London and the start of our trip home

Cherry came over to our hotel this morning and then we went shopping on Oxford Street before going to Jamie Oliver's Union Jack restaurant in Covent Garden for lunch.

Then after lunch we went to the National Gallery next to Trafalgar Square.

Then we left Cherry there, went back to our hotel to collect our luggage and then trained to Gatwick. Leave here at 9.45 pm (9.45 a.m. Friday NZ time) and arrive back in Wellington at 3.55 pm on Saturday.

At Jamie Oliver's Union Jack restaurant in Covent Garden

At Jamie Oliver's Union Jack restaurant in Covent Garden

At Jamie Oliver's Union Jack restaurant in Covent Garden

Next to some Canalettos at the National Gallery

Van Gogh's Sunflowers

In the English masters room with Gainsboroughs in the background and Constables and Turners in other parts of the room

Trafalgar Square

Trafalgar Square with the National Gallery behind me

Lacoste to London

Drove to Marseille airport, flew to London, trained from Gatwick to Kings Cross, checked in, met up with Cherry for dinner at a Greek restaurant, saw her back to her hotel, and got the tube back to our hotel.

Lacoste, Bonnieux, Lourmarin, Roussillon, Menerbes

After breafast on the terrace at Cafe de France in Lacoste we visited La Raspaude, the villa we stayed in last year. Then we did some shopping in Bonnieux and Lourmarin, went back to Lacoste for an omelette de fromage chevre for lunch and then went to Roussillon and Menerbes.

Linden having breakfast

Our hotel

Lacoste

La Raspaude

La Raspaude

Lacoste from Bonnieux

Artist Anne-Marie Ruggeri drawing and writing in our copy of her latest book

Omelette de fromage chevre

Roussillon

The terrace at Cafe de France, Lacoste with Bonnieux in the background

The terrace at Cafe de France, Lacoste with Bonnieux in the background

St Guilhem-le-Desert, Les Baux, Lacoste, Bonnieux

We drove from St Guilhem to Les Baux to see the latest Carrieres exhibition in the old quarries. This year it is Marc Chagall.

Then on to Lacoste for a rosé on the Cafe de France terrace before a walk up the village and then to Bonnieux for dinner at L'Arome.

Linden in our room at St Guilhem-le-Desert

St Guilhem-le-Desert

 

The Marc Chagall exhibition at the Les Baux quarries

The view to Bonnieux from our room at Cafe de France, Lacoste

At the top of Lacoste

Lower church at Bonnieux

Magret de canard en croute Wellington

L'agneau

Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert

Because of the village's isolation the Abbaye de Gellone was established here in 806 AD by St Guilhem

We're in Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert, a village we last visted but didn't stay in back in 1996. It's in the Hérault department in the Languedoc-Roussillon region in southern France,  situated in the narrow valley of the Gellone river where it meets the steep sided gorge of the Hérault River' It's essentially a medieval village located on the Chemin de St Jacques (St James' Way) pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostella in south west Spain.

Our room looks out onto the village square.

View from our room

View from our room

Before dinner we went for a walk through the abbey, cloisters and garden, and then down through the village with its gorgeous shops and sidestreets, then back up to our hotel on the vehicle road that runs parallel to the village.