September has been mostly spent in the sunshine as the title of the blog suggests, due to the fact that we have been in St Aygulf on the Cote d`Azur, for the best part of it and the weather has been lovely. We have done a lot of sitting on our balcony soaking up the rays (or in the shade as I still burn easily), visiting the beach and swimming in the warm(ish) Med. However, I`m getting ahead of myself as always, so I`ll backtrack a bit to the start of the month.
Our trip out here was in a bit of doubt right up to the last minute really, due to some happy but also some worrying family events right at the end of August, which meant that I was a little uneasy about going away for so long, really. However, after being well and truly assured by our daughter that all would be fine, we decided to fly out as planned, with the proviso that if anything changed, I would fly home immediately. As before, this event is something I can`t share with you all publicly atm, but rest assured that it is good news. We spent the last few days before our departure sorting out things at home and also managed to call in to say hello to our new minister at church, as we wanted him to know why we would not be there for several weeks, but had made provision for cover at the café church session before we got back! We flew out to Nice from Edinburgh airport as always on September 9th with our fingers well and truly crossed that the planned “day of protest” on the following day would not affect our continued journey to St Aygulf. It didn`t and we caught our train along the coast to St Raphael without any problems whatsoever…although our Uber ride from there to the flat was a little over the odds expensive! We found the flat in good nick and were very quickly settled in having done a bit of emergency shopping locally, to tide us over foodwise until the next day. Our car, Sylvie, also started first time, but we were unable to use her until she had her CT(Fr MOT) test the next day…which she passed with flying colours, as usual 
That done we were able now to go to one of the big supermarches and fill up our fridge and cupboards (and gasp, as always, at the cost of everything…it never gets any cheaper down here!) and also to visit the beach in the late afternoon and have a very refreshing swim in the sea. It was very hot, that first week and we really needed that! That was also the start of a fairly regular daily pattern of heading to the beach around 5pm for a swim which we have continued up until this, our last week here, when we have started to go earlier as the temperatures drop later in the day. I also headed to see my friendly wool shop lady to stock up with some yarn for a couple of little things I wanted to knit. She is a staunch Royalist this lady and loves our Royal Family. Her first words to me were not “bonjour! Ca va?” as expected but “Je n`aime pas les cheveux de Catherine!” …which made me laugh!
Apart from a couple of short trips out in Sylvie along the coast and into Frejus we didn`t do much that first week really…we were preparing for the excitement of St Aygulf`s big Fete de L`Omelette Geante at the weekend! It was fun, although a bit of rain did dampen the events on the Saturday but we still went to the Bal in the evening for a bit of a dance…until I decided I could not take any more macarena, madison or rock “a la Johnny Halliday” music and we came home! The fine weather returned for the Sunday activities and we really enjoyed watching all the fun surrounding the making of the giant omelette, including the breaking and mixing of thousands of eggs, the lighting of the fire, and the cooking of the omelette in the enormous pan they use. The omelette was then divided up into generous portions and distributed to the large crowds of onlookers along with some bread. It was delicious I have to say & we didn`t need any more lunch that day! All great fun!
The next week was spent fairly close to home really. We drove along to St Maxime one morning and had a little look around the shops there. On the way home we were astonished to see a whole family of sangliers (wild boar)…mummy daddy and three little piglets…trotting along the shoreside pavement past all the restaurants and cafes…and of course the tourists too! We were used to seeing sangliers in the Auvergne countryside, where we used to live, but not here and definitely not is such close proximity to people like that. They are vicious beasties…especially when there are young ones around, and frankly I was glad we were in a moving car at the time! We also celebrated our 47th wedding anniversary on the 16th and I was pleased with my anniversary flowers and a card from my dearly beloved. We ate lunch that day in our favourite bistro along the coast a bit in Les Issambres where Eric and Magali did us proud as always. We also took a picnic up into the hills above Grasse one day to try and escape from the heat at the coast. We went to a place called St Cezaire sur Saigne and then drove along the Route Napoleon for a while which was really nice, before heading back homewards through some lovely countryside. One of the things I love about this area is the variety of the scenery. It only takes a half an hour`s drive to be up high in the hills and then there is all of the beautiful coastal scenery too. We really enjoyed our little jaunt that day
We have also enjoyed meeting up with some friends again during our stay. We had a lovely lunch with Mandy and Carolyn one Sunday after I had dragged Geoff around the brocante in St Aygulf in the morning. He needed cheering up and their company over lunch always does that as we hear their stories of their travels! Somehow the pair of them get into all sorts of strange situations when they go on holiday together! We also enjoyed a nice meal with our friend Gisele one Saturday evening and once again she enjoyed practising her English. It was interesting to hear her views on the political situation in France and in the USA where she has many friends. We were a little sad though, to see that the lovely elderly couple who have the flat under ours and who we had go to know on previous visits here, don`t seem to have been to their flat for some time now. We hope they are OK but suspect that madame`s poor health may have taken a turn for the worse. We have though, met our next door neighbour at last. She is a French lady who lives in the UK but who has family near here and so has bought the flat for her own use when she visits and also to rent out when she is not here. We had some nice chats around the partition of our balconies and we were glad to have her contact details in case we ever have need of some extra beds when we are here!
Geoff has spent a lot of our time here trying to arrange for an electrician to come and replace our oven in the flat, which although is still working keeps tripping the electricity fuse box when we turn on the fan option. We have given up on having it repaired and have decided just to replace it but getting someone to come and actually do it is not so easy! The guy who did our electric work in the past is willing and we think has actually got the oven, but so far has not appeared on the days arranged for various reasons. It is time consuming! We are still waiting I hasten to add and time is running out now, so we will see if it gets done before we have to leave. Geoff`s time has also been put to use fixing up and playing pickleball with some new people at Les Issambres. It turns out that although there are some lovely courts there, and a list of folk who want to play, no one ever gets together…until Geoff arrives that is! He has had some good sessions this holiday and has enjoyed meeting some new people too. He is a happy boy!
We both had a good time at the big Festival de l`Air which took place on the huge showground at the Base Nature in Frejus one weekend. There were lots of great kites, giant balloons, stunt kite displays and exhibitions of inflatable sculptures and figures. It was brilliant to see all these things silhouetted against a backdrop of beautiful blue sky. We really loved it…but it was so busy! There were thousands of people there and the traffic in and around Frejus was awful that weekend, with the whole place in total gridlock. It reminded us that this is one of the reasons we do not come here in the summer months, as we suspect the traffic is like that all the time then.
Our other little trip was an overnight stay in Aix en Provence last week. There was a big exhibition on there of Cezanne’s paintings from his time at the Jas de Bouffan house which Geoff really wanted to see and although Aix is not that far from here, we thought it would be nice to spend a bit longer in Aix itself. We eventually, after a lot of searching, found a hotel which was not going to break our bank account…accommodation in Aix was not easy to find & was certainly not cheap! We had a lovely easy drive there, turning off the autoroute, so that we could have a picnic at the foot of Mont St Victoire which is the iconic mountain that Cezanne painted many times. We found somewhere to park quite near the centre of Aix and had a great afternoon there wandering around the lovely streets adorned with wonderful buildings and fountains galore. The city was very busy mind you …not much sign of the failing French economy there, I can tell you! I really enjoyed a little municipal bus ride in a small electric “shoppers” bus through the small back streets too…although I think the other passengers were amazed and puzzled that a tourist would do that! The exhibition very good and we both enjoyed it but I felt the security was very OTT! We had specific time slot tickets, but still had to stand in a very long queue before being allowed in and had to pass through airport style security searches of our bags and had wands waved over our bodies as we passed through the entrance gates. I was a bit embarrassed as I really needed the loo whilst we were in the queue and reluctantly they agreed to let me in, but I had to go through all the rigmarole with my bag etc and had to be escorted to the loo and back to the queue by a pretty disgruntled girl, who was not best pleased especially as there was a queue for the ladies too! However, Geoff especially loved seeing the paintings and really took his time to enjoy every second we were in there! Our hotel was interesting too as although it was pretty basic, it turned out to be staffed by people with learning difficulties under supervision. What a brilliant idea. The staff were lovely and so helpful and our evening meal, which was again not very elaborate, was plentiful and delicious. We made sure our appreciation was passed on to all the team when we left the next morning. We had intended to drive back via the coast and maybe have a swim somewhere near Lavandou, but a chilly wind put paid to that idea and we drove home via an inland country route instead. It had been a nice little break within our holiday
And so here we are at the end of September… all too quickly as far as we are concerned. We still have a few more days here so there is still time to fit in another outing and a few more market visits and swims before we leave on Saturday. I`ll leave writing about all that until next month though. We still need to pack our bags and make sure I can get the two little cardies I have knitted, not to mention a Sophie le Girafe (which took some tracking down and was ridiculously expensive, but which was a special request from our daughter!) into my little rucksack! We leave here on Friday afternoon and will spend a night in Nice as usual before flying back on Saturday. This holiday has gone by far too quickly but has been a great break for us. So until next month…
A bientot mes amis…
But, the thought of a giant omelette made with thousands of eggs seems like eggy heaven to me and, if I ever go travelling again I will keep my eyes open for something like that going on. 
, not only the adults are dangerous 
. But once walking down the lane behind here, years ago with my Greyhound Lira and Match the Spaniel, both off lead and I tensed up when I saw 2 adults and 3 babies trotting down the field alongside and obviously about to cross in front of us to enter the forest beyond. Happily, the dominant Lira stopped immediately and obedient Match followed her lead so we avoided a possibly dangerous confrontation. 
I have a love/hate relationship with sangliers. One rather large boar severely damaged my car once in the Auvergne by running into the side of it. My friend who was in the car with me said maybe we should get out to check it was ok…I declined to do so & drove off after seeing it limp away! the car was written off by our insurance.