Kiwi Roaming

The big 6-0 day arrived on September 8th, our lovely friends decorated the villa with balloons, streamers and bunting and bought Steve a sash to wear for the day too. We added Raspberry jam and scrambled eggs to the croissant breakfast menu for the special occasion and then all headed out to visit beautiful villages. Steve did an amazing job driving the narrow windy street avoiding a range of hazards and navigating us though some tricky situations.

Gordes – We had to go to Gordes for Gords. High up in the hills with a beautiful outlook over the landscape. Not walled but made up of a maze of narrow cobbled and very steep streets. It was hot and shelter is limited, the main carparks were full – with coaches, cars and many many campervans – so we parked about 10 mins walk above the town. We could see a variety of accommodation options but only one small supermarket, a few cafes and restaurants, souvenir and gift shops. A very clean village with a population of under 2,000 people, you can see the ruins over the ages – from Roman to 8th century through to medieval.

Glad we went there but OMG the tourists.

Roussillon – High on Steve’s list was Roussillon, Valcluse the Ochre town. It was too hot to do the ochre walk for us but we got to see the amazing colours of the landscape and the buildings made of varying shades of orange and reds. After an adventure trying to maneuver our giant car into one of the hillside carparks we wandered up the hill into the village, another hilltop town with slighly less steep streets but lots of fantastic platforms to survey the landscape from. It’s really very spectacular! It was nearing 2pm so we jumped into the first restaurant we could find – very touristo but our salads were nice enough and it was good to have eaten when we were all hot and a bit ratty. After lunch the tour busses arrived and the village filled up pretty quickly but there was more to see so we persevered with our exploration and loved the experience.

Birthday dinner – After a cool down in the swimming pool we all cleaned up and headed into the village for dinner. It was Monday night so our options were limited but we found a lovely Italian restaurant and enjoyed a variety of delicious meals. Steve loved that we were sitting outside for our meal enjoying the heat, it even started to rain but the oak trees above us worked as an excellent canopy meaning we could continue to enjoy with minor spots only getting through to us. I think it was a good 60th birthday day.