Provence...in Detail: Easter Sunday

We made it into the Aix area where our villa was on Saturday afternoon. After meeting up with our friends, checking out the villa, and a bit of grocery shopping, we put the kids to bed and began planning our week over the first of our many, many, many bottles of wine. Our first morning, was Easter so of course the kids were super excited to see if the Bunny found them and what he left for them. The crazy Bunny hid eggs inside and out, even though it was raining early in the morning. The kids rushed outside in raincoats to hunt for goodies when it was barely dawn!

I'm not sure if the Bunny or the kids left this trail of eggs...

A sampling of the 4 overflowing baskets left:

Lainey and Lucy didn't find as many eggs as the boys. Being younger and having wild-child hair makes it hard to keep up. But, luckily the boys were willing to share (after only a few hints from the parents)

Aidan sliding in to score an egg:

Happy and high on sugar!

Once all the Easter Bunny hoopla was done, we decided to see what sights were open. We went into Castoullet where the Lavander Museum is. There was also a really nice market going on. In Switzerland, the whole country shuts down on any given Sunday, but in France most things were open even on Easter!

In a few months this field will turn from green to amazing purple as the lavender blooms. Too bad for us...

While in Coustellet, we decided to have lunch at a cute little restaurant. We couldn't translate the menu completely, but we figured out that one of the menu items was rack of lamb. The other, we weren't sure about so we asked. We knew it was stuffed something, but didn't know what. The man said poisson which is fish. So I asked, blanc poisson? meaning "white fish?" He nods and says oui. So each couple ordered one of each meal, since stuffed white fish is usually really yummy. Not so much when the white fish is SQUID!!! I swear it stunk and looked like a condom stuffed with God only knows what. But, men being men, took one for the team and let the ladies eat the lamb. Jason and Damian ate most of the squid, but I don't know how. Even typing about it a week later makes me a bit nauseous. They managed to keep down the squid and we set off for St. Remy.

St. Remy was one of my favorite towns. Cute old town area, great shopping, beautiful architecture, and a carousel for the kiddos.

Look closely at all the teddy bears on the window ledges!

Lainey on her favorite ride anywhere!

After a bit of shopping and gelato for kids, our friends headed back to the villa, but we crazy American tourists kept going. We headed for Les Baux, which is a beautiful maintained ancient walled village. We drove up a windy road and stopped for a picture of the city up on the hill.

It was hard to get pics inside the walled town because the walkways were so small, and set up in a tiered fashion. We enjoyed walking around, and wished we had more time to visit the actual castle and watch a joust or something cool like that.