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...

Unfinished posts & holidays

For the past week I have started several posts and for some reason, I haven't been satisfied or I haven't been able to finish them. I think it has something to do with Bibs' sleep pattern. A few weeks ago she got sick (she is much better now), but it has completely disrupted her sleep and I am up again between 2 or 3 times a night to nurse and it is not what had become the usual 5 minutes but we are back to 15min. So, I am tired. No, I am exhausted. Specially now that the days are over where she would just sit a play a bit in her playpen. She is now crawling all over the place. So a tired mummy I am. Am starting to wonder if my daughter will ever sleep through? Maybe when she is 10?

Anyways.The good news is that we have finally booked our holidays. Bobs can unfortunately only take a week off, so we have decided to go to London and then I will take Bibs to my parents for a couple of weeks. Ah I can't wait, specially because I love to see Bibs & Bobs enjoying eachother, and during the week they don't get that much time together. Bibs loves to play with her daddy, they have their special games and she giggles all the time. When we are going to London we will enjoy the English countryside and live in a small village in Buckinghamshire. I am so excited to see my sister and her 3 kids and our friends that we left behind when we moved to Amman. Then of course we will have some proper Chinese food, and Malaysian, and Italian, oh and Indian as well. Shopping. Am going to shop till I drop! Mamas and Papas for Bibs, it's my favorite baby shop. Selfridges, Harrods, Oxford, Bond or Regent Street for us. Did I mention Westfield, the shopping heaven in South East England!? And Bicester, the outlet village close to Oxford, I nearly forgot that. Walks with Bibs on streets with pavements and in parks with trees and shade and water and animals.

These are some views from Green Park in London.

Am sure Bibs is going to enjoy having a talk with the geese, the ducks and the squirrels!

Then Bibs and I will be off on the plane by ourselves to Nice where a very excited Mormor and Morfar (the grandparents) are already waiting. Ouch, scary, just the 2 of us, I am not the big plane fan already, but I'll just have to be a big girl! Bibs has liked it the other times, so I hope that she'll continue. In south of France we'll enjoy the pool everyday, go for walks in the mountains and see old friends that I only see once a year or even less - maybe a day-trip to the sea.

Some views from South of France - the 2 first ones are on the old road to St Tropez and the last the view from my bedroom in my parents house

27 days to go and we'll take off and be on our way to London Heathrow! Can't wait...

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!