Vance, France

Vence

Well, Vence is our last stop in France.  We have spent three nights here and tomorrow we head out to Cinque Terre in Italy.  Our stay in Vence has been very nice.  Our host Claude France at the "Villa Canto Grihet"is a very interesting person. She is very well liked and her B&B is always in use. We were given the Baou Room because it overlooks the hills to the west of us (Baou means small mountain escarpment in french). We had three sky lights in our room and it felt a little bit like camping because you could open the windows and feel the cool evening air while listening to the crickets singing.

We also met the most interesting waiters at a Hotel /Restaurant called the "Brasserie La Victoire".  Pascal and Sabrina really took a liking to Graziella. (or maybe my tips?)

Graziella finally agreed to a
Ménage à Trois
and I was not invited!

St Paul de Vence

While we stayed in Vence, we hiked to two small medival towns in the area.  The first hike took us to St Paul de Vence which was about 1 hour away.  St Paul de Vence is one of the oldest medieval towns on the French Riviera and it is well known for its modern and contemorary art museums and galleries.

Tourettes sur Loup

Tourettes sur Loup was the second hillside village that we hiked to.  It was a little further because it took us just over 2.5 hours of hiking to reach it.  It was well worth it. The homes were well decorated with colourful plants and vines making walking through the streets a real pleasure. Cars were not allowed inside the old centre.

  Before leaving Vance, I had to ask Claude France what the name of the black and white bird that we had been seeing all over the place during our stay.  She told me it was called Pie (sounds like PEE).  She said that it was very smart and if you left a bright object on your open window, the bird would steal it.  I then figured out that it is the Magpie!  I had never seen one before being here in France.

Claude France was a very nice gentle but stong willed woman.  I tried to convince her that I could be her full time gardener for only the cost of a room.  She had a servants quarters know as a Gîte on the back part of the property that she rented out for longer staying clients. She said that she gets many propositions which she then files. Sometimes she goes back through the files and decides to take up a proposition. I may retire early if she agrees.