Romantic window display, Venasque

This blip and the extra reflect a day of two parts.

Part 1 comprised breakfast at the boulangerie, then a drive through the Provence countryside to lunch at Les Ramparts restaurant in Venasque. Along the way we passed lavender fields, vineyards, precipitous mountain villages that gave the appearance of film backdrops almost up until the moment that we reached them (e.g. Gordes), fascinating rock formations, and dozens of cyclists.

Venasque was decorated today for a 'nuit romantique'. I photographed many of the floral displays around the village that acknowledged this event, including this pretty shuttered window. Our lunch at Les Ramparts was superb. Mr hazelh and I enjoyed the same first three courses of bresaola wrapped around goat's cheese, duck breast in spices and maple syrup, and cheese. For pudding I chose nougat ice cream with caramel sauce, and Mr hazelh lavender-flavoured crème caramel.

Part 2 of the day was super fun when our friends Nick and Sharon joined us back at the house. They have already travelled for several days through Spain and are spending the second week of their holiday in Andy and Carol's rental property. It wasn't long before we were all fooling around in the pool (see the extra). It was just like old days of the late 1980s when we were all new graduates in Birmingham (although it should be said that our fun with water back then only extended to playing with a hose pipe and buckets in the back gardens of our tiny terraced houses, and we didn't enjoy anything like the view we have today). After our 'swim' we took our places under the wisteria on the terrace and whiled away the evening eating, drinking, and playing a few rounds of Exploding Kittens and Dobble.

Mr hazelh and I are heading home tomorrow, so our last duty of the day is to pack.

Exercise today: none.