Untimely advertising

Well we're in the middle of clearing up and getting ready for the off tomorrow. Its probably lucky that we are completely housebound as there is a storm raging outside with lightning, thunder, big wind, driving rain etc. Thankfully it is to moderate by this evening and in many respects I am glad it is here today and not tomorrow!

We got out between showers this morning and took a quick walk down the pier. We didn't get far as there are waves coming over the top! That's the view towards the little restaurant where we had lunch yesterday! What a difference 24hours makes.

I'm cleaning up and throwing out stuff from my office. I came across a very untimely ad from Fortis who were one of the first serious casualties of the global financial fondue (i.e meltdown!). I remember laughing on the beach at Alamanarre when I spotted it.

I reckon the marketing people were fired after this.

Weekend lifestyles of the carefree french

It has always amazed Una and I that no matter what sort of bad weather we get during the week in Hyeres, bang on schedule Saturday morning there are clear skies and the sun blasting you out of bed and into 'lifestyle' mode. While the world fretted about melting down in late Sept, we (along with everyone else down here) sat on Almanarre beach and read the FT (aghast) between dips in the cool med. It's quite incredible and I'm putting it down to that old adage that 'life is what you make it'.

We paid another visit to Grand Var early last week to pick up some last minute items. I visited Decathlon and got a fleece top for €10!?. As usual it was packed with people trying on runners, snow boots, ski suits, trying out walking sticks, tents, guns.. everything to do with the outdoors and getting out at the weekend. and this was tuesday morning when you would expect most people to be in work!

Its only a theory, but maybe the same way that a dark mood can attract dark skies over a house, the same thinking about the weekend and good weather by a populace can create the perfect atmosphere for the lifestyle loving french when the weekend comes around!

This morning.. blue skies, no wind, bright sun. Quelle surprise! I'm off driving since I have to sit in the same seat for over 1000miles next week so a walk from Hyeres to L'Ayguade (for lunch) along the beach sounded just fine! After less than a quarter of the way the day was so lovely that we stopped and just sat on the beach staring at the sun. We were joined there by another local so we know we're in the right frame of mind!

After a quick recce of L'Ayguade and the fact that no one was sitting outside we took a big gamble and headed back for home and towards a little place called 'Café de Plage' which is on the beach near the entrance for airport.

We've passed this Café a few times and I've never been completely convinced it was even open! Today our luck was in. Not only did they have a plat du jour but it was sangliere aussi!

To sit outside, eating wild boar and penne, drinking delicious Cotes du Provence in glorious sunshine with the waves lapping against the shore and a clear view of the Ile's de Hyeres... I could not have scripted a better second last day for us.

As the clouds rolled over we bid our farewells and not content with the distance travelled headed for a last look at La Capte and Lido (the weather forecast is not great for tomorrow - it seems there are flaws in my theory or there is a religious balance to be struck).

20 mins after we got home the wind started howling and the rain is now coming down in sheets.

Ireland, we are ready.

Who said.. 'You see what you want to see'?

We must have driven past a particular hill set back from the road on our way from Les Salins to La Londe 20, 30 maybe even more times at this stage. All we have ever noticed is the little winding track that we have always wanted to climb. Today since Ireland is already shut for Christmas I took the day off. It helped that the sun was shining too. We had a few jobs to do in Hyeres afterwards like working out how to cancel our internet account - here's the red tape answer - so it was ideal to get out in the light and conquer this hill for once and for all.

Imagine our surprise as we got close and noticed not one but two, three, four world war 2 fortifications staring at us! We had basically stumbled upon a largely intact fort which looks over the whole of the Bay of Hyeres and its only 10 minutes from the port!

After checking that we were ok to go up to it with a local farmer, we parked the car where he indicated and set off. It's incredible that you can still walk around it and its massive.

Afterwards we tried to reach the winding path but got held back by some dense scrub on the mountainside, We may try again tomorrow as having looked at google maps now I can see a clearer route.

We followed the back road into Hyeres Centre Ville so that we could visit Orange and since the weather was so bright decided on having lunch there - it's an easy life.

We found a great little restaurant serving Brochettes de Bouef as part of a Formule du Jour for €12 and sat in the sun eating and watching the world go by. Very relaxing indeed for our last Friday en France!




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Port Cros Route

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La Route de la 15 Aôut - Operation Dragoon(a)

It's been one of those weekends that you just want never to end. Of course clear blue skies and bright sunshine always help and we've had plenty of that, or at least as much light as you can have in each day as we hurtle towards the solstice. As it is also our second last weekend I guess there is an air of finality about too..

I've been fascinated with what went on down here during world war 2 since my dad found this plaque on Rayol Beach commemorating the first landing of troops there. My appetite was further whetted by the gun emplacements in Les Salins, just up the road from us.

I did some research on the web and while it threw back the usual 16,890,427 results I was barking up the wrong tree with my search words and was therefore 16,890,427 marks wide of the target.

Last week I tried another search and found this site detailing 'Operation Anvil' which was later to be renamed as Operation Dragoon. The site gives details of the background, build up, landings and aftermath of the Allied invasion of the South of France on August 15th 1944.

Reading through it I started to piece together some of the things we've seen during our stay here and thought that it might be interesting to visit all of the places that featured in the invasion.

First up on Saturday was Fort de la Vigie on I'le du Port Cros. The weather forecast for the crossing was windy but in actual fact it wasn't too bad and I think it was really interesting for us finally to sail out of Hyeres Port and have a chance to look back at our home for pretty much the last 9 months.

Port Cros is much smaller that Porquerolles and bikes are not allowed. Its also much more mountainous, incredibly lush and amazingly tranquil. Maybe the tranquillity had something to do with us being the only visitors to the Island for that day. The captain of the boat laughed when we bought tickets!

We ended up visiting each of the forts and in true Paulunas style even found our way into one of them! .Well the gate was open and no one said don't come in here - until we met this fella and he told us it was 'Prive'. He didn't seem too mind so much so no harm done.

The trip back was rougher but I got some great shots of the sunset and coming into harbour in Hyeres.

Part Deux
Today we were again greeted by clear skies and while we didn't need to set off so early we got on the road fairly sharpish with the bikes on the back. First stop was Le Rayol where my addiction to swimming literally spilled over. I couldn't help myself. Calm water, my favourite place in the world, warm sunshine, soft sand, the middle of December. In I went with Una taking snaps of the proof. Two locals appeared on the beach about 15minutes after I got out asking if I had really got in the water. In my best french I told them it was 'un peu froid mais incroyable aussi', they did not need convincing. Those mad tourists...

In the invasion it was on this beach that the French Commandoes were landed. There is a much larger memorial on the road going west towards Cavalaire - it's on the route map shown. Apparently the Commandoes were supposed to land on Cap Negre (further to the West) but due to a navigational error and they came in here.

Next stop was Cap de la Vigie. This is a headland that overlooks Cavaliere sur Mer It also has sweeping views of the whole bay all the way To Cap Lardrier. I'm guessing there were some guns up here and with 1300 ships (juicy targets) in the vicinity you can understand the importance of taking this headland asap.

We could not find any memorials to any action up here, only big (big) houses with stunning views and quiet little hotels tucked sneakily away behind the rather dull main town.

The latest Hike Credits Rating poll results have me at an all time low. The trip to Port Cros was actually Una's idea so all I had to do was tag on the visit to Fort de la Vigie with no loss to any credits I have been accruing of late. Today I had a 'little' cycle planned from Cavalier to a beach called Gigaro. While techincally Gigaro had nothing to do with the landings I though it would be good to have a look at it and see if it would be worthy of a mention in the Pauluna plage top 5. This trip would require plenty of credits.

On the map the route looks flat and while I was immediately busted for saying it was only 2 kilometres (more like 7) thankfully Una didn't spot the 'gradient' changes and after a delightful lunch we set off at a very agreeable pace along a very smooth 'piste cyclable'.

The first few kilometres were fine, then we got to the first hill and operation Dragoona began! I'm being a little unfair here and in actual fact Una was a very willing participant on this and all of our other adventures. There were actually some tough little hills but we made it to Gigaro in one piece where I toyed with the idea of another swim but bailed as I was happier sitting in the sun!

As we walked on the beach Una spotted this plaque which made the trip really worthwhile. The return trip (as always) seemed shorter and there was no walking up the hills.

In Cavalier sur Mer which really was the centre of all the action on the 15August 1944 we found some more plaques. It is interesting how little attention is paid to this invasion compared to Normandy. Reading through the complete chain of events it seems to have been a very pivotal move for the Allies to make.

While up on Cap de la Vigie I noticed a very tall wooden rig in the harbour. Before leaving we popped over to have a look and it turned out to be Moonbeam, one of the classic J Class Yachts and also a boat I raced against in Cannes in Sept. I will leave it to Uffa Fox, arguably the greatest ever yacht designer to sum up:
"No matter whether she is under way or at anchor, Moonbeam is beautiful to look upon and, combining the speed of a racer with the comfort of a cruiser, is a vessel any sea-man would be proud to own."

Sure. We'll have 2 please.
We're playing Euro Millions next week.
P+U.x

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Toulon

Its funny that we live so close to Toulon yet we have never visited so with a dodgy weather forecast on Sunday we decided the time was right to disregard the hilarious description in our guide book.. "Toulon provokes the reaction a tramp might get in St-Tropez: its seedy rought cut demeanour doesn't fit in with the glittering Cote D'Azur" .. and make our own minds up!

We drove via Carquerainne and Le Pradet then followed the signs for Le Mourillon. Everything was looking good and this is clearly where the moneyed folk live. Big beautiful beaches and winding roads lined with Palm Trees and towering gates into Villas that rock stars would be proud of.

Then we got to Toulon. We had lunch, nothing fancy, very straightforward, a walk around the old town, a walk on the Rade (or Port) to have a look at the, ferries, speedboats and the aircraft carrier just sitting there..

Then we 'got out of dodge'. The description unfortunately is pretty much bang on.

On the way home we completed our exploration of the beaches around Le Pradet. It's hard to see how this little cove called 'Pin de Galle'..

Can look like this..

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The summer view is definitely more appealing.

T- 2weeks

We've less 'things to do' this time round as we prepare to leave Hyeres. Sometimes its nice to do the simple things close to home. At the weekend we walked from the North end of Almanarre to the south, a round trip of 8kms. It was still stormy and there is plenty of evidence of the recent harsh weather around. Clearly this is not an ideal place to anchor so we'll be taking that advice with a pinch of salt.

On our way home we explored the area around Costebelle which is tucked away on a mountainside overlooking Hyeres. What a viewpoint to discover. As I said, the simple things close to home! Thats the view over the airport looking towards Ile du Levant. It must be a super train(plane)spotters place!

There is a monument to the Men and Women of the Air Force and also a great direction thingy pointing out the various sites to be seen from up there.

Stormy times.

This was the scene down in the harbour earlier today after some crazy wind last night. The sea is definitely not supposed to be lapping over the edge of the this pier! I guess its a combination of a storm surge and a spring tide.



There is a lot of other storm damage around the port too. This is the dinghy park in the Base Nautique where a thick sludge of seaweed has been washed ashore. This is the same seaweed that gets washed onto the beaches during the winter months. The council leave it where it is as it stops the sand getting washed away. Nature rocks! though I'm sure the Base Nautique crew don't think so as it looks like one big clean up job is required down there.

We hopped on our bikes to go over and have a look at our favourite sunny haunt - Lido Beach - but we couldn't get to it as the route was 'Barre' and half the beach was blocking the road. We had to cycle out around the race track and back through Pesquiers to have a proper look.

It seems Lido has been spared and in fact the storm may have rebuilt the beach a bit as sand is piled high against the walls lining the beach.

The forecast for the weekend is much of the same though less wind is on the cards. We're planning to head over to Almanarre Beach tomorrow to see how it fared.

It's hard to believe that last Friday I was in for a swim. It will take days for the water to clear up before its nice to go in again without fear of bumping into things in the cloudy murk so that might be that in terms of my swimming for 2008.

I definitely don't subscribe to the Christmas swim in the forty foot. Nutters one and all.

Menhir du Lambert

I receive an email everyday from the Oxford English Dictionary with a random word. I look forward to reading it and it's a welcome distraction from the barrage of work stuff - you can sign up for it here. Anyway - sometimes OED make it relevant to the current world news - when the US elections were on for example they sent 'chad' one day and tied it in with the Florida debacle from a few years ago. While I'm sure the OED are not reading our blog, todays word -

pillar, v.

Brit., U.S. / [< PILLAR n. Compare earlier PILLARED adj. and PILLARING n.]

- could not have been more relevant as we set out this morning to hike to the Menhir du Lambert.

Anyone who has read Asterix & Obelix will have heard of these ancient stones that Obelix used to make (and also wild boar!). As soon as I read about this one on our guide I knew we had to go and see it.

I say, 'I knew' and 'we had to' very carefully here as I think my hike credits rating is at an all time low with Una after today.

The description in our guide book (which I admit I only skim read) includes the keywords 'sturdy hiking boots, steep climb and 450m'. These are not words which flow easily into Una's brain as she (correctly) conjured up visions of a fairly tough hike. But fair-do's she said nothing, we bought a Topo map in Collobriers, found the start point above the village by the ruined Church and headed off on 'GR90'.

At first the going was hard enough, then it got really steep and tougher. At this bench I announced that 'I was thinking in a glass half full sort of way and the only reason that a bench would be put here would be to mark the top of the ascent and so that people can rest before sauntering off into the forest with all the hard yards out of the way'. I was completely wrong and still we continued up. Finally we sort of levelled out and the keywords from the description and the heights on the map started to fall into place. We were definitely not at 450m yet and I was not sure we were going to make it. Compared to yesterdays 'walk in the park' this was a serious outing!

The walk does get easier and there are no sections where you descend and lose height that you then have to make up again. After the first 4omins or so where it seems you are barely moving on the map suddenly the kilometres are racing down as you parallel along the mountain. The colours of the flora and the ancient trees on the route at this point are incredible.

After a few more junctions (some of which are marked and some not - so a map is definitely handy) and one long winding hill the path takes on a different rocky sort of theme then suddenly out of nowhere you pop out of the forest, into a clearing and there they are - two Pillars of Stone - outstanding in their field!

We wandered over and took a few pictures (and gave the stones a hug - it seemed the right thing to do) then headed towards the Forest Rangers house (Georgian Style with outdoor swimming pool) to see if there was a bench or something where we could sit and have lunch. The ranger is clearly not at home at the moment and his house is well boarded up for the winter.

The ascent took us about 1hr45 mins though it definitely felt longer and the return trip to the car which is mainly downhill just 1hr15.

Instead of returning home the way we always do from Collobrieres this time we took the D41 road in the direction of Bormes Les Mimosa and Col du Babaou. This is an amazing mountain drive for those who like incredible views into the far distance and dont fear narrow winding roads with sheer drops into forests. We picked up the St Tropez road and used this to return to Hyeres.

The 'Part Deux'
The hunt for Sanglier continues. We came close to spotting one today that we heard in the bushes, at least thats what we think it was we heard! Also we spotted this cartridge on the ground (which I took home and binned) and also a sign for hunters. I thought about staying in Collobriers for dinner and sseing if we could find a menu with some tasty wild boar on it but we were both so tired after the hike that our maison and a hot bath beckoned very strongly.

Great day, another great adventure.

Dolmen de Gaoutabry

Despite the mistral winds we are currently experiencing we set off this morning to hike to a local Dolmen. We had actually planned to visit a Menhir near Collobrieres but we changed tack this morning and will hopefully do this tomorrow.

This is a really easy hike, i.e. not too many hills and we were lucky to have Diane's suggested route though I reckon you would need an SUV (or maybe a 2cv if you are French) to get to where the suggested start point on the map is. Since a broken sump would seriously hinder our poor car we parked well down the dirt track beside a vineyard.

The route is easy to follow and signposted with this really cool dolmen icon on trees along the way. The Dolmen itself is amazing and its hard to believe how old it is - 2800 to 2500 years avant J.C! They don't build stuff like that these days!

We didn't stay too long at the top since it's been a cool enough day and the wind was fairly honking up there! Our return route took us around another mountain before rejoining the path back to the car. 1 and 1.2 hours all in, no stress, nice easy pace, great start to a day!There's always a Part Deux!
Our morning exertions had given us quite an appetite so we decided to head for Bormes Les Mimosa for a little lunch. Pete, Clare, Coaimhe and John had given us the heads up on this little gem of a town from their two visits. They are not wrong about this sleepy and stupidly photogenic hamlet high in the hills above Le Lavandou. What an amazing place! And it seems that the villagers are all about quality too as we had a really delicious, no fanfare, no fuss, no big bill lunch in Café du Progréss .

After lunch we set off on a short tour of the town which thankfully was completely deserted. I have a feeling I've visited somewhere like this before but I can't think where. Maybe I'm mistaken as its easily one of a kind. It's all winding narrow streets, tunnels leading to other streets, little alleyways plunging down to gardens. All this and a backdrop of Ile du Levant (which was certainly living up to its name today) and the Mediterranean in the distance, as I said - stupidly photogenic. Una has renamed me Kodak I took so many pictures. Maybe it was the light today, that really low bright and fresh winter light but I just could not help myself! I'll post all of the images to flicker now.

Getting the balance right..

We receive these great DVD bundles from home (thanks Aidan) and one of them contained the second part of the Bourne trilogy. I had not paid much attention when these films came out, all i can say is.. 'three really fantastic films'. Also I received a few comments about the Laurence Ferrari post so I'm just levelling the playing field and this post is specially for Una.

Why the News is always happier in France

Its down to one woman! Laurence Ferrari

Every day we watch '20 Heures' on TF1 for the days news (and to try to learn a bit of French).

This news presenter has one of those expressions that is always happy no matter what the news is! At first it's a little disconcerting, especially when she is talking about flash floods, vandalism of the SNCF railway system or protestors smashing up police cars in Beauvais but after a while it kind of makes the news more palatable.

Maybe Ireland could do with a presenter like this or someone should just ask Sharon Ni Bheolain to smile a bit more! Then the news from Ireland might not always be so depressing.

All the bank managers could be fired too...

Finally

It starts with what sounds like a standard jet aircraft but it quickly becomes clear that this is not AirFrance123 taking off for Paris. I'm talking about the Air Force jets that buzz our house regularly.

Now I'm probably too old to still get a kick out of seeing them but hey I'm Irish and we don't have an air force so I can't help myself. Every time I hear the incoming sound I jump up with my trusty Sony phone/camera and try to get a picture.

The fact that you are hearing the sound which they made about 20 miles away doesn't help as you try to spot them hurtling at breakneck speed across the sky so you end up with a lot of pictures like this...

I've been trying to do some work but two of them we're having a little ColdWar2.0 practice dogfight at about mach 2 & 50,000ft. Not great for concentration or indeed snaps for the photo album.

Finally a few minutes ago my patience paid off when one of them came tootling (una fashion) across the sky. The pilot was probably adjusting his seat belt before engaging the after burner and rattling the tiles on every roof for miles around but I did manage to get these two shots before he pressed the button.

It certainly looks like a fun job.

November Weather

The South of France rocks!

Scorchio!

Every swim could be our last...

Its been another beautiful day here and the lure of lido is too strong. These days when there is no wind and the water is so clear and calm its absolutely amazing to get in for a swim.

Porquerolles CycleWalk

The Ile de Porquerolles has been high on my agenda to visit for a while. Una, Aidan and Vona tootled over for the day way back in April and I have been looking at it pretty much every day and wondering.. so with a super weather forecast we set off on Saturday morning with our bikes, togs and a picnic. The driver of our boat has clearly not heard about throttling back to save fuel but I guess at the price they charge to hurtle you across the channel they've got plenty of money to burn! Upon arrival we wasted no time and set off due south across the island to the lighhouse which sits high up on some dangerous looking rocky cliffs. The island is 'quite' flat, though I'm sure Una would disagree with my definition of its terrain, and is cris-crossed with dirt tracks. Heres the map of our route for the day.

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Having just made this map I'm amazed there wasn't a big argument yesterday over the actual route. I didn't realise we had covered so much distance! All in all we had an absolutely amazing day, the highlight for me definitely was the swim on Plage d'Argent, after the disappointment of Plage Fay at the Western end of the island, Plage d'Argent was a real treat. Water so clear and a white sandy bottom. What a place, though as usual we were there when there were no crowds - true pauluna style!

All of the photos are here - http://www.flickr.com/photos/23725143@N02/

We're back!

Last week we went on a fantastic hike with Diane, the route details of which are shown here.


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After returning home it kind of got me thinking about the blog again and putting up a few posts as one quickly forgets all of the adventures. So this is going to be a backwards blog from now on.