Today we set out to visit the village of Beaux des Provence. We didn't know much about it, other than it had been recommended by Lydie and was supposed to be a great place.
We drove the short distance and arrived at a busy road lined with cars, beneath a very high hill with a battlement on top . It looked a long way up it couldn't possibly be where we were going? We parked the car and walked up a short incline to the village. It is an old perched village, with many tourists and shops. We kept wandering through the narrow cobbled streets admiring the old buildings. We arrived at the entrance to the chateau, and citadel.This is an historic museum, set up in the grounds of the old original city. The castle is built right on the top of the hill with battlements to protect it and the old, crumbling city below. This is dated at about 12 A.D. There was an opportunity to try out an old crossbow and then we climbed through old houses, carved into the side of the hill, . There was also a catapult display, the two guys reminded us of the Liliputians from the Giants when they were in Perth.They were yelling out instructions and making everyone get out of the way as they prepared to fire. We climbed up the the top of one of the battlements. The stairs were narrow and worn (probably should have worn sneakers and not sandals today - but we did think we were just wandering through a little village) . The views over Provence were pretty spectacular. The aroma of Beaux is amazing. There are fig trees and lavender and the combination is beautiful.Once we clambered down the stairs the boys decided that the other battlement was higher and of course they had to climb it.We headed back down to the "new" village and waited in the cool, watching frazzled families with little kids come back down the hill. It was a very hot day and a big ask of little legs.
We drove back to Saint Remy, looking for a creperie we had seen in our trekking around town the night before. We trekked around again but could not find it.We did eventually settle on another one and had very delicious savoury crepes for our lunch.
The boys went back to the villa (after doing the grocery shopping) to bring in the washing and rest and relax by the pool while Jude and I hit the shops.
We had a slow start, walking in and out of shops with nothing to show for our efforts. We finally found a lovely one and had a great time trying on lots of beautiful clothes . We both made purchases and then went and had a delicious passionfruit and white chocolate gateau. It had a lovely biscuit base, a passionfruit couli filling and a white chocolate outer layer with fresh passionfruit on top. It was as good as it sounds.
I bought some tarts for dessert back home and we started towards our pick up point when we saw a shop we had been looking for and popped inside and found more lovely things to try on. A couple more purchases and we were on our way to the car park. We even found that without getting lost and were soon waiting for the boys while a cheeky old man tried to pinch my patisserie box.
Back home and time to hit that beautiful pool and relax in the warm evening of Saint Remy. We sat by and in the pool enjoying a glass of wine, chatting.
The boys prepared our lovely dinner which we ate outside in the cool air as the cicadas finally quietened. Tarts and limoncello to finish the evening. Good food, good friends in our Provençal paradise.

Steps 11,795
Kms walked - 8.6