Join us for our family vlog covering the month of MAY in Provence, France! It was a very busy month with a trip to the Banon Cheese Festival, cycling events galore and we got engaged!
We hope you enjoy the video. Thank you so much for watching 🙂
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i’m ready Hello everyone welcome back to our series our first year in Province and it is May you can check the continuity everybody by watching the drinks as they go down yeah exactly we’re being rogue and drinking Normandy cider because it’s lovely and it’s low alcohol which is great there’s no alcohol in this video what was May like let’s start with our favorite topic as always the reason why we moved here the weather overall the balance has shifted from rain to sun finally finally as it’s dry as it starts to rain in Northern Europe the sun has arrived in southern it’s just been progressively getting hotter don’t you think that might be because there was that couple of days of big mistral and then it kind of got hot maybe I don’t know i think so because I mean any weather buffs please let us know but that kind of was like a break we haven’t had that wind since and it was wet before that and dry up north and then that changed there was rain up north the big wind and it dried down here and it kind of like ushered in this the heat the start of the the warmth real warmth it’s been hotter air temperature rather than chillier the Mistra which George is talking about if you don’t know is a the wind it’s basically the name for the wind right now one of the 22 named winds of Provence very good and about yeah sort of midmay we had a very bad episode of this wind where we had a very bad episode of wind clip that it was really windy i don’t know what to say mid midway it was really windy it was really windy yeah basically it was just crazy and we suffered unfortunately we had some casualties didn’t we in our garden furniture have a look at this okay the situation the devastation oh my god that didn’t look like that oh no no it proper flipped it bloody hell it snapped it in there oh no that is dead that’s our brand new parasol integr cuz it’s right in the middle it’s not snapped it right through how annoyed are we i’m really annoyed like when we came in last night when we got home it was fine and half an hour later once put the kids to bed well it was quite windy when we got in no this was up it was quite windy when we got in and then we were like thinking “Oh maybe we should get it in.” But we had to get the kids to bed i was like rush and then when I came out I saw it and was like “I’m not looking at that till the morning we can fix the table though so we can we can brace it and sand it it’s fine it’s not It’s not like snapped it in half but we’ll brace it sand it fill it from underneath and then it’ll be all right it’s just so annoying because we basically we’ve just had the worst of the parasol is we bought one which was like one of those ones that kind of sits not in the table like on the outside and curves over and then realized it was too windy for that so we went to send it back and this the the parasol cost like €9 and to ship it back was going to be €150 and they wouldn’t cover the costs so we’re now stuck with that parasol and the base neither of which we well haven’t they don’t work right now they don’t work right now but we were like $150 on that with the base as well and then this parasol we then bought this parasol which was like another €100 and now that’s bloody sh €250 parasol which is €250 is like a significant amount of our monthly budget it’s cuz everything else is broken so that was unfortunate to say the least but um and we’re now without a parasol and when it’s actually sunny so we need to figure that out anyway it did after that get progressively warmer which was has been really amazing well it’s it’s turned into pretty much blinadillic right now as you can see in the in the field in which we’re sat it’s like long evenings they’re warm the mornings are still they’re actually quite warm yeah we’re filming this at 7:00 yeah it’s hot in the evening and it’s hot thumbs up for weather in May definitely feel like that’s when summer starts here we’re enjoying the heat it’s been lovely so yeah one thing that we have noticed in May is that there have been loads of events happening around the local area i share the French people’s love of a little fate and they love a fate let me tell you something on which is great and there’s been loads to choose from there’s been um bread festivals cheese festivals lots of sporting activities bants vanier there’s Yeah there’s been loads and we have part partaked partuk parttook on one side of us in a village nearby we had a bread festival on one day and a village on the other side had a cheese festival the next day unfortunately we didn’t make it down to the bread one but we did go to the cheese one in a town called Banon banon banon banon all right we’re like people have already started parking here and this is well out of town this is like a kilometer to town yeah I think we’re going to have to park here well there are spaces that’s good where is it oh oh my word right the first obstacle to the cheese fest going up a hill this massive hill with this massive buggy we’ve been overtaken by a single buggy there’s a there’s like a bus and a vet so a bus that’s round full of people that just loops around picking people up but we’re not we’re going to try and we can’t get on explain to people that we want to put the buggy underneath in order to get on it’s just not we just walk up this hill it’ll be fine i can smell the shoes from here or if someone you accusing I don’t think that would be so good for our land no that might do more damage than good yeah tracks not so much but into the market with our wide load so busy it’s so busy heat heat we are deep in the cheese we are going one step every 10 minutes that was fantastic highly recommend that if you’re in um well basically I highly recommend coming to in May uh there’s lots on what else was there George apart from the cheese which was delightful we had a couple of events that were local i mean it was all local but this is really local on our mountain uh the Montelure our mountain the first one was cool which we definitely parttook in it’s a all category climb and we decided to go and ride it because they closed the road to car traffic just so that bikes could ride up it and we had open roads and we’re like let’s go let’s go ride up a mountain it was part of a 4-day bike festival in the town but they had various activities going on throughout all the different villages and the town itself and this was one of them they do it throughout summer until September across various coals in the outdoor province mountain passes if you don’t know what a coal is cole yeah um across the outdoor province region and they do it for a day or a half day and they shut the traffic which is absolutely amazing yeah so especially well I mean it’s always good to ride a road without any traffic on but especially these passes obviously you come down them quite quickly and if you’re a bit more of a kind of novice intermediate like me that that is quite scary and it’s much nicer to do it without cars there where are we we are in San Morg which is the village of town at the base of the road up the Montana Dur we only have limited time because we only have child care for a certain amount of time so we won’t make it to the top but it’s a cool opportunity yeah we’re going to see some views and uh see how far we get and with no cars on the road and I will say as a reminder this is the first bike I’ve owned in 25 years and I’m a beginner so we’ll see how I go so it’s close at the bottom and the pass over the top is open if we were to go that way and Jazz says “I got to go catch her.” She’s off there we go second a nice man to help us through brilliant closed roads take it i love this an entire mountain closed just for just for us poor cyclists and we are at 1,000 meters there goes Jazz she’s pointing at something i have no idea what can you sit quiet there oh I have no idea where they are that Oh behind us where I need to jazz is the chapel of something something the Abby Chalian Shalassen yeah of the 12th century is down there which is one of the the landmarks i was hoping we get here oh don’t ride off the side of the mountain we’re 1250 m and we’re still cluting along another 20 minutes or so and then we’ll begin the descent off we’re at 1400 m biggest climb ever by a massive amount she’s And now the descent carbon wheels and rim brakes versus Jazz’s disc brakes it’s cold on the way down and I’m breaking so hard i can’t hold my hand oh it is chilly it’s not a cold air temperature but it is fresh if you’re standing still it’s fine but if you’re going at like whatever’s 40k an hour crazy speeds I’m going at oh my gosh yeah I don’t like the downhill a brilliant initiative yeah really um and there was like mountain biking as well on the lure and in the local town it was a great 4-day festival and that kind of was a warm-up for the the main event which was the um trail decepance was a essentially a running festival that was made up of various different course distances so the maximum ultramarathon was 180 km I think wasn’t it right down to a little kids race that was uh like one kilometer and a sort of fun walk for charity that was a 10k walk and then there was just lots of differences in between that it was epic they had the start and finish line in FA which had also they had like DJs and food and everyone was out supporting it was really cool such a good atmosphere and then through all the kind of villages and towns nearby they had stations where you could go and watch people come through um they also started some of the races from various locations and all the villagers were like coming out with their signs and cheering and in the bar i wasn’t here for this and we’ll tell you why later but did it kind of pass through various villages and stuff like that pass through all these like loads of villages and people were out like honestly all around here um cheering people on it was like we were driving around like beeping people in the car like so cool um and they ran the 160 km one they run through the night that’s mad me it’s mad you don’t want to be in the wrong place oh dear what were those little wolves we got wolves around here little animals wolves those little ones those little ones and next year we may participate not in the 160k but maybe in something um yeah I’m not sure yet i don’t know we’ll we’ll have to see jazz has signed herselves up herself up for the uh Paris Marathon next year after watching the London Marathon and getting very excited so you’re maybe well we’ll see how how you feel after doing you’ll be in peak fitness where do you continue either either I’ll be in P fitness we’re absolute shreds yeah so maybe we’ll do the 50k THP or we’ll do the 20 or the 40 or I’ll do I’ll do the um the fun walk fun walk with the kids yeah exactly basically all these events are um available to anyone the the cycling one was free you can just turn up and do that and then the THP one you do pay a little bit but it’s not crazy so if you’re looking to come to Baron and want to come when it’s really nice temperatures it’s really you know it’s still hot it was like 30° that week you’re into running or you’re into cycling it’s a really lovely thing to come and do you come for a long weekend or something and come for an event yeah great great destination event we had one more really good day out in May it’s a place you might want to go to which is Simeon Lacant simeon in the round fat round simeon a fat Simon that’s Simon is what we we’ve talked a British name um which is a well a lot of the villages around here are are the village P um is it perch i’m not actually sure of the pronunciation but it basically means they’re sort of up on the side of a hill simeon is one of them h it’s really one of them it’s it was a slog getting the buggy the double buggy up it but we went up for a quick walk around the village and a really lovely absolute brilliantly priced very tasty meal um it was like this tiny little restaurant that was run by two women and they literally did everything like the the front of house the uh waitressing and the cooking and it was a set menu wasn’t it go in and you can you know there was a starter main dessert yeah there was sort of two choices for each which in itself is slightly unusual but excellent to have a vegetarian choice on level pegging and the cheapest carff of wine we’ve had since we’ve been in Provence by half how much was it like it was €8 for a half liter of wine yes it’s normally 16 i drove to George as well to drink a drop half Jazz’s lips here in the countryside excellent simulan returned we want to go and see it again properly because it it was raining it did yeah it didn’t rain but it did rain then we’re about to get a visitor in a second oh you ladies and gentlemen please may we introduce to you her goofiness the royalty that is slam hello you dog hello you going to you going to just sit there for our filming no this is Flam hi she is a Anatolian Shepherd dog she’s about 70 kg she rolled on top of me yesterday like literally Jazz was screaming for help because she she was squashed by a dog last year i was like Charger so this is one of our one of our house guests she comes and knocks on the door for blue and because she says dog she just pushes the door open um so yeah this is fam you can stay here for the rest of this you going to you going to sit there okay yours don’t mind her yours you know you’re all boss eyed aren’t you bye oh see don’t go in the house fam oh other life updates what’s happened what’s happened well officially we got engaged yeah which it may not be news to anybody here but it’s an important thing for us um it means that finally we can get some paperwork stamped on this and all that no it’s bloody brilliant basically bloody brilliant and about damn time someone put a ring on this finger yeah we’re very happy it’s It was a just lovely joint decision that this is the next step in our relationship and we’re so happy uh for what ah oh my god it’s gone it was in my head i know it’s gone now i saw it fly away it couldn’t be one of these without one clip of Jazz and a bug they get caught in me they do um okay on less joyous life updates george had to go back to work this month yes that involved going to Thailand so I had to pop off to Thailand for a short week um and as I was on the plane on the way back I suddenly texted Jasmine was like “I forgot to film a thing.” Before we film remember to film some bits anything apart from a couple of little bits in Bangkok when I was doing a layover so you can see these now because they’re going over the top of this but yeah I had to go back to work which was a bit uh of a shock it meant I missed the trail of hope your parents came down to help out for a little glitch which stubbed me but tow firmly back in the water for work now uh and there’ll be more of that coming up soonish more trips away which is unfortunate but you know the best thing is I get to come back here it’s so much better so much better than London all right last topic what is a Frenchm that we have learned about this month the May Frenchm i’ve got a good one gone it’s all to do with what we’re sitting in here that polls the grass we found a rule in one of the websites of one of the Mes in one of the local towns about in an old handbook in an old handbook written down about what you have to do when you can clear things where you can cut your grass and what you have to do and basically I was like you got till the end of May well really it’s like the 4th of June but basically May is your time to clear what you’re going to clear or else you have to stop basically for risk of fire you you have to get rid of all of your piles of stuff you have to get rid of you basically stop doing anything that could possibly cause any sort of forest fire so there was mad dashes of people with trailer loads of stuff going through the detery lots of green material um we were desperately shredding the last of our stuff uh that we can shred clear the brush clearing the brush that we can doing a big cut of within basically you have to be 50 m away from the house roughly uh sort of to provide a barrier from any meadow grass like this so we have gone big M out and gone around the whole house cut that dried it and made a hay pile which we’ll use to mulch in the veg garden over the rest of the summer uh and that should be our that’s it we can’t really cut properly now until from our point of view until about late September October when all the grass has dried and died have a look at our Here’s some moment heat heat what’s the rule that we have to keep a sort of 50 m barrier around the house if you own that much of your land uh to stop any minimize the risk of spread of forest fires or damage to properties yeah there is a fire that ravages the land and there have been over recent years um here less so but bit further south yes so you got to keep it cut you got to keep it cut and you just basically don’t want any risk of to do anything that might risk hindling so our makeshift barbecue now we can’t use is basically illegal uh because it has to be a built-in one quite close to the house with a little chimney so our dry wood barbecue is not going to is not going to cut it and that’s fine and it’s great to know about these sort of regulations and advisories and hope everybody else around us is following them because a combination of hot hot summers and occasional massive amounts of wind is not great if you have a risk of fire yeah it’s definitely something we take really seriously any excuse to use the mower we noticed we noticed everyone was cutting and we were like why are they doing that which I it’s kind of what triggered us to look it up wasn’t it that is a good one that is a good that is a it’s a really good local French localism do not sleep on the websites of your local town here like they have all sorts of they basically tell you how to live um AO A O um if not we’ll give you a few minutes back you can have that to yourselves if you’ve got any questions for us around life in Provence or life in France if you’re thinking about moving maybe hopefully these vlogs sort of given you a bit of an idea of what you need to go through some of the hurdles but if you have any questions do drop them in the comments below and we’ll try and answer we do read all your comments thank you so much if anyone has any recommendations for things to do or places to go please drop them in the comments as well because while we do discover some bits on our own it would be lovely to have some recommendations yeah we’d love to hear from you give us a like subscribe if you’d enjoy more of this content because we will be doing it more but I think we need to go and refill your glass now yes and have some dinner that would be good i hope you’ve had lovely maze wherever you are and that it’s looking like summer is on the horizon if it’s not come to Provence it definitely is here it’s arrived and we will see you in June for the next installment where we have lots of exciting things happening in June as well we did see you next time bye bye bye let’s go
6 Comments
Lovely video guys🥰Congratulations on your engagement 🥂
Fab video as always! Looked like a lovely May 🫶🏼
👍👍👍👍👍
Congratulations on your engagement ♥️💍
Congratulations!!
.Look like you had a lot of fun. Thank you for sharing.❤