Provence, a small part of.

[mossie]

I was prevailed upon to visit my niece and her family. her husbands job has taken him to a small coastal town near Toulon. I was apprehensive about the journey but very pleasantly surprised by the TGV, Paris to Marseille in 3 hours.

Anyway they live in the small town of Le Beausset a few miles from the Mediterranean. I would wake up to this view, which is far better than I have here


Le Beausset is a complete little town with all necessary shops and cafes and two pleasant places.
This was the lower with the banks and La Poste and a small tourist office


and here is the upper, with four cafes round about with their tables set out


The church stands just off the square


even the narrowest road must have a tree


To be continued

[htmb]

Looking forward to seeing more photos. It looked nice and sunny there.

[bjd]

I see you were lucky with the weather. It looks nice even though rather small.

[Deleted]

The villages of Provence always have such a simple charm, often based on having a blazing sun and a central square with big trees to provide shade.

[bixaorellana]

How totally charming! It looks like a just-right town, too, excellent for strolling, but big enough so it's not boring -- "a complete little town", as you said. Eagerly looking forward to more.

[spindrift1]

I particularly like the street with the tree!

[mossie]

During the weekend when I was there a Portuguese event was held, much music and dancing, in the lower square.
On the Sunday morning a grand procession assembled in the upper square and marched round the corner into the lower place


There were several groups, each with a band with instruments the like of which I had never seen


Each group was preceded by a banner and everyone was in colourful national? regional? dress


The preceeding evening these two girls played "Mexican hat music" on their accordions, which was not so pleasant. They only knew about 3 chords which they played continuously


My neice's three girls go to the local schools which have a strange system by which they have all day Wednesday off. Not ideal for the working mother
That day my niece took the 3 girls and me to the nearby touristy village of Le Castellet. This is one of the characteristic village perches, built on a craggy peak so as to be easily defensible. The views from the walls were to die for


and the place itself was well worth exploring






The hotel de Ville had grown to include the adjoining building creating this unstable looking edifice


More tomorrow

[Deleted]

If only cars could be banned. Whenever you see a car in any of these pictures, it is always a blemish.

[htmb]

You are right about the view from the walls, Mossie. Fabulous!

[fumobici]

A village probably much like a hundred others in this region but that's certainly no slight. Le Castellet looks like it'd be nice perhaps in shoulder season, I've heard these more famous Provence villages can get pretty miserable in high season.

[bjd]

It seems a strange place to have a Portuguese festival.

The French school system was even stranger. Long ago, Thursday afternoons off and school on Saturday. Then it changed, no school on Wednesdays and still on Saturday morning. (Years ago, I heard a defence of this saying that parents needed the time to go shopping!). Then they got rid of Saturdays, and in the past few years, ended up with 4 day weeks, but where the days are quite long.

Now, the government has decided to rearrange things and have school on Wednesay mornings, but getting out earlieror doing less academic activities at the end of the school day.

Of course, teachers' unions are up in arms about having to work on Wednesdays, so not all communities are going to implement the new law right away. It was supposed to come into effect in September 2013, but there is some leeway allowed for applying it.

I agree -- it's a very strange system.

[mossie]

The following day the children went to school and my niece had many things to do, so I left her in peace and took the local bus down to the nearest coastal town, Bandol. This had once been a fishing village and also gives its name to a local wine appellation, in fact the bus passed several vineyards and the odd roadside stall.
Nowadays it seems to be a quiet holiday residential resort with this well rounded beach sculpture


Local children are given sailing lessons which is a first class idea


But some needed assistance


There is also this pretty carousel for them


The Mediterranean is still as blue as always


At the other end of the beach is the Casino and yacht club


The promenade behind the beach was lined on the landward side by a mixture of ladies clothes shops and brasseries, (steady girls )


It also had this bar with a decidedly odd name


There are also some specimen palm trees


But I was in need of sustenance and had an excellent salmon fillet washed down with a glass of the local rose


So I had enjoyed an excellent day out and slept well that night.

[htmb]

It sounds like you had a great day. Not a cloud in the sky. It looks like you should plan to visit your niece in the wintertime, too.

[mossie]

At the weekend the whole family took me to another local coastal town, La Ciotat. This once had a shipbuilding industry and the gantries are still in place. Unfortunately the sun had deserted but I still managed some pictures.


There is a decent harbour now devoted to pleasure


We had explored the town which has some narrow winding streets.


The harbour is now lined with shops and brasseries and is a very pleasant place for a stroll


We settled on a brasserie they knew for lunch, and soon after we had ordered a hen party arrived and were seated in an adjoining table. They were a lively bunch of young ladies and kept us entertained. I asked the bride to be for a photo as we left and they were only too happy to oblige


Later I let the family go for a walk and I sat on a bench watching the world go by. Shortly the hen party came along, the bride had a necklace made from marshmallows. In exchange for a kiss I was permitted to eat one, to great hilarity.
There was a water jousting contest well organised, I'm afraid the photos are not too explanatory as I was poorly positioned.
However there was a commentator and it all went very smoothly.
This is out of focus I'm afraid, but gives an idea


Here is one of the contestants preparing for his run, they are mouted on platforms on boats which close each other at a steady speed, simulating horseback.


Here one of the contestants has splashed down, but his opponent has lost his balance and is about to join him


So ended another fine day

[mossie]

Sorry, got in a muddle and posted one pic twice, now I can't modify it. Anyway here is the missing out of focus shot , I hope

[nycgirl]

Provence looks absolutely charming. I love your photos of the winding streets and also the view from the walls of Le Castellet. It's nice you got to see plenty of local culture- a Portugese festival, a water jousting contest. How fun.

[Deleted]

It is particularly nice to see photos of warm weather, compared to the northern half of France!

It doesn't surprise me to see a Portuguese festival anywhere in France since it is the largest immigrant group in the country -- ahead of Algerians and Moroccans. Of course, France comes nowhere close to Luxembourg, where the Portuguese make up 18% of the population of the country.

[lugg]

I am quite envious of your niece and her family who live in a such a pretty town which is also so close to the sea. My idea of heaven.

Why no pics of you kissing the bride to be Mossie? ;D