Our First Day Back in Lourmarin

We were all so excited to be back in Lourmarin and visit some of our favorite places and say hello to our friends from 2012. We started our morning at the cafe next to the wine dog store for croissants and cafe.

Our first pain au chocolat

After breakfast we went to see our cave with the wine dog. Our super cute Dogue de Bordeaux puppy is now 70 kilos which equates to approximately 170 lbs. This dog makes Belle look like a runt! 'Pas Possible' to bring the grown dog to the wine store now. Ha ha! Can you imagine a 170 lb dog in a wine shop?!?

This is the wine that we lived on in 2012. It went from 3.90 euro to 7 euro this year....Inflation!

Now we just spent some time before walking around Lourmarin enjoying the sights and sounds of our favorite village. A visit to the playground in front of the Chateau of Lourmarin. This really makes us miss Pappy not being here this year! They spent hours on this playground in 2012.

Let's PLAY!!!!

Time for lunch at our favorite lunch venue - La Recreation! It was so surreal to be back, almost like we never left. Everything is exactly like we left it, not only at La Recrea, but also in all of Lourmarin. The only difference we noted was the arrival of a new restaurant outside our hotel. It was like stepping back in time.

Our hostess/server at La Recrea seated us and asked London and me if we wanted our 'usual' which would be Steak Hache and a Salad Nicoise (sans anchois) and Bonneiux Rose wine. It's like we never left!

Mmmmm, Salad Nicoise

Wow, I forgot about the affect of rose wine for lunch. We need a nap! After lunch we walked around a little bit and found a macaron/glace boutique. Why not get some macarons for the hotel room??? If only they make it that far!

Mmmm, Macarons

Macaron Dance

Happy to be in Lourmarin

We love the doors around the village

'Frommage'

'Happy Hour' in France

Lourmarin isn't very big so once we walked around town a time or two we decided to drive just outside of town to Chateau Constatin which was for sale last time we were here. In 2012, I pushed Steve to buy it because not only are the grounds and chateau beautiful but we could have our own wine - Chateau Constatin-Ezell!!!! Not that we know anything about making wine, drinking it perhaps, but not making it. Upon arrival it appears that the property sold to an Englishman named William Chase. Now our dream of Chateau Constantin-Ezell is now in fact Chateau Constantin-Chase and he also makes vodka.(???) We had a proper tasting and tour and bought a few bottles of wine for our hotel room.

This year's visit was what you would expect from a vineyard visit - a tasting room, tour of barrels, etc. When we were here in 2012 the property was still in the hands of the original owners and there was no tasting room. You would walk into the front door of the chateau and hope that someone would be there to sell you wine. Fortunately we were honest people as they often left their cash till open and on a desk with no one in sight. Even though we are not the proud owners of a wine estate in Provence, we were happy to see that it has is up and running and as beautiful as it should be.

The main property of the estate. (Could have been our home)

The Tasting Room

The vineyards of the 300+ acre estate

Gorgeous

Seriously who wouldn't want to live here!! The gardens are beautiful.

In the rose barrel room we were intrigued to see that the barrels are actually made of clay from Italy.

The craftsmanship of the barrels was lovely.

A view of Lourmarin from Chateau Constatin. This is the prettiest view in Provence as far as I'm concerned. Love this village.

Once we returned to the hotel from our excursion to Chateau Constatin, the afternoon rose wine had set in and we all took a little nap before dinner. Tonight's reservations are at the one and only L'Antiquaire, better known in our family as 'David's Restaurant.' This is what London has been waiting for since we arrived. We got ready for dinner and enjoyed the walk across town to get there. As much as we loved the house in Puyvert, it is quite nice to walk out of the hotel and get anywhere in Lourmarin in 3 minutes with no parking concerns. David....Here we come!

Dressed and ready for dinner at David's

Even baby Melody is coming along for the adventure.

En route to dinner

As we get closer to the restaurant, someone is getting quite shy.

Anyone see that special smile. London is over the moon to be back here and finally with David!

We are very happy girls to be back at David's restaurant and in our usual table where we spent many evenings in 2012. Again, it is just like nothing has changed. It's such a comfort to be back here. Our home away from home!

It is hard to believe that when we were here 2 years that London actually sat in this high chair that baby doll Melody is in tonight! My how much we have grown.