More of France...Avignon, Gourdon, Nice...

Was so tempted to take my bed and park it in the awesome supermarkets down in Nice area in France.
I don't know if it was because the food looked so amazing, or if it was because of the food looking so amazing!!!
Best range of foods ever...for my taste.

A lovely sunny day in Gourdon...800 mtrs high

The castle and village from the air...

Coming round the bend...castle on a hill...love these places.

Long way to go, but lucky we are in a bus!

A lovely walk up the rampant towards the castle...

Looking over the edges...

Lovely little alleys...

Time out...

Where Gourdon is on the map!

Off we went to Monaco...The Super huge Aquaruim.

All appear the same inside...fish in glass!

More fish...very pretty colours...

A big stingray type fish...

Then off to the Palace to see the changing of the Guard...

Princess Grace used to live here, before she was killed.

People waiting for the Changing of the Guard...

Coming into Monaco...

Overlooking the harbour in Monaco...Very Pretty.

Heading off to the Cactus Gardens...

Some of the back streets in Monaco.

A nice hotel on the waterfront.

More lovely back streets in Monaco...I had lunch down one of these alleys.

I can't believe how they build on the sides of these cliffs and mountains...

The food looks so nice here everywhere...

I love these narrow streets...

Different coloured footpaths here too.

In the wonderful cactus gardens in Monaco...What views from up here...

It took over 20 years to actually build this garden, lay it out, get the plants into it.

So many amazing cactus plants, shapes and sizes!

Itwas an amazing garden over all...steps everywhere, right up the hills, down the hills, around the hills!

What a view...

EEEKKK...a prickly edge here...

Sur le pont, d'Avignon, tout le monde, dance, dance...

I had no idea the bridge was only half a bridge!

This bridge is just across the road from the huge Papal Palace...

A visit to the very old Papal Palace in Avignon...

Beautiful sculptures given as gifts to the Palace by various Kings and heads of Govt over the past hundreds of years.

An enhanced pic of an ancient mural on the walls inside the old Palace.

The exterior of the Papal Palace in Avignon...

Beautiful painting on the ceiling murals..

Fragonard...A household name in France, the perfume capital of the world. We visited 3 perfume factories and one chocolate factory. I went and found a nice eatery, had some lunch, found a fabulous shop that sold beautiful bed linens...while the others went to the chockie factory.

The packaging is beautifully made and designed...

Everything is so scrupulously clean, shiny and smells delicious! So many bottles of flower oils in all those beautiful bottles lined up everywhere...

A lovely range of perfumes, soaps and other nic nacs they make out of oils pressed and gathered from flower petals. So many options and gifts for sale in the shop...Amazing!

The lady giving the talk on how they make perfume in their factories...In the foreground is a big bag of lavender.

Some of the big vats for the oils from flowers petals...

Leaving the French villages behind...

So that was our trip to France, Italy and through Slovenia.

It is lovely weather here now.
The grass has grown so much in just a few days, it is the time of year that we have to mow at least every 3 days! Andrea gave me her lawn mower which is one of those self propelled machines that goes by itself!

But you still have to start it!

Am getting a new washing machine and an actual vacuum cleaner too, this coming week!
When I do the washing now, the water isn't too bad as far as so much "mud" remaining in the wash water!

This indicates it is almost safe for a real washing machine...the poor little thing I bought when I first came here is now spitting sparks when it's on spin...that sort of puts a bit of urgency out there to get a new one!

Plus, the inside of the house is pretty OK now and there is that much dust around so I'm hoping that the cleaner will be ok too.

Will be ordering the base cupboards for the kitchen too.  So, the house is shaping up fast now and will be a lot easier to manage and keep dust free...well a bit easier anyways!

Sorry about my personal pics not yet being available, but all these I chose are almost identical to pics I took...and are still locked in my blessed phone!

On Wednesday I'm going into town to get the computer guy to help me sort out how to get the pics out of my phone.

Next blog we are off to OZ again...crazy , but I figured I'd do this one while it was still fresh in my mind.

So, bye for now,
See you next week,
Cheers,
Mary
xxxx