Day 3, July 8

Today we left Nice and headed for our heavenly B&B, Le Mas Perreal, in Provence, where we will spend the next seven days.  We walked to the Avis office, picked up our car, drove back to the hotel to grab our luggage and headed east along the coast for several miles before turning inland to explore several hilltop villages.   We stopped in La Tourette-sur-Loup, a photo perfect village from the Middle Ages.  We walked among the narrow streets, but resisted a lot of the shops since we knew we had a long drive.  We grabbed some pastries from the local bakery and two Perriers and sat on a shaded bench overlooking the town square as we escaped from the heat.

We then continued through several other villages along the Loup river, eventually climbing up to the eagle's nest village of Gourdon where several scenes from To Catch a Thief were filmed.   Again, other than stopping for pictures, we didn't walk around.

We descended the windy roads from Gourdon, through the perfume capitol, Grasse, and eventually got on the highway which took us to Provence, stopping only once for a potty and snack break.  We arrived in St. Saturnin-les-Apt, just before five and were warmly greeted by Kevin Winslow, the American who runs Le Pas Perreal with his French wife, Elisabeth.  Kevin assigned us to the same room we had last year, which we loved.  As we unpacked a rare lightening storm blew in so I had to skip by swim for today.

I took a much needed nap before dinner, and then we drove to the nearby village of Villars where we dined in the rain at La Fountaine, a small family run restaurant that Kevin had recommended to us last year.  We both had escargot for an appetizer, Joni had a wonderful fillet of beef with a creamy dill sauce and I had duck.  We split a creme brullee and skipped coffee, my stomach has still not returned to its ironclad status.  The return drive to the B&B was a little challenge, since it is very rural in this area, no street lights and few signs.  I missed only one turn.