Glanum

While we were in France we pretty much drove around Provence, stopping at places that looked interesting. One of them was Glanum near Saint Remy de Provence.
Roman ruin heaven to someone like me.
We spent a few hours just exploring, imagining an ancient city and its people.
Funnily enough the kids also had a good time walking around the ruins.
Definitely worth a stop if you are ever in the area.

DWZI - Chateau de Cazeneuve

Earlier this week we were driving around the vineyards, further away from Bordeaux and into the Dordogne.
The French countryside is beautiful.
Picture perfect.

Of course it was hard to resist a visit to a Chateau.
There are many and we simply decided to go to one for which we found a flier.
Chateau de Cazeneuve in Prechac.
It was quite the drive but well worth it.

The grounds are lovely, with a stream and Queen Margot's cave all mysterious.
The kids got a chance to play on the grass and release some energy.
Then we had a tour of the Chateau.
It took almost 2 hours and we were the only non-French speaking visitors.
But that's OK. The staff were friendly and gave us a pamphlet in English which explained everything.
I must admit that the tour took a little longer than I expected and Stella was quite heavy to carry. She crawled along the corridors when possible and by the end she was squirming in my arms.

Unfortunately photography is forbidden in the Chateau so I can only tell you that the rooms are beautiful and the wine cellar very impressive. Queen Margot was not exactly faithful to King Henry IV... and in the end he had the marriage annulled because she could not bear him a son. Make no mistake, she had a hard life and was imprisoned by her brother for 18 years. The amazing thing is that in the end she reconciled with her ex-husband and his new wife and they remained friends for the rest of heir lives.

History.
Fascinating.

“Love works in miracles every day: such as weakening the strong, and strengthening the weak; making fools of the wise, and wise men of fools; favouring the passions, destroying reason, and in a word, turning everything topsy-turvy.”
― Marguerite de Valois (aka Queen Margot)

This week I also received a "Sunshine Award" from Mirjam a.k.a Stins! Thank you :-)))

Have a great weekend everyone!

You can find the Deze Week Zag Ik participants here.

Easy Holiday Pasta

We are staying in a self catering apartment with a very basic kitchen.
I mean seriously, how does anyone cope without cooking on gas?
It's quite an adjustment for me.

Our dinners have been pretty simple.
Luckily you don't need much to make a good pasta dish.

Courgette, mushrooms, onion, chicken breast and Pecorino cheese on top of lovely Italian penne pasta. That's all it took to make our dinner delicious.

Of course a bit of seasoning and maybe a dash of soy sauce helped too.

Chateau Margaux

We drove past the very famous Chateau Margaux.

You can visit it, as long as you make an appointment, but we decided that it would be a bit of a mission with our two small children.

So all we did was drive up to the entrance and turned around.

Maybe we'll drop by again in a few years.

Maybe by then we will be rich enough to buy a bottle?

Lunch at La Winery

Driving around the French region of Bordeaux is lovely.
Vineyards everywhere.
We stopped at Winery, which is a big wine shop with an excellent restaurant. They have a great selection of wines from the Bordeaux regions as well as some international wines.
The sommelier was very patient with me, explaining all about the wines and the regions and the differences.

I left there with a nice selection of white and reds which he called a 'discovery' of Bordeaux.
Most of them are ready to drink now, since there is no way that I will be able to wait a few years!

The lunch at Le WY was really good.
Too good.
We even had dessert.
At lunch time.

French Burger?

Should have known Heidi would not be impressed by fancy French food... even with the home made ketchup, fresh greens and gorgeous cheese.

Apparently the burger did not taste right and she proceeded to request McDonalds nuggets.

Oh well, she is only 4 years old so what did I expect.

My husband and I 'helped' her finish the burger because it was pretty damn good.

And Stella? Well she was just enjoying the view.