Notre Gite: Le Mas des Garennes

Today I would like to tell you about the lovely gîte touristique located right here in Saint Roman de Malegarde. It is know as Le Mas des Garennes (provencial farmhouse of cottontail rabbits) and is open year-round. Jacques and Stéphanie Kaneko are the onsite owners and operators. Their eldest daughter, Iris goes to school with Emily. Inès, their younger daughter, will begin CP at our village school in the fall. All three girls are frequently found playing on the swing set in the Kaneko's enormous yard.

A while back, Stéphanie and Jacques gave me a private tour of the lovely facilities; they keep the gîte in immaculate condition and each apartment has been tastefully furnished. The house belonged to the Kaneko family and Jacques decided to completely remodel the building and convert it to a gîte following the death of his mother several years ago.

There are two, two bedroom apartments, Gîte Genêt and Gîte Lavande, which are available for full-week or weekend rental. Each is top-notch, with cable television, modern kitchens including dishwashers, washing machines for your laundry and beautiful bathrooms. There is a boulodrome, a very nice barbeque area and a piscine for guests. The facility is registered with Gîtes de France. Pets are accepted.

If you are planning a trip to Provence, I would encourage you to consider staying here in St Roman at this lovely country gîte. Be sure to let me know when you are coming; I'd love to give you a tour of our village! For pricing and availability, visit their website: Le Mas des Garennes

Their contact information is:
Stéphanie et Jacques Kaneko
5 Route de Rasteau
F84290 Saint Roman de Malegarde
Tél.: 33 (0) 490 289 692
Port. (Cell phone): 33 (0) 679 234 303
Email: kaneko@wanadoo.fr
Website: http://www.provencegites.fr/

Notre Météo: Printemps Arrive!

Printemps arrive! Above you see a spectacular yellow mimosa tree in bloom, as I see it on my daily run through the vineyards. These mimosa arbres are sprinkled throughout our village. The photos I post today show that spring has arrived in St Roman. Some of the plants were discovered on our hour-long Sunday stroll with our voisins. It was about 60 degrees at noon yesterday and we wore no vests, sweaters or jackets, just shirtsleeves.

I am thrilled to see signs of spring popping out all around. Winter is my least favorite season and I am always relieved when it is over. Our météo indicates that we have more days in the 60's predicted this week and next. We may have rain in the next several days, but that's ok; it's great for the crops.

Many folks in the village say that this warmer weather has arrived too early; we have just completed the third week of February and according to the calendar, we still have three full weeks of winter. I've looked at our 15 day forecast and there might be legitimate cause for concern. As of yesterday, AccuWeather was predicting that a cold front would move into the area around March 9th and that our lows would drop below freezing, possibly for several days.

Nonetheless, I can't help but admire all the beautiful blossoms. Armando tells me that the white blossoming trees are amandiers, while the pink blossoming trees are either abricotiers or pêcher. The dark pink blossoms of the cerisier come later, likely arriving the end of March or beginning of April. He says that when the fruit is ready, we are free to stroll and pick what we want to eat. Now I am really eager for spring!

I've just re-checked the forecast and the freezing temps are gone, at least for now. Hopefully, the highs and lows the second week of March will be in the 40's and not below. Yes, those highs will be 20 degrees cooler than yesterday, but not cold enough to destroy the delicate blooms of our arbres aux noix et arbres fruitiers.

Needless to say, should the freeze actually arrive, many of the blossoming trees would suffer damage and that might mean a loss of our almond, peach and apricot crops. Let's be optimistic that a late freeze does not happen this year.

Our marie has determined the time is right to return water to our midieval four-headed fountain. Surely this indicates that any freeze yet to come will be of no consequence. I hope so.

You can always have a look at the St Roman de Malegarde weather forecast, weather maps, temperature charts and other interesting weather information by clicking on the AccuWeather icon I have posted in the right column of this blog. On the forecast pages, you have the option of viewing the temperatures in Celsius (click the red "Metric" button at the top to the right of the date) or in Fahrenheit (click the blue "English" button at the top to the right of the date.)

Happy Spring Everyone!