Cultured Views

Springtime and holidays

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Spring here in the south of France is pretty much like spring in Australia. The weather begins to warm up and the landscapes start to look much more inviting.
When I think of this season in Australia one thing comes to mind - frangipani’s. We always had a frangipani tree in our yard and I can still smell that wonderful perfume of those flowers in the morning sun.

Here in France, we are into spring and gearing up for the summer season. Around our place we have olive trees - soon to grow new buds; a large cherry tree; a pomegranate vine; peach and apple trees - all in glorious bloom right now; and, of course, the miles and miles of grapevines.

Another, and important part of spring and summer for us, is the arrival of our guests on their holidays. Literally droves of them.
We are starting to see more Australians coming to stay with us, families especially, and this marks a change from when I was a child.

Dad bought what was called a ‘weekender’ down in St George’s Basin back in 1972. It was a 3 hour drive from our house in Manly and whenever there was a long-weekend or similar holiday we were all bundled into Dads old falcon squire station wagon for the trip down. My sister and I sat in the back with two cats, a dog, bedding, the odd piece of furniture, suitcases, food and - one time - our pet wallaby. Actually Skippy sat on the floor in the front by Mum’s feet and happened to poke her head up as we went over the Cahill Expressway in Sydney. The driver in the taxi beside us saw this marsupial looking out the window and nearly drove off the bridge!.

Our little ‘weekender’ was in Kerry Street St George’s Basin and back then Kerry St was hardly more than a dirt track with a few houses on either side. Our little place was meant to be an enclosed garage with a house on top but for some reason the builder stopped at the ground level. It was divided into 3 rooms and had a pot belly stove and an outdoor dunny - of course. Our backyard consisted of miles of bushland - I suppose there are houses all there now. There were cockatoos in the morning and at sunset, kangaroos would venture as far as the clothesline and, this being the Australian bush, lots of funnelweb spider holes in the ground. I used to help Dad pour the kero down the little holes.

I would say this sort of holiday was common for families in Australia back then as the trend for the big overseas trips were beyond the reach and scope of most parents in those days. Not so anymore, more Australians are taking their children to European countries, travelling around and it’s great to see.
My kids, and those who come to stay here, can get out and do pretty much the same summer-type things that my sister and I did at the Basin…here they can walk or ride a bike for miles along the country roads that wind through the vineyards; swim in the local rivers and creeks or the spectacular gorges of Goulyrous and Galamus that fill with fresh water after the snows melt.

Spring and Summer here, like in Australia, are definately times to be outdoors. You wont hear any cockies or kookaburra’s here but at least there’s no funnel webs!.

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