We might as well be living there

We go to Vals les Bains so often, it could be our second home. It's a spa town less than 10 mins drive away. Hugely popular esp in the summer & we're there twice sometimes three times a week. Why, you might ask ?

Well for one, they have a huge park. The only one around here. I know we live in the countryside with wide open spaces everywhere but it is a mountainous region so it's nice to have flat wide open spaces for children to cycle. In the summer, the park is the venue for all kinds of events, concerts & the once a year Festival de Jeu.

The town is on the banks of the Volane river & apparently saw it's heyday in the 30s. All year round, a lot of people go there for cure & treatment.

Apart from that, Vals is pretty happening. There is a casino, cinema ( where The Girl watched her first movie on the big screen - Kung Fu Panda). theatre, exhibition room (remember Gaby's exhibition) & a municipal pool. The latter is only opened during the summer months but when they do, we're there at least once a week - there is an olympic sized pool & 2 smaller pools for children.

There are many restaurants & in the summer, some of them feature live bands. The Girl & I had a really nice dinner on one such occasion. Sigh, if only it happens more often.

The Sunday market is also really popular & in the summer, there is even a night market on Thursdays. Beatrix, another Vals institution is an ice cream parlour that has been around for years.

Here's our standard activites at the park

Cycling
Merry Go Round
Playground

L'or Noir

If you ever find yourself in Aubenas, you have to go to my favorite tea house, L'or Noir (black gold). It has the strategic location of being directly across the church & is excellent for people watching.

The tea house also serves as a shop - full of every conceivable tea & coffee accessories & knick knacks that you can imagine. It is a treasure trove & I can spend hours browsing.

L'or Noir
1 rue 4 Septembre
07200 Aubenas
04 75 93 38 05

The newly renovated Le Fournil

One of Aubena's gastronomic restaurant, Le Fournil re-opened in February after undergoing major renovations. So when I was deciding where to go for lunch, X suggested I go check it out.

I could barely recognise the place. Like La Villa Tartary, there seem to be a trend for restaurants here to go for modern contemporary deco which in my opinion, a little incongruous in a rural country setting. Having said that, it is a nice change from the family style restaurants & makes me feel like I'm back in the city again.

Upon arrival, we were led to a dimly lit dining room ......

but we opted for a table in the bright courtyard instead.
It might not have made a difference at night &
since it was a nice day, seems a shame to sit in the dark, don't you think ?

This was an apple mousse offered with our pre meal drinks
a rather unusual choice for apero

The delicious amuse bouche
potato & mushroom puree

I forgot to take a picture of my starter which wasn't spectacular, just a chicken liver salad.
But here's my main dish, salmon over a bed of herbed boiled potatoes

Dessert was trio of ice cream - pear, earl grey (that had us raving & even asking the chef for the recipe which he kindly wrote down for us) & so because of that, I don't remember what was the third flavour

Are you one of those that judge a restaurant by their bathrooms ?
Well I am

Overall, the food was good but not very original. It could be because we had the "boring" lunch menu. The menu goes up to 80 euros (which is rather steep for here) & I'm sure with that menu, you'll find a lot more interesting options.

However the service was excellent. Our server, a native Ardechoise spoke excellent English, having been around the world & back.

Do you think I'll have time to go back again before I leave this Sunday ?

Le Fournil
34 rue du 4 Septembre
07200 Aubenas
04 75 93 58 68

You know you are living in the countryside

St Michel de Boulogne

You know you are living in the countryside when

1. Getting rid of the rubbish means starting a bonfire
Other than in the summer when there are regulations against starting a fire outdoors, everybody pretty much dump their rubbish in a pile at the back of their garden & burn them. I've lost count the number of times we've done this

2. Your car is never very clean
Aside from the fact that we have a toddler, no matter how often we clean the car, it will NEVER look clean. Dirt & dust from the countryside or worse still, mud splatters esp after the rain - urgh. This is in contrast to Singapore where all the cars look like they just rolled out of the showroom. My brother lives across a service station & even at midnight, there were cars waiting to get a car wash.

3. You order your pregnancy kit online if you don't want everyone to know about it
No, I'm not pregnant. That was when I was pregnant with The Girl. I couldn't go to the local pharmacy because the sister of a friend of the family works there & also not to local pharmacy #2 in case I run into my MIL. It's difficult trying to keep a low profile here cos everybody knows everybody. Which brings me to the next point.

4. Complete strangers come up to you asking about your private life
The countryside grapevine is very powerful. No sooner have you bought a new house, diagnosed with a disease, filed for divorce or changed new curtains, somebody is bound to ask you about it & it may not necessarily even be somebody you know.

5. Instead of paying attention to pedestrians, you have to watch out for animals
It's not uncommon to see herds of sheep & goats but it's driving at night that you need to be careful. I've seen families of wild boars by the side of the road & just last week, I came across a deer - first sighting in the 5 years I've been here. I would be mortified if I ran over one, not to say what damage it's going to do to the car.

6. You're terrified of driving in the city
I don't blink an eye driving on narrow windy country roads but ask me to drive in the city & I'm terrified. The number of cars frighten me. I can drive for miles here without crossing a handful of cars.

7. The people living in your commune fills up less than 1 page of the yellow pages
& the number of households in our village, 15 (that includes those that are only here for the summer)

Market Day

Saturday morning is market day at Aubenas. Folks from all around flock there to do their groceries. In the summer, with the onslaught of the tourists, you need to be there really early else it's impossible to find parking & shopping is no fun cos you end up jostling with the crowd.

I love going to the markets esp fresh food markets & in France, it is always a delight. There are of course stalls selling clothes, knick knacks, toys, shoes etc but what I love is the selection of fresh produce from the local farmers. So during the off season, whenever I have time, I like to just go & browse.

Even though it's a market, everything is generally well presented. (Moo I need to get your this cow print table cloth)

I love these dried sausages
Remove the skin, slice them & eat them for apero
Here's a selection of sausages
with duck, wild boar, mushrooms or black pepper

What's a market without flowers
I almost never leave with buying a bouquet home

My favorites are the ones stuffed with anchovies
but sadly there weren't any

They smell so good
Everytime I'm there, I tell myself one of these days
I have to buy one

Le Pont du Diable, Thueyts

Le Pont du Diable translates to mean The Devil's Bridge.

There are apparently more than 80 bridges in France with the same name. And legend has it that, due to the difficult terrain, most of these bridges could not be built by men so they made a pact with the devil to construct the bridge in exchange for the first soul to cross the bridge. Once the bridge is finished, they would then send over a cat (sorry my cat loving friends, Jim & Barb) or a donkey.


Last week, The Girl was getting bored cooped up at home all day so I thought it would be a good idea to check out our own version of The Devil's Bridge in Thueyts. I've brought guests there before but never had the time to walk around.

In fact the last time I was there, 2 summers ago shortly after I got my driving license, the car got stuck in soft mud. Thankfully I found some workers nearby who had a truck & tow cables to pull my car out of the mud. Driving in the countryside 101 - Never steer off the road after a few days of rain.

So you can imagine my trepidation at going back there again. While I was making the exact same turn, I noticed that they had widened the road & even put a bar at the spot where my car had been. I'm glad somebody did something about it.

The bridge itself is not very spectacular but the views from the bridge of the water below.....gorgeous. I'm going to guess that in the summer, lots of people must be swimming in the river.
It was of course too cold for us to even dip our toes but we had a nice walk along the river

The Girl decided to do a little impromptu posing session

More of that beautiful clear water I was talking about

This is the view from the bridge on the right

View on the left

And because we still had some time to spare before we picked up X from The Site, we visited the close by village of Meyras - a pretty village & it's church.

All in all, a wonderful day out
just mother & daughter
before she starts school again next week