As previously mentioned, we each were given a day to make all the decisions on the trip so that one person was not forced to make all the decisions. Well, on my day Ken took off to Paris. No. My plans we're that crazy but his daughter was there so he figured it was a great time to see her.
My day started off with the search for a cafe/bakery to serve us the most delicious coffee and pastries. We picked on in the street we had passed by the night before mainly because their
Suisse de Valance actually looked like men rather than aliens. After seriously messing with the normal method of ordering (sitting and placing your order) so we could actually point at the display case our order was in and we sat outside, watching the foot traffic pass by. In true exploration fashion we walked back a different way than we arrived which was perfect since we discovered the Saturday market in the main square. As we tried not to scream tourists even more than we already did, we walked the stalls and took pictures of all the amazing items. The most amazing? I found a 6 pack of cilantro. Go figure. That once again triggered our talks of "bringing a car next time rather than flying" plan. Why? Well you can only check so much wine...even when they do sell it in boxes! Yep. Boxes. At a winery.
Perhaps the most eventual part of the market was waiting in line for
fromages de chevre (goat cheese). Although we had passed several stands we only decided at the very last part that we should pick some up, luckily there was still one vendor. If the line was any indication of the quality of the product we were in for a great treat. Well, that was original thought. After 10 minutes in line, trying to communicate with an older lady behind us and another lady in front it seems that the old lady selling the cheese was just super slow. Like ridiculously slow even for the Italian pace I'm still being conditioned for. Somehow we were cut in front of by this guy toting way too many plastic bags to be acceptable at a farmers market. As he tried to set them at the edge of the van where the cases were, there was a spill. Slightly bruise the produce but also a cracked egg. Upon inspection he found the cracked egg and rather than tossing it away, he downed it. The other in line had a much different reaction than Kim and I. In fact, I think our reactions were entertainment for them. It was eventually our turn and Kim used her high school French to purchase one form each bin. Again, we didn't know what we're looking for so we were probably passed off second hand cheese but it's all part of being a tourist.
Next stop was to head to the land of
plantes aromatiques, lavender in particular. As we wove through the mountain roads we once again saw amazing views. Along this route we also picked out our vacation homes. At one photo opportunity I was in shock that I heard the river water flowing below us and that it smelled like nature among the trees. Eventually we made it to Saillans and walked through the streets to find the tourist office. For a town with a 900 population, the tourist office was booming. Our suspicion that we'd missed the lavender in the fields was confirmed but we were pointed in the direction of a few shops where we could buy the items so we pressed on to the next town.
All the French towns began to sound the same so short of searching through pictures to see if a town name is in one of them, I have no idea where we ended up...but we found it and the shop. After purchasing some lavender items (dried flowers, honey, and soap) we decided it was time to break out the goat cheese and my baguette from the previous day. On a picnic table next to the town's church before we were even done laying it out a orange tabby came to say hello. While he was trying to get some food, I noticed something pacing behind the fence. After watching it for a few minutes I concluded that it must be a turtle. When I went to go check it out I was pleasantly surprised that it was actually a tortoise. (Seriously, does anyone else have these random live experiences or am I just really good at noticing them?) Then both animals disappeared and the sprinkling rain turned into full on rain...as we dashed to the table under the tree. Picnic in France? Check. Rain? Bonus points.
After deciding that we were game for another 45 minutes in the car, we headed further south into Nyons for whatever their town had to offer. Did I mention we were following a map that had the different specialties of each town on it? Up to this point of the day we'd been through the guinea fowl, lavender, and goat head regions. Grapes began to reappear as we approached Nyons but Kim insisted she was okay so we pressed on. Upon arriving in Nyons the rain continued to fall but that didn't stop us...not one bit. More items were purchased and as we switched to window shopping we even took pictures in the rain. Besides the amazing bridge I saw some "old looking tower with statue" so we headed into the heart of the town. In the rain. In sandals. With one umbrella. We were in the mountains, so yes, this town was on a serious slant and yes, cobble stone is slick when it's rainy. Needless to say it was a slow trek but we found the chapel. Unfortunately we also found an old man who decided it was okay for him to just be in boxers (a smidge too small) on the street level in front of his open window. This was not the first of shirtless old men for the day either...it must be a French thing?
With the car no longer smelling like goat cheese and more like lavender we decided it was time to head back north where our dinner of kebabs and beer awaited us. Hey, I got to pick the dinner spot too. My kebab was amazing and totally worth exploring to the train station area rather than settling for the place across from our hotel that had tempted me since check in. Dessert was a little harder to come by, but we eventually got popsicles from one of the many pizzerias. Tired from all our adventures and belly full I declared it time to watch an American movie dubbed over in French back at the hotel. Well, I never found a movie worth watching and The Simpsons were too hard to listen to, so I found some funniest animal show. Nope, I wouldn't have watched it in English, but the great part about no words is that you still know what's going on. We laughed. Probably too much with some of the clips but it was entertaining. About then Ken reappeared from Paris so we swapped stories before the sounds from the street lulled me to sleep.
