As soon as we arrived in Gignac, we went shopping, as once these shops have closed on Saturday, there’s nothing else until Monday morning, when the shops are usually rammed. We bought a pizza to cook in the oven that night. Nice and easy. Except, it turned out that there was no oven! (face palm)
The flat (Gîte) we were staying in was owned by the couple downstairs. They are English and had lived here in the village, for five years. They had been coming to the area for twenty years and have owned the property for eleven years – so they are almost locals. Their house was along a small lane just on the outskirts of St. Jean de Fos. The village itself is just off the main tourist route to Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert, and the Grotte de Clamouse. It hosts the Devil’s Bridge river beach, which turned out to be very convenient1.
The owner Lynn, speaks fairly good French but her husband doesn’t – he simply plays boules very well. I thought boules only involved two balls each but here they use three – perhaps this is petanque? Who knows! They told us that the recent weather had been truly awful, much the same as it had been in England. They took great delight by trying to make me feel guilty that the cloud we had driven under all the way down, was the same cloud we had had back home. As it if was my fault! It did clear up eventually however.
The flat was nice, with a large living/eating/cooking area – with a window to the outside. Very cool and airy. A long, cool corridor then takes you to two large bedrooms and a well-equipped bathroom, with both bath and shower. The owners are converting the back of the house too and will soon be able to offer extended accommodation, or two separate lettings.
The only problem that we had with the set-up was that any outside activities such as barbecuing or simply sitting outside, was shared with the owners AND across the road and down a flight of steps. By the time I had cooked a meal, I couldn’t be bothered to carry everything down two flights of stairs and across the road. Besides, we often had two or three courses which would each have to be fetched when ready. Barbecues are ok, but I’m not one for lighting one just to cook a couple of pieces of meat – I’d rather do that for a larger group.
Next – we venture out.
1 – The sea was about 30 miles away.
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