Christmas in Provence

Most of us think of Provence and think of the south of France as ...... summer in the sun......

However it does have other seasons.....
At the moment it is the time for Christmas fairs....

 and the Santon creche!

Aix en Provence is a beautiful city at any time of year

but it has a different charm when it has the Christmas market

and the Christmas decorations are beautiful.....

Aix is known for its fountains and they look great at the moment......

and  the end of the Cours Mirabeau has Roi Renee  overseeing everything!

We  saw a poster for a Santon fair  and went to check it out....

They had all the figures one needed for a creche........

and a choice of actual creches... with a Provencal theme!

We were amazed at the other choices of Santons available.......

particularly these ones.......

We were not tempted to go the Santon route and preferred our traditional Christmas..... which we celebrated in our home in Provence

Santa Claus arriving.....

Traditional Christmas tree....  surrounded by presents.....

........ a traditional late Christmas dinner, with Christmas crackers.......

and ending with a Christmas cake decorated by our grandchildren.......

Greek Life....

In Athens we saw lots of Graffiti......some very artistic....

 Some not so artistic........

 Interesting ads......

and great markets......

 with a huge choice of local olive oils.......

and, of course, fish.........

the cats obviously do well there.....

....time for a snooze.....

There was plenty of choice of Ouzo..

 and Raki, their grappa.......

and if you didn't want a raki digestive....... you could make an infusion......

We also noticed another use for fish.......

You can choose to sit with your feet among the fish.............

Or have a party fully immersed in a tank......

 And just in case you might get bored....... they have WiFi!!

We wondered if the Piranha did a better job!

Olive picking time, Provence

Its that time of year in Provence when everyone with olive trees needs to pick the olives and take them to a local olive oil mill.  Our local  is the  Moulin Dauphin.....

which is in the nearby village of Cucuron.

One first has to set up a date when one will bring in the olives.....they don't want too many at once!
Then one has to pick the olives the  day before, hoping that the weather will co-operate!

Getting ready, early morning......

 Heavily laden branches......

 Finished picking, after about 3 hours, and now have aproximately 25 kilos! From one tree! The other 4 trees had absolutely no olives!!

 We now feel we have earned lunch......

The olives look great..

We arrive at the Moulin and have our olives weighed..

then they were added to a large bin....

We will get our share of the olive oil produced from this specific bin!

The mill itself is very interesting.....

One can watch the whole process......

First the olives are separated from the leaves and are taken up on a conveyer to the next stage.....

 then they go to be pressed......

 then after the oil is separated from the pulp....

and then pressed.......

one finally gets .........virgin oil......

It is very interesting to watch......
and of course we had very few olives compared to most of the people arriving.......