Away from Amman: A walk in Callas

I have already told you about the small village in the south of France where I grew up. So I am just going to share some pictures from this lovely place. When I was there this summer I didn’t really do anything else than stay at home, relaxing and enjoying looking at Bibs play in the shadow of the wisteria, turntables or the olive trees from my mum's garden. And of course go for walks with Bibs… Hope you like the pictures!

Flash floods in South of France

A couple of days ago the part of South of France where I grew up was hit by torrential rain and flash floods. In Callas, the village where I grew up, there wasn't much damage. Figanieres, the village down the road, was badly hit, as you can see on the movie below.

This was shot and posted by jakou83. It is very impressive.

According to the regional news paper Nice Matin, in the whole of Var (part of the region where this happened), the count is now of 25 dead and 14 persons still missing. My parents told me they had never seen rain like this, then in another city Draguignan, it is the biggest rainfall recorded since 1827. My heart goes out to all the victims of this disaster. Usual the region is hit by forest fires during the summer, not flash floods. As I have already said in previous posts, I think mother nature is teaching us lessons and Earth is very fed up with the way we treat her...

The other place closest to my heart

After Mauritius last week, let me show you a few pictures from the place where I grew up: Callas, "Le coeur du Var". Located on a hill top, in Var, it is a very sleepy village, but I found, a fab place to grow up.

Callas

Foutain where I used to hang out as kid

This leads up in the mountains, I used to love discovering and haven't lost that!

Left: some steps in the village & an old lavoir at the bottom. Right: typical view from the village

I have to pay tribute to my mum's garden! She spends so much time taking care of it...

A few shots of my mum's garden!

Minette, the cat of the house! And also mine...

my parents have been looking after her for the last 13 years

There are quite a few things to talk about, I'll do that next time we visit my parents, but just one thing: some very good friends of mine opened their own "Cave" last year and are selling their wine. If you are in the region you shouldn't miss out on their rose which is fab and so refreshing. La Bastide du Plan. 

La Bastide du Plan - located a little before the entrance of the village

If you ever have the possibility to go to the Cote d'Azur, make sure you also discover the "arriere pays" as we call it, there are so many lovely small villages to discover, with their markets, small restaurants serving loval food, caves or chateaux where you can stop for wine testing... more on that this summer!