A birthday spent in Provence

Thank you for all of your birthday emails and messages and today really missing you all and wish I could celebrate the day with you! Today I turn 40 right in the heart of Provence, and staying in the Morrocan room of a sprawling B&B villa on a vineyard (which is picture postcard with grapes everywhere in big bunches ready to be picked). Everything you imagine Provence to be is here - the gorgeous Luberon ranges tower in the background and the sunrises and sunsets are almost too good to be true, casting an orange glaze over the vineyards and olive trees. Fruit is everywhere, and daily I collect fresh berries, figs, small pears and plums from trees growing on the roadside - and the melons and peaches are indescribable.   I've also fallen in love with fresh goats cheese (young not aged and usually made that morning) and eaten spread on warm baguettes with quince or fig jam and slices of ripe pear (generally ones I've picked that morning). I've gone from never eating bread to eating it at every meal and constantly discovering new types and ways of eating it. Also, whilst on the subject of food, our most memorable meal since our last entry was prepared by a French host a tiny B&B. She prepared an authentic Provencal meal of ratatouille and eggplant dipped

 in egg and pan fried. All served with warm sour dough bread, a carafe of local zine and followed by melon marinated in an apertif. We were in heaven!

Our days in the last week have been filled with lazy drives of hill top villiages with little picnics along the way and evenings spent drinking wine and watching sunsets in the vineyards of unusual B&B's we've found. We've also visited numerous ancient roman and medieval historical sights (raylene you'd love the history) including the home of the Knights Templar in Riverenches (Enclave of the Popes). We also stumbled accross a medieval festival in full swing, celebrating the start of the spelt harvest in a tiny village called Monnieux and were lucky enough  to see the locals dressed in full knight attire jousting on horses etc. One evening whilst eating a salad nicoise in tiny cafe in Romaine La Vaison we were treated to a ball room dancing spectacular by the locals around the town fountain. We couldn't have asked for more!

Tomorrow we leave Provence and begin to make our way towards Paris! More gastronic adventures await I'm sure!