May visits

great deal happended in May.
L'Abeille was full of life as we had friends visiting almost every day during the month. We did get out and about a great deal and even managed a trip to the Cannes Film Festival, Avignon, Montpellier, Carcassonne, Perpignan and Auch.

Mid way though the month, the 61st Cannes Film Festival began. We love this annual event and this year was Alan's first as a delegate. We managed to see 3 screenings of films due out later in the year. Each screening was at 08:30 am, so we did not sleep in during the festival. We watched a lot of short films in the Short Film Corner and got to chat to some very intresting and committed film makers. Our only celebrity spot came when having a champaign cocktail in the Carlton Hotel on the seafront - It was Mr Spike Lee. Turns out he was in town to condem many of the film producers he deamed unworthy for some reason or another. We did get into an evening Premier Screening of a film and saw Tommy Hilfiger a few rows behind. We had no idea who the other "celebs" were.

Cannes was a little wet with the rain falling all through the festival. After days inside, often after watching an 8:30am screening of a film, we skipped town and visited Grasse. Its miles and miles up into the hills but well worth the trip. It’s the home to the French perfume industry and a place we’d love to visit again. The station is some distance from the centre of town, and all of it uphill. A sign warns those choosing to walk that there are 280 steps to the town. They forget to mention the steep pavements and hazarders roads you need to navigate. Coming down is a delight.
http://www.grasse.fr/

We enjoyed the Popes Palace in Avignon with its private guided audio tour headsets, then on to the Pont d'Avignon where we danced and sang the old song - Sur le pont d’Avignon… well, we sang the bit we knew.
http://www.palais-des-papes.com/

A trip to the Pont D’Gare followed. What a lovely site to just sit and have a picnic. We enjoyed watching the bathers in the freezing water swimming by the sign that expressly forbid any swimming and we stared in wonder at the people who keep standing under an olive tree. We later found out the tree was centuries old.
http://www.pontdugard.fr/

Closer to home we visited the Abbie de Fontfoid. In small numbers, and in French, a man guided a small party of 7 tourists (we made up 4) around the Abbie. More and more of the Abbie is being closed to the public in favour of conference space or “private” functions, but the church itself is lovely. The white wine turned out to be lovely too.
http://www.fontfroide.com/

A lovely trip to meet friends just north of Toulouse ment we could visit Auch. Another large cathederal, and another roundabout where those cars wanting to join, have priority over those already on the roundabout. ITS MAD!!!
http://www.auch-tourisme.com/uk/index.asp