|
|
General information pages on www.les-kaias.com
|
|
| | | 2006-7-11 4:27pm
 Our journey from Frejus to Laudun took longer than anticipated. We encountered little delays along the way and a three hour trip slowly developed into a five hour journey. It was an interesting drive. The landscape changed dramatically at times, as we weaved our way though small towns and larger commercial areas. Laudun is technically located in the Rhone Valley, the Languedoc Roussillon region of France, though it is at the tip of Provence and displays many of the characteristics of a Provencal town. We found it to be a lovely and quiet place to spend time.
Laudun is a sleepy town. With the exception of market days, each time we went through it seemed so quite. The foot traffic seems mostly limited to the locals, though since there is a good size wine cooperative nearby and the beautiful Chateau de Lascours (detail at right) I expect tourists stumble through. Le chateau et le secteur est beau.
We rented a three bedroom house in a domaine (vineyard). The owners were delightful, the property and our quarters were beautiful and relaxing. We could have not asked for more, but for a warmer swimming pool (at the time we traveled the water was a bit brisk for a swim). We arrived to the house on Saturday many hours later than we expected, which made supplies a bit difficult as markets were already closing upon out arrival to the area. Luckily, I always pack some supplies in case we run into a situation such as this. These supplies combined with gifts of a fresh baguette, butter, fig confiture and a bottle of wine from the domain owners made for a nice evening. We enjoyed a bit of pasta with a red pesto sauce along with the baguette and wine (I find that kids really enjoy red pesto).
The Domaine offered another small cottage which was rented by a French Canadian family. They were also traveling with their two-year old child which provided a nice way to be social. The Domaine was also complete with two cats, a very sweet dog and a fairly new litter of ten puppies. This menagerie provided wonderful entertainment for my daughter. Just look at this picture of her surrounded by these darling French puppies! Les chiots sont si mignons.
Still a bit jet lagged, we awoke and motivated a bit too late on Sunday morning. This nearly caused us to miss yet another opportunity to shop for food as most of the stores would be closing by 12:30. While we missed shopping the Marche U, we were fortunate to have a half-hour to spend at the street market. We determined our needs and quickly separated so we would have time to get everything. We purchased fresh fruits and vegetables, chicken, cheese, eggs, milk and juice all from local farms at the quaint street market. It was perfect. We felt quite fulfilled after our brief shopping spree. Proud that we accomplished so much in so little time we headed back to the house to enjoy some of our purchases on the terrace. A nice time indeed. The rest of the day was quiet. We played with my daughter and settled in. Un temps charmant.
Technorati Tags: France, provence, languedoc roussillon, rhone valley, french market, french food, chateau
|
|
|
