On our winter holidays.......

Time for our winter break and as last year we return to South Africa where we can find the nearest existence to France as possible with great food, fine wine and wonderful scenary as well as friendly people.

We are starting in Franschhoek staying in the aptly named Maison Chablis. Franschhoek , we are grateful to the 277 French, known as Huguenots who landed in the Cape of good Hope in 1685 and were given land by the Dutch colonial government creating this gorgeous French Corner.

Our chambre D'hote Maison Chablis

Franschhoek 

The main street is lined with boutique's and many fine restaurant's, a number of which are feel obliged to try!

Ain't no sunshine...........

I was out running this morning, trying to beat the impending rain fall! sometimes the sky is not blue !

The rain won!

A winter lunch

One of the many things we love about France is the importance of lunch. Another thing that we have taken from our move here is the wonderful people we have met and become friends with.

And what is better on a January day than a four hour lunch.

We started with home smoked Salmon fillet with tapenade toast, for main course an onion tarte tatin, pictured above.

accompanied by a bean and artichoke salad. 

our friends David & Jane have an eye for setting the ambience!

Cheese course, we were being spoilt!

And dessert followed, winter fruits with chartreuse ice cream.

Delicious!

Winter in the Luberon

It's not so bad!

Lovely sun rise on a frosty morning

Our lemon tree is producing a good crop - G&T anyone?

The balmy (or barmy ) weather continues

The end of December and early January have remained under high pressure with dry weather, for a few nights the  temperatures fell to as low as minus 6 with clear skies by night and day when it warmed to about 11 or 12 although it felt warmer.  However we have experienced some incredibly mild days, yesterday it was 18 in the shade mid afternoon and today in full sun our thermometer hit 38 degrees. Quite extrordinary compared to our experience in years gone by.

So on a perfect Sunday walking is order of the day and we set off for a pleasant 7k traversing up Chemin de Romanet into the hills and back to the village giving outstanding views.

There was only one thing for it on return, a glass of rose!