable the better – electrical wires being the number one favourite and now as we have moved outside mud and daisies.
She gets extremely frustrated when things are not quite as she thinks they should be … we look forward with trepidation to the ‘terrible twos’ if this is how she is at 7months. She still has no teeth but doesn’t let this stop her in the food stakes. Like Graham she has developed a fondness for French bread (far more appetizing than the rice cakes I’d like her to prefer). Also like Graham she’s been developing quite a tummy on the ever abundant supply of French patisserie!
To keep tummies in check we have bought her (ourselves) a wonderful racing red pushchair designed especially for running. (Although we really don’t have the space for two large pushchairs, this was a bargain we just couldn’t pass on at a local boot-fair). The spokes in one of the wheels need repairing but once that is fixed we can’t wait to get it down to the park-run for a trial. In the same deal, we also got a baby back-pack. Krista sits in it like the Queen of Sheba made up with her new view of the world.

Saturday, 24 April 2010

Ste Maxime

Hello all. We have just spent a fantastic two weeks camping on the beach in Sainte Maxime. After several paddling sessions Graham finally swam in the sea on the 19th April. Annie not to be outdone got in (for longer) on the 21st. Krista dipped her feet in but found it shockingly cold! She'll go in next year! We are now making our way to Biarritz.

Friday, 16 April 2010

More from Aix-en-Provence

It has been good for me to return to Aix and spend some time with my French ‘family’ there. I lived in Aix for about five years both during and after my university days. Stephanie is my good friend from that time and we have remained close despite the distance. We saw Stephanie and her two children Dionys and Hermès (three and fifteen months) almost every day either at the campsite, Stephanie’s home or in Aix itself. We paid a couple of visits to Stephanie’s parents and also caught up with her brother Laurent and his girlfriend Sandrine when Stephanie cooked a wonderful quiche and Spanish omelette.
I took as much advantage as possible of the Olympic size pool while in Aix. It felt gorgeous to be back in this place I had spent so much time in all those years ago. Now about 10 years since I left Aix, I didn’t imagine I would ever get the chance return to one of the top pools I have ever swum in. It was a strange experience, like stepping back in time as nothing seemed to have changed. The changing rooms are still manned in the old fashioned way with baskets for your clothes to hand to the attendant.
I always enjoyed watching the top-flight synchronized swimmers rehearsing between my lengths. I felt warm inside as I recogn€ized what had become the familiar sound of the coaches tapping time on the metal bars with a coin. The next generation of svelte dolphins-girls were now faultlessly cork-screwing their way to the bottom of the pool tirelessly perfecting their idiosyncratic routines. I’ve always told Graham about Aix’s synchronized swimmers, so was happy he could finally witness their Olympic brilliance for himself as he and Krista watched from the stands.
Toying with the idea of some French lessons in this time Graham took a 90 minute trial in a language school that used a learning method pioneered by a Hungarian called Georgi Lozanov. The trial involved him sitting alone in a room in a comfortable chair wearing dark glasses and headphones. Music was played and blue lights flashed in front of his closed eyes. He had to listen to a piece of text and repeat phrases. After a short break he returned to the room without the glasses and listened to more music and then followed a written version of the text as he listened again. At the end the teacher came to him, re-read the text, and he finally had to read the text himself. Somehow with in all of this the level of his language knowledge was assessed to decide where he would begin his lessons. Graham immerged a little shell-shocked from this bizarre experience and over lunch with Stephanie and I decided the method was not for him. In his words ‘I’m not paying €50 Euros an hour for those bullocks and now I think I’ve got a migraine coming’. He remains faithful to his old friend Michel Thomas.
So having planned to stay in Aix for up to a month but took the decision to move sooner. Despite being in a beautiful campsite at the foot of Cezanne’s Sainte Victoire mountain, we were unable to go out without the car. Due to the mountainous terrain the area is not well adapted for those who want to walk with a pushchair as we discovered with Alison on a hike around the Barrage of Bimont. We began therefore to feel a little trapped. So after just over two weeks in Aix-en-Provence we have moved closer to the Cote d’Azur and found a perfect campsite in between Sainte Maxime and Port Grimaud. Our pitch is quite literally on the edge of the sea and we have cycle track and pavement that lead all the way into both towns for our daily walks and runs.