Haute-Provence

After an amazing headbutt by Zidane, France's World Cup dreams were shattered by Italy... and the whole of Castellane still feels a little bit depressed, even a few days later!

(Watching the final on the big screen in the town square)

But not only did France lose at soccer, Australia lost at boules. We played in an 'official' tourament on the weekend. While we managed to beat a pair of 10 year olds (hooray!),

we lost our other 2 games - one to a very serious team of Frenchmen. It was good fun though, and we learnt that while combining Pastis and boules sounds like a great idea, it CAN hinder your game!

We've also been exploring the Haute-Provence area quite a bit. After our trip to Moustiers, we did another drive to check out the "Barrage du Castillon" (hydro-dam),


as well as some small nearby towns such as:
St-André-les-Alpes - we waited out a storm here, while we ate the best baguette we've found yet
Ubraye - right off the beaten track. encountered some hostile locals who gave us very wrong directions to get out of town!
Senez - only one very narrow bridge into town, and a cathedral with an interesting entrance policy


Moriez - tiny town with no visible inhabitants!


St-Julien-du-Verdon - town right on the dam


Entreveaux - very intact medieval town with drawbridges and a mountain top citadel


Colmars-les-Alpes - in the ski region of Provence. Entire town is inside a wall, and you drive over the alps to get there (over 2000m high!). Only 385 people live here


Annot - this town has our favourtie 'Grand Rue' of any town


Guillaumes - Gwil's very own French town, and the town even had lots of beautiful gardens!