The long and winding road to Sisteron

I saw such pretty photos of the city of Sisteron so I added it to the list of places we needed to go.  Turquoise blue waters of the river where people were swimming, with the Citadel towering over them in the background.  Looks awesome, let's go,.  I thought we would head straight there, on the highway, and get there in a couple of hours, maybe.

The most direct route took us on a very long, windy road that seemed to go on and on... it was very scenic, don't get me wrong... but as I stared and stared at the endless "magenta" zig-zaggy worm of the GPS map, I kept thinking "Oh my word, will it ever end?  Over 3 hours?? What??  Are you sure, Kate-the-GPS-girl??"  I think I might barf, are we there yet?

Seriously, I felt sick to my stomach by the time we finally arrived in Sisteron.  Part of the reason for coming here, was the promise of swimming for the kids.  After all, it was 36 degrees and we owed it to the kids.  Give them something... dangle a carrot for them.

We got to the "lake" and wouldn't know it?  They had drained it, just for today, to clean it, so it was refilled in one area, with water levels that didn't even reach Ruby's knees.  And really, the word lake should be replaced with "concrete bird bath".   Awe-some.  The kids splashed around a bit, got their feet wet.  They are such troopers... it was a big disappointment but they got over it, eventually.  Oh well... it's the Talstra luck, as Cameron says.

And at the risk of sounding grumpy and negative (nah, not me!), we asked at the tourist office where we could swim in the river and she said "Non, not in the river.  Just manmade lakes."  Um okay then, didn't she see the turquoise water photos, and kids swimming, that are on the official Sisteron website?  I cry false advertising, lady!!

We sat under a tree, looking at said lake for awhile, and ate our picnic... baguette, cheese, sausage and some other treats from a Boulangerie that we stopped at along the way.  None of us really wanted to venture into the heat to visit the famous Citadel that towers over the city.  That meant climbing.  In the heat.

But we drove a crazy road to get here, so we rallied on and started climbing up to the Citadel.  There were several other sweaty tourists doing the same thing, and I felt a bit of a kinship with each one of them, as we panted our way up and around the grounds of the Citadel.  It really was pretty interesting.  The information in English was pretty sparse but the sites itself were impressive enough on their own.

As we headed down the hill towards the town, we came across a public water fountain.  They are everywhere, in almost every town regardless of its size.  But most of them aren't drinkable.  We usually just stop to refresh ourselves... splash water on our faces, arms, legs to cool off.  But this one said .. "Eau Potable" Woo Hoo!!  We laughed and talked about how we will never take ice cubes and water for granted again, as we filled, guzzled, and refilled our water bottles with clean, cold water.  And then the kids dunked their heads in the water basin.

In the old town we looked a few shops, where I found... gasp!!... a store that sold fabric in the back!!  Oh my goodness, it was the first place I have seen fabric.  No one sews in France, I guess.  Anyway, I was super excited and bought a few pieces that I will try to use to make a table runner.  I tried to find fabrics that were Provencal feeling. 

Less exciting but more straight road back home.  We stopped in St. Nazaire to check out the takeout menu of the best pizza place in the world (according to the locals, and really the only one in the immediate area... ha).  It was Cameron's request to have a pizza picnic tomorrow for his birthday, so we were scoping it out.  And wouldn't you know it... in big letters on the menu "Ferme le Mercredi."  Tomorrow is Wednesday.  Cameron was like "Are you seriously kidding me right now?  Oh well, it's the Talstra luck."

Late dinner of burgers and frites.  And a lot of wine for me. :-)