We woke up Saturday morning a bit groggy....
i'm not quite sure if it's because our lungs were filled with French smoke...
or that maybe...
just maybe...
we had too many bottles of wine on our last night together in Paris.
Kim made me promise not to bring up the boudoir shots...
but i feel like i must.
Let me just say this.....
Kim {the uber fab photographer} +
French lingerie+
hotel window=
photos our husbands might want for Fathers day.
{heck...i might even be UNGROUNDED when Bryan receives his}
Anyhoo.....
after a teary goodbye to our friend Simone who had to head back home to London.. Kim and I grabbed our taxi to Gare de Lyon.
Next stop......train to Avignon.
Luckily.....we got to the train station with
plenty of time to spare.
We bought our train tickets a month prior...
so we had pre-arranged seats.
That works out really nice when there is not a strike going on...
but so far so good as it looked like our train was on schedule and heading out.
The trip took just under three hours...and there was nothing
better then sitting our our train watching the country side
roll by.
That is....till Kim opened up the sandwich she bought from the train station.
The french love their eggs....and as we noticed...put them on everything.
Kim opened up her tuna fish sandwich.
With egg on top.
I had to move seats.
Then i had to open the window.
I hope Kim liked her tuna with egg.
Once we arrived in Avignon...we headed to the car rental.
We rented a manual....because it was going to cost us something
like another $200 for an automatic.
Only tourists rent automatics....
and we are not tourists...we are French girls.
{with camera's strapped around our necks}
Kim so nicely added me on as a second driver.....
but i think she forgot that i haven't driven a manual in over 15 years.
I volunteered as the map reader.....
a job that was clearly meant for me.
I knew if for some reason we were to get lost....
life would actually be okay.
Thank god we did not get lost.
{only because i was the map reader}
Kim made for a perfect driver of the manual car...white knuckles and all.
We got on the road.....and headed south to St. Remy...
and we might have even belted out a tune or so...
There are a lot of roundabouts everywhere....
almost every time you think there certainly cannot be one more...
then another one pops up.
And you have to be quick in reading the signs...
and worrying about the other drivers.
The. French. Drive. Fast.
Just when you think they couldn't get any closer behind you....
they start honking....
or they pass you.
Do you remember the scene in the movie...
The Griswalds European vacation?
Yup....we were stuck in a few of those roundabouts...
and we would go around...
and around...
and around...
till we could escape....because as soon as we wanted to escape...
some French driver would appear out of nowhere and block us...
then it would continue for another minute or two.
This is the part where type "A" doesn't handle stress very well.
Luckily....we saw a sign that said... Patisserie.
We needed food.
We needed wine.
We needed.....
croque monsieur.....
and quiche....
then we had to photograph it for you....
because French quiche and French croque monsieur...
are so much prettier then ours at home.
Of course it wouldn't be right if we didn't show you what
we had after our lunch.
I mean....really.
It would outright RUDE of us if we didn't tell you about
our ECLAIR.
Chocolate Eclair.
Filled with the most amazing soft whipped chocolate mousse.
There....do you feel better now....i mean...
i was only thinking of you.
As soon as we left said patisserie....
and making sure we had direct directions to our mas...
that's right....
you read that correctly.
Mas.
We were headed to a French Farmhouse.....
We stepped out of the car and practically died.
Died and went to heaven.
We were thinking....when do we call our families and tell
them we are now French residents and they have no choice but
to move to St. Remy to be with us.
Bryan hung up on me.
Kim's husband didn't even answer the phone.
whatever.
This rambling 19th-century farmhouse is surrounded by olive trees...
a pool...fountains...and the rooms have original stonework.
{history on the Mas for you}
So....when we walked into the place we were expecting to meet Pierre.
Not to be confused with Jean-Pierre.
Pierre was the "gentlemen" we were having our relations with
on and off for the last few months.
{alright...that sounded totally innapropriate...}
what i meant was.....Pierre was the guy we were chatting with
on and off about our stay.
Instead....me met Karin.
Now...don't get me wrong......Karin was fabulous.
She gave us a tour of the property...
she gave us directions to the brocante that we were heading to the next day...
she was our hostess at dinner...
she was our sommelier at dinner.
She was Karin.
She was not Pierre.
Kim and i had talked about Pierre the ENTIRE trip.
We knew what he was going to look like.....we knew how old he was...
we knew he didn't speak great English...but his French was perfection.
We were excited to meet the elusive Pierre....
but instead we met Karin.
Okay....maybe i never spoke with Pierre myself...
maybe Kim did all the talking...
but Pierre took my emails.
Yes he did.
As soon as we walked around the property....
we were given a key to our room.
I could have moved right in...
we were checked in by 4.....
and didn't have anywhere to go...so we decided to just stay and
enjoy the place.
The french doors opened up to the courtyard...
This was our view from the room......
don't say i didn't warn you that this was heaven.
Kim needed a break from the driving....
and i needed a break from the map reading.
The best part of our stay here in this Mas...was the food.
At 7:30 every evening the guests may have dinner in the
dining room of the mas.
On this night...we were having guineafowl.
We were fashionably late.
We even thought.....and i mean.. thought....
long and hard about ...
loading everything up from the dining room in the middle of the night
into our car and driving off into the night.
Except we had nowhere to go.
We would have gone right over to Vicki's...
but she was in Australia visiting her father.
So we asked Karin instead....for the name of the company
where they had ordered the linens....
and she was more then willing to share the info.
No need to steal in the middle of the night.
Kim and i spent our first evening fashionably late to our first dinner.
Karin seated us.....
Karis served us our first bottle of wine...
then we met Jaque.
Jaque was the sous chef....and also the server.
{we do not have a photo of Jaque because we did not bring our camera to dinner...
just think...Paul walker+george clooney}
Jaque made trying new things like sardines and raw scallops bearable.
The guineafowl was like free range chicken...
except it was French free range chicken.
I also didn't see them tooling around like i did the pigeon in Paris.
Not that i don't like seeing my birds run free....
but when i have the song from Mary Poppins in my head the entire week...
'feed the birds....
tuppins a bag.....tuppins....tuppins....tuppins a bag'
it doesn't make the dining experience much better.
Kim ordered more wine.
I obliged.
I'm a good friend.
After dessert of fromage....
and a trio of chocolate....
with perhaps....a bit more wine and a cafe creme...
we headed back up to our room.
We staked out our beds.....
Kim needing to be closest to el bain....
something to do with having a loose bladder.
oops....did i just give something away?
No...really....she just wanted to be near the bidet.
Trust me....we were the cleanest girls in France that weekend.
After a great nights sleep listening to the fountain in the courtyard all night..
we awoke to a farmhouse breakfast.
French style.
Oeufs.
Oeufs with chocolate croissants...
and provencal tomatoes.
{let me wipe the saliva from my mouth....}
We needed a healthy breakfast because we were driving
to the brocante.
Errrrrrr.....
i mean Kim was driving us to the brocante..
to be continued....
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