OUR FIRST YEAR IN PROVENCE Ep.6 June (166KM Bike Race, Twins 1st Birthday & Wild Swimming Spots!)

Join us for our family vlog covering the month of June in Provence, France! George did an epic 166km bike race in the Alpes-De-Haute-Provence, the twins turned 1 and we did so much wild swimming!

We hope you enjoy the video. Thank you so much for watching 🙂

#newlife #familyvlog #france #provence #twins #familytravel #adventure #travelvlog #vlog #farmlife

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Links
– Kayaking: https://canoevaucluse.com/
– La Provencale cyclo: https://laprovencale-cyclo.fr/

[Music] Happy birthday to you. [Applause] [Music] Oh. Oh, hi there. Hello. Hi. I’m brave enough to walk through all the bees and the lavender without getting stung. I did get stung by a was the other day. I’m not brave enough to walk through that as everyone well knows. I don’t know if you can hear it in the background from the microphones, but there’s a hum. Just humming of all the bees. And that’s because it is June. So, welcome back to our series of our first year in Provence. Sorry for the slight delay, but it’s been busy. It’s been a great month. I’d say this is the first month that Provence has turned into like classic Provence. classic with purple lavender behind it with golden fields of wheat with sunshin hot days, long days, rosé like every tan. Yeah. First up, weather. Weather. So to sum it up in one word, hot. Yeah, it was hot. It was still, but it was beautiful. Yeah, like beautiful clear days. No, I lie. Beautiful, but hazy to start off with. Yeah, much more hazy. We usually can see the Alps from the house and it’s been like many much less days that we can see the Alps because of the haze. Still beautiful. It’s still It is It is still beautiful. But that kind of gave way to when the heat wave kind of really kicked in. that gave way to like a lot more clarity, but just like kind of hot, slightly oppressive weather conditions when the wind wasn’t blowing. Yeah. But because of where we live, our little microclimate, we nearly always had a breeze. Yeah. Flowing through. So despite the fact we haven’t got air conditioning, we coped pretty well, I think. Yeah. There. Yeah. There’s been a heat wave across most of Northern Europe. And the temperatures here have kind of been around like consistently sort of between 33 and 38. Yeah, haven’t they? Um, most days in June. Yeah, the high temperatures have meant that everybody’s been making hay really quickly. All the fields around while uh all the fields around us have uh have been cut, hay, done. All of that has been turned over really quickly and bailed. but also not right next to us, but just further down in the valley, they’ve been harvesting already. Like our harvest started in mid June, which is super early. It went from growing to ready to harvest uh in a flash. So that was quite quick. But what it’s meant is we had lovely smells. Apart from the lavender, which we get a lot that smells really good, and the fig trees that are in our garden that are smelling really lovely right now, we’re getting hay, warm hay, straw, those kind of like beautiful evening smells as they as they sort of waft across the landscape. Yeah, the ground is really dry. The grass is really yellow and dying and crispy. So, that is the reality. It’s worth saying that is a reality of like summer here. And we, you know, hopefully in time in our little piece of land, we’ll have better areas of shade and the ground will be a bit healthier and it won’t be as bad. But it is part of the reality of living here. It’s very dry. Yeah. The grass goes so dry and crispy and it’s quite painful to walk on. Yeah. Okay. So hot, dry, gorgeous smells. Summer is really hitting. But don’t get stung. Yeah, please don’t puppy. So next subject is days out. What have we done with this glorious weather? We’ve done everything. Literally everything. Yeah. Tell you what we’ve done. We have done pretty classic touristy spots to proven which we are like all up for and we’ve done it. We’ve managed to squeeze it in just before the summer holidays. So, we’ve been quite lucky it hasn’t been overwhelmingly busy. We went to at the start of the month which was beautiful, wasn’t it? Yeah. What are we doing, Skye? Having a picnic. [Music] Not our favorite touristy town in Provence. Great. Drive through. It looks amazing. Walk through it and you see everybody driving through it going, “Oh, this looks amazing.” Yeah, it’s lots of it’s it’s quite flat for a provincial town and then it’s got these gorgeous canals running all the way through it, which is really pretty. Having that sort of sense of water and and and canals and rivers and stuff around us was quite nice. We don’t have a lot of that up here. It’s really different from other sound, isn’t it? The fact that there’s water and the fact that there’s flat really differentiate it from other provincial towns. Mark’s out of 10. Six. Yeah. Five and a half. Six. We had some nice ice cream, but I wouldn’t I wouldn’t rush back. No. Where else have we been? We have been to San Remy. Yeah. Which we So, we actually went with my parents and we had a few days in Airbnb there and that was incredible. I would say San Remy, a great base. Yeah. to to have your evenings in but then to explore uh more of Pon around it because everything’s sort of an hour away bit less. So when we were there we did a few things. We went to well we went kaying on is it the Dr. No, this is actually kayaking that started at uh Fontend Decl. Yes. And then you take the river, freezing cold spring water river out of that and that takes you actually down to around there as your finishing point. But some lovely fun kayaks that somebody fell in the water. Oh, there’s basically it’s super fun. You’re in a double kayak or you can get a triple as well. And they have guides and everything to take you down, but there’s various like uh what what do you call that thing? We Okay. And you have to get your kayak. They put you in position and you go down this kind of slide. And the first one, well, we were fired. My mom wasn’t. She fell in. And then the second one, I went absolutely like fully capsized, fully in the water, and it was freezing. And I stayed in the boat just watching going, “Oh, glad that wasn’t me.” It was so cold. But it was gorgeous. And the river is like, you don’t have to be a good kayaker, honestly. It’s the river’s all flowing once. It will take you down there. Yeah. You just have to kind of steer. There were people smashing into the banks and all. Yeah. And it’s got it’s just crystal clear water. We actually didn’t really get any videos of it because phone. Yeah. But it was amazing. Highly highly recommend that activity. Like great for all ages. Yeah. Six months. Kaying from Fontan to Veru. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, that was amazing. What else did we do? We went to the Pondigard. Yeah, Pondard is a massive Roman aqueduct uh that has a wonderful area for swimming all around it and you can the brilliant parking so you can park up and then head down and you can choose your spot. Practical Dash what there there is parking this is the world’s tallest aqueduct. Yes, it is. But you want to be able to get there and enjoy it. Like as a day out, it’s good because you can get food. You there are toilets. Like there’s good pocket. I know that sounds super practical, but like you turn out to a bunch of places and you’re like, especially with kids and you be like, “Where the heck where do we put the car? Can we get a buggy anywhere? Like is there anywhere to like wash up or bins or things like that?” Whereas Ponty Guard cuz it’s quite a well-known tourist spot. Yeah. It has all those facilities and it’s spectacular. It doesn’t feel it doesn’t feel overrun. There are tourist buses, but yeah, great day out. Whilst in S Remy, we also went out for a bit of a hike as well. Great place to hike. Yeah. In the Alps is the little mountain range there. And I will say if you’re coming hiking in France, you really like hiking in France is proper hiking. You really do need hiking boots, maybe sticks, like a good backpack so you can put lots of provisions in. You’ll be scrambling a fair bit. Yeah, there’s a lot of like ladders. Well, it depends which route you take, but generally the roots here are pretty advanced. Um, you can find some that aren’t for sure, but most of them are pretty advanced hiking routes. Um, we had a few moments that I was not so happy about. Have a look. That’s Mononte. I don’t know if you can see it. It kind of looks like almost ethereal. All the mountains in the background. You can barely see them. Not the best uh not the best air quality, but it’s beautiful around here. The dog is going up there. I’m going up there. Let’s get ourselves in a What? Okay. Wait. Love a sort of chain situation. Wait. Right. So, should we do to here? Yeah. I will check. You got one more step cuz I’m going to put him where your feet are. Yeah. Wait. Come this. Good boy. That’s it. Good boy. Make him stop. Blue. Wait. Blue. Watch me. Watch me again. Chain [Music] [Music] to the top. That’s barely a hole. That barely an inconvenience. That’s actually pretty uh Look, there’s climbing like ropes there. Yeah. To maybe climb. Oh, there are. There are belays and stuff up the top. So, people do climb this. Right. Well done, puppy. No, don’t go back down. Let’s go. Sam Rainy overall of the town. Wonderful. [Music] And I think I would give it 8 and a half. Yeah, I agree actually. Great market. Oh, the market’s amazing. There’s good ice cream like parlor. There’s good You could go and get a villa or Airbnb like we did. We We did takeaway pizzas and things we cooked in. We had a barbecue one night. So, yeah, highly recommend that. Yep. Absolutely beautiful. Next topic, new location. Same dog. Hi. Nobody ever to see him. Hi, love. Go that way. Go that way. You’re getting shot. Go that way. Go on. Go eat a bee. No. So, uh, tell me what’s next. Okay. The other sort of touristyish thing we’ve been doing is lots of wild swimming. Yeah, we have been Well, we’ve been far a field and really close by. Uh, really close by. We have two spots. One that is walking distance which has a sort of, how would you say it? a natural slide in it down some limestone rocks into a big pool. Yeah. So, you can you can hop on an inflatable and go shooting down and it’s it’s pretty well known in the area, but we went down and it was it was lovely and quiet and the water’s gorgeous. Oh, yeah. Gorgeous. Really, really nice. Um, further down that river, there are a couple other spots where it’s better for the kids. Quite shallow, some pools, things like that. And, uh, and there’s a a waterfall itself, which is a bit too challenging for us right now. Oh, with the kids. Yeah. Another pool that we went to is in Dean Laban. That one is a man-made pool, but it man-made lake, I’d say. A man-made lake. Yeah. Yeah. True. But it’s fed from the river, which is the Bleon Bleon Leon River. So, it’s nice and fresh. Very fresh. No, but because it’s Yeah. It still holds some like It still holds some heat in it. So, it’s it’s less chilly than especially down at like Illes. Much much nicer than that. Uh again, like a great place to to park up and get to. Oh yeah. Amazing with kids, grassy, shady areas, Dan Laban. Absolute win for that. Yeah. If you want something that’s like what, you know, wildish, but actually not wild swimming. That’s really good. Basically outdoor swimming. And probably our favorite spot is the Atang de Labond, which is a big a man-made lake. Lake. Yeah. Is it like a reservoir? Reservoir, but it really just looks like a lake. Most of it is bordered by mountains and and trees and shrubbery and such like. Um, and that is gorgeous. And you can park in the camping for three euros for the day. It is warm. It is warm. Like the water is warm. It but in a nice way like especially with kids and stuff and for us. And we actually took our goggles and like properly went swimming. Um, which was really nice. You can’t really do that in many other places out here unless you go to an outdoor pool. Yeah, you can do some distance with it. Um, so yeah. Uh, yeah, that is gorgeous. Yeah, that was that is currently his highlight. It’s a bit further away, 45 minutes away, but Nik, great day out. There are loads of amazing wild swimming spots in Provence. There’s actually a book I’ve seen in the library that I might want to might want to get. But there are more to sample. I like it’s such a highlight of being here in the summer. I just don’t get it in other places. And the French are brilliant at wild swimming and brilliant at picnicking and everyone’s so respectful of giving each other space. There’s not loud music playing. Like it’s just it’s so nice. It’s such a good environment and it makes us need to up our own picnic game. We do need to up our own to really compete. Tables all sorts. Yeah. Like they come with like tablecloths for the tables, little plates to serve everything in, chairs, the table itself. Like we don’t have any of that stuff. We’re just there on our little on a picnic camping rugs, you know, doing the very British way. picnic rug and a and a cool bag. In order to make the most out of swimming, it’s best to go and do some other exercise in the day to make sure you get really really hot. So, what we’ve been doing for that is we’ve been doing more cycling. Yes, as is the world who’s turned up to go cycling around as well. Oh, sorry. I thought dog dog running away from Jazz there. We have done a lot of cycling this month. Um, you really got into your flow. I’m so into it. I love it. I love it. I love it. Um, yeah, I’ve gone from being a bit more nervous to fully loving it. I’ve up my distances. I have up my average speed. I’ve up my number of clims with your help, which is amazing. But none of that none of that compares to what George took on this month. Yes, we’ve been looking at it for a while and had never thought I’d actually do it because I didn’t think I was fit enough, but I decided to go and do Sallo uh which was 165 km of uh a sportif cycling event that started way over there in Manosk and then actually came right past our house and up the Montelure behind us. So that was quite a day out and somehow I managed to film some of it. So we got we have Oh, that’s handy. So we have squirts of chain loop. Nice. A cryo gel. A cooling gel. Well, like as in like literally cools you down. It’s afterwards when you take off your Ah, okay. I don’t know. I could get it wrong. Maybe you don’t put it. Wait, wait. You can tell you’re in Provence when you get a bar of soap. Oh, nice. Extra olive soap. Uh some Oh, an Oxitan on Provence. Uh experience. Okay. That is the Maybe there is a soap. OP is the soap an oxan lock on is no it’s just a general savoen uh a bits to tie the number on with some sort of mapping app and a fates and festivals uh of the old province. Nice. So yeah, that’s not a bad little What else? Uh, my number. No. What else? Oh, yeah. And the bottle of irresistible dispenser of the event. But I like Oh, hang on a second. And we also got barrier balm for your pre uh Yeah, pre and post lube and postpost lube with the wine. Yeah, exactly. Internal and external lubrication of all sorts. Amazing. That’s annoying that that’s not in the middle. Okay, good luck, babe. Bye. All right, it’s just the start and we’re doing fine. It’s up the hill back. Just trying not to get tired straight from the off. Trying not to commit to anything. And it’s pretty chill. So, all right. After this summit, we’re off down a little flat road to Dora. pool championship. Promise I’m not mine. We’re coming up towards Fontien. They’re called the Fonten out of Paul Kier. There’s the Alps over in the distance behind me. It’s split up a little bit, but five or 600 riders in this group. Split up across the board a bit. But we uh yeah, feeling okay. Just riding my pace. It’s not the most socialable ride yet, but that’s probably me. So, to Fonten and then big descent to the base of the lure, which is probably where I’ll see you next. Oh no, I’ve got to stop before that. There I got a pit crew who had to run up the driveway. We’re all sweatier than George cuz I was here too soon. So I’m just waiting for people to catch me up and then we’ll head off. So we got we got donuts and squash and sandwiches. Yeah. Brilliant. Right, let’s go. Yay. Start the tour of France from the lavender up to the mountain. [Applause] That’s where we’re going up there. That guy literally just dropped his bottle in front of us. We’re a slightly large group now. More stuff can happen just before we go up. Start the ascension. The ascension the climb about 3k away. I’ve never been here before. This is the other side of the Montandelure. That’s the Jabbrron Valley down there, the valley, the Jab. Uh, and big truck. And, uh, climbing. Woo. The wind’s a bit stronger down here. So, heading along the river now. 10k or so, and then we begin the climb up the back side of the the mountain, which is our big ascent. 1,400 m over 22ish km. I’ve been reliably informed it’s the easier route compared to the one that Jazz and I did the other day. So, let’s see if I’m being lighted. I’m feeling okay. Legs are getting a bit tired. We’re 60ks in. Got 100 to go. Yeah. Just eating, drinking, drinking a lot. My legs are so cooked. 80 km in 15 to go to the top of the the lure. It’s the heat and my legs. They promised a water stop at the bottom. There was no water stop. So, I’m managing. I try not to cramp. Still got to up there. Crumbs go. We’re over the other side, but we’re not at the top yet. That’s down there somewhere. God, I’m out of water. [Music] [Music] Waiting for daddy and granddad’s gonna have the same day. [Music] This place did it. 16 km. My wooden medal. 166 km. Amazing. 164.8 km in 6 hours. 49 minutes. Incredible. Including up a mountain. It’s 41°. Like the guys saying, 41°. Amazing. All right. Yeah. back to us. After I finished in Banon, I didn’t film anymore, but you go through some of the most beautiful uh lavender fields. More no less, not as beautiful as ours, but beautiful lavender fields. And this is like this iconic view. I didn’t film any of that. But here’s a couple of shots of Jazz going in the opposite direction. Or not on that bike ride. Not on that bike ride. Ah, on our own bike ride. Yeah. So, we’ve explored that. Took me around all the roads that I knew and it was amazing. It was a incredible day out. Super hot. It was 41° on the day that George did it. 165 km. The climb was 2 hours. Took 2 hours to climb up the lure. It is. Oh, I was nothing less. Like he was amazing to have done that. You’re underplaying it. Like it was that is a crazy I got round. I don’t think I I I would like to do it again a bit more. A lot of people didn’t make it. A lot of people didn’t finish. Really? Yeah. You saying there’s people who are like kind of off the side. Oh yeah, there were some people who really on the last stop look like they were about to just like throw in the tower completely. But beautiful. And there are a few others. But that was the first edition of Le Pip. Yeah. We’ll link in the description for it. Uh but totally worth doing. So if you’re a cyclist and you’re into cycling events or want to give a race a go, come and do that next year. There is the 165 km route and there’s also a 87 Yeah, 87 km route which doesn’t go up the mountain. Yeah, who knows? Maybe I’ll give that a go next year. It’s worth going up the mountain. You’re going to do the long one next year. Mark my words. Couple of personal events this month as well. Yeah. One, Father’s Day. First Father’s Day. First Father’s Day. Yay. It was great. It was lovely. What did we do? We went No, I know. Oh my gosh. This is actually a really special day. We went out for lunch. Lovely. I’m going to show you this in a second. And then we went to this incredible fate for kids. Yes, we did. We did. That was wicked. So, we’ll show you the stuff now, but just like a quick preamble basically in Falkier, they were doing a event for zero to four year olds. Is that right? Yeah. 0 to four year olds. And it was lots of essentially the local town and all the local crushes and a few different businesses put on different stalls for babies which is so lovely because obviously a lot of the events that happen are for slightly older kids. Um so to have one that was really focused on babies was amazing. There were sand pits. There were like uh sensory experiences. There was little racing cars, a cardboard village, gymnastic stuff. Oh, have a look. It was amazing. Wicked. Wicked. Wicked. Yeah. Well done. [Music] So, Father, Father’s Day was brilliant for me and for the girls. We had a really lovely time. Thank you so much for that. And then they had an even better day because they turned one year old. S Y [Music] Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Sky. Happy birthday to you. [Music] Now we have one-year-olds. Now we have one year olds. Now we have one-year-olds and they are mobile. Yes. Mobile. Scary. I mean Yeah. You’ve got kids, you know. Hi dog. Yeah. Come and say hi. Who buys a black dog when they live in France? Eh. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you smell like lavender. So, what’s the Oh, yeah. What’s the cultural thing we’ve learned this uh month? So, sadly, the bakery, the bonerie in our village closed this month. Don’t worry. Well, us don’t worry. It has been sold to new ownership. Apparently, they are a lovely couple and she is like an award-winning peticier peticissery maker. She makes great cakes. Great cakes. And uh they already have basically him and his then the husband him and his brother own a bakery in Manosa and they wanted they’re kind of separating so they can grow their own business and things. So, it’s coming. It’s going to be open again and in a couple of weeks. So, we will let you know next month what happens. Really hoping that it’s good because that is truly the heart of the village here. So, we wanted to continue for now. That sums up our June. It was It was frantic but fun and busy, but full and busy and exciting and felt like we were on holiday. Yeah, we did. We basically been on holiday this entire month. Yeah. Uh so, it’s great. Got better tans. We really feel like we’ve made the most of summer. Whatever July and August bring, we’ve had our holiday bit now. So, it’s back to work. Yeah. Literally, George is off off to Japan. A couple of days to Japan days. Probably after this video, when this video comes out, I’ll be in Japan. Yeah. So, if you want to see what’s going on there, follow us on Instagram and I’ll send you some pictures. Everyone, remind George to actually film some stuff away. I should indeed. Anyway, we hope you have been having and are going to continue having lovely summers. Let us know what your plans are. If you’re staying at home, having lovely barbecues, going abroad, coming to France, maybe to France. Um, yeah. Have an amazing time. Thank you for watching and we will see you for the July edition in but a few short weeks. Indeed. See you then. Bye-bye. I’m going through the lavender. It’s a long day. Come on. Get started. Fast through the lavender. [Music]