A quiet evening

Walking around this area at night has been peaceful.  The lack of the tourist crowds has meant we have generally been uninterrupted and we haven't had any issues with parking or having to lineup.  I can't imagine how busy it must be during the peak of the summer months.  Many of the easy strolls and simple drives we made would have been congested nightmares.  Even the visits we made to the various towns in the area would have been complicated by the delays getting in and out.

We were tired from the long day, but we still needed to get some dinner.  We had learnt that Juan le Pins was too quiet, so we made our way over to Antibes again.  The night was quiet, but there were still some restaurants and bistros open.  We sat down inside one restaurant just in time to order dinner.  First, we needed a drink.

I had learnt in my short time here that the reds from Cote d'Azur aren't to be trusted, so instead we went with the safe option and ordered a Cotes du Rhone.  Lovely wines are to be had everywhere and always at affordable prices.  For me in HK, I'm lucky that I can still get access to these unique products, but for poor Todd, the ability to anything but the most commercial brands was often not an option.

Dinner was simple.  Bistro fair.  Given the long day we had had, it was what we wanted.  It almost felt like the food was an accompaniment to the wine rather than the other way around.  We didn't even linger and once we finished eating we started to walk back to the apartment.  The lights were still on though, so the streets had a surreal feeling to them.

The whole area seemed almost a little bit artificial with the complete lack of people.  It was as though it was still being built in preparation for all the people who were meant to be there, but who hadn't quite arrived yet.  It was nice to wander through the area though.  There was a peacefulness to the solitude and something incredibly calming about being able to hear my own footsteps echoing through the streets and alleys.

We walked through the silent streets to get back to the apartment.  There was occasionally someone who cried out to a friend or the sound of steps, but again, it was otherwise empty.  By the time I was back at the apartment, I was exhausted and went straight to bed.

Mushroom!

Maya has always been a special person when it comes to food and decision making.

I remember she once drove from Canberra to Sydney just because she wanted a felafel at a particular restaurant she liked.

We shouldn't have been surprised when she told us she wanted to go to Italy for lunch.

Now this sounds much crazier than it actually is.  The drive to said restaurant in Italy from Biot was only a bit more than an hour, so it was a very reasonable drive.  It's another one of the great benefits of the Cote d'Azur region, the ability to just pop over to Italy for a quick day trip whenever you want.  I was quickly becoming enamoured with this region of the world and every new experience just seemed to add to my love.

The drive over took us over the same roads that we took to Eze and Monaco.  There was no real differences apparent at all as we drove into Italy except for a change in the language of the road signs.  We made our turnoff to head to the restaurant that Maya wanted to try and here we started seeing some real differences coming through.  The roads and streets were definitely not as well maintained and there was noticeably more trash strewn around the side of the roads.  As we drove further inland, the road followed a small river which snaked its way through the valley.  Eventually we got to our destination, which was signposted by a huge statue of a mushroom.

It was all very rustic.  We were taken out front of the old farmhouse style restaurant were we were given small glasses of wine and olives while we waited for our table.  Sitting outside as we waited, we soaked up the fresh air and sunshine whilst looking up in the hills.

Once we were seated inside, we were asked about what we wanted for drinks but nothing else.  This restaurant didn't offer any choice in food, every course was planned and we would eat what we were given.  I had no problem with that approach to dining.

It started out simply enough, with a traditional Piedmont dish called "bagna cauda".  It's a fondue like dip, but made with anchovies and accompanied by fresh vegetables.  I loved it.  The combination of the fresh vegetables and the intense saltiness of the anchovy dip was exactly what my palate enjoyed.  I cleaned up the platter quickly and then waited, feeling relatively satisfied already.

After a short pause, we began to be inundated with food.  We would be given about ten more courses for our lunch.  Most of the dishes had some form of mushroom in it, being the theme of the restaurant, but everything was quite balanced.  We were given cheeses, frittatas, pastas, risottos, meats and other nicely cooked vegetables.  One particular dish that will stay with me for a long time was a cheese and egg torte that was like a cheesy Italian version of a tamagoyaki.  It seemed to skirt the boundary between being a cheese dish and an egg dish, with neither one being quite dominant enough.  It was incredibly tasty.

The food kept coming, but somehow I found a way to keep eating.  Finally, we got to some of the last of the savoury courses which were deep fried artichoke hearts and grilled lamb cutlets.  Both lamb and artichokes are dishes which are found far less frequently in Hong Kong, so I enjoyed these very much.

Desserts were brought, and somehow I managed to eat that as well.  We finished everything off with a few glasses of their home made liquor.  Adam laughed as he immediately handed the keys over to Maya.  There was no argument and discussion from either of them, it was clear that neither he, myself or Todd were in any state to be driving.  She would have to put up with three drunk and laughing children on the drive back to France. 

Monaco again

I didn't really want to go, but we decided that a visit to Monaco was needed.

I remember visiting Monaco and disliking it.  It felt grimy and all of the famous sights weren't worth the journey.  I never thought I would return, but here I was driving in the direction of this overrated tourist trap.

We had to go though.  Todd had never been, and Maya and I both agreed that no trip to this region would be truly complete without a visit to Monaco.

But before we actually went into Monaco itself, Maya had a nice surprise for us.  She directed me up some roads that actually took us into the hills overlooking Monaco.  We parked the car and went for a short walk until we were standing in front of a view that I personally thought was worth more than all of the tacky garbage in the city itself.

On the course of the walk up to the top, there were definitely some VERY high spots that I found myself as captured nicely by Todd.

It was lovely to be able to sit and just stare out into the ocean and the city.  Maya had brought us both up to this vantage spot, but she was terrified enough of heights that she stayed back away from the edge.

Knowing her terror, Todd and I began to do as much as we could to scare the hell out of her.  We tried to coax her to come closer, tried to push her towards the edge and when that didn't work we started jumping around in a way to freak her out on our behalf.  It was all fine though, there was no danger as the edge wasn't actually steep and had a very gradual incline.  It did make for some dramatic looking photos.

Up at the top of the hill, we bumped into a young couple who had made the hike up to the top of the hill all the way from Monaco.  They were taking pictures but they looked exhausted.  They asked if we had space in our car to drive them back down, which we were happy to do.  The look of gratitude and relief on their faces was hilarious.  The drive down the hills was fun as always, and when we entered into Monaco itself, I experienced a slight thrill at driving around on the roads made famous by the Grand Prix.  The location of the parking garage we went to also meant that I got to drive around the "hairpin turn".

So we found ourselves in Monaco.

Full of the wealthy elite of the world who have more money than taste.

The city had improved a little bit since I was last here.  There were some new buildings and some of these developments didn't look too bad.  On the whole, it was still the same old Monaco though.  The place felt tacky and the people looked trashy.  The old buildings were all still in need of an update and they still had that 70s look about them which I hated so much.

There still wasn't all that much to do either.  You'd walk around the harbour and gawk at some ridiculous megayachts, go and look at the terrible little casino, get bored at seeing supercars everywhere.  Monaco has always survived on its glamourous reputation, but when you are actually inside that veneer is gone and you're left with a fairly boring little city.

There were a whole bunch of discarded office chairs behind the casino.  So we decided to chill out for a bit before we left.  This was probably the highlight of my time in this overrated city.   Monaco still has this strange reputation for glitz and glamour, it will probably last but I will never quite understand it.  It's a tax haven on the Mediterranean that offers good proximity to better and more interesting places, that's where it's true value lies. 

Eze

A few weeks before we arrived, Maya had taken the kids up to the small town of Eze for the day.  She insisted we visit again.

We had nothing better to do, so why not?

The drive out to Eze from Biot was a scenic journey that took us on a highway that overlooked all of Nice.  Part of the highway was raised significantly over the rest of the city and went straight through the middle of the city.  The views were stunning and the city of Nice really is incredible.  It's one of the cities blessed with lovely old architecture as well as the natural beauty of the ocean.  After we drove past Nice, we hit the mountainous roads which I love driving on.  We started climbing quickly and the road began to hug the coast.  Some of the drives we had done on this trip were some of the best I have ever done.  If anyone loves driving and scenery, I think they would be hard pressed to find a better spot than on the Cote d'Azur.

As we got closer to Eze, we could see it in the distance.

It was another lovely little French town on the top of a hill.  This time it was on a hill overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.  We were bound to get some pretty incredible views.  We stopped by the side of the road so that we could get out and admire the view.  

The old town of Eze is incredibly small.  Probably even smaller than Gourdon was.  However, unlike the town of Gourdon which is mostly all on the same level, the town of Eze feels almost like a medieval apartment building.  The houses and shops are built up on top of each other and the town continues up several levels.  You need to have good leg strength to climb all the stairs when you visit Eze.

At the very top of Eze is the "Jardin Exotique d'Eze" or the "Exotic Garden of Eze".  Apparently after the Second World War, a couple of the residents decided to create the garden in the ruins of the old castle.  The garden is full of succulents and has a very strong "Mediterranean" styling which isn't surprising. They did a good job and the garden at the top of Eze is now the best place to view the city and the incredible view of the surrounding areas.  There were visitors from all over the world walking around the garden taking pictures and the instagram girls were out in force on that bright and sunny day.

From the top of Eze, you could see all the way across to Saint Jean Cap Ferrat and even parts of Nice itself.  Off in the far distance towards the horizon, you could just make out Nice airport and some planes taking off and landing.

We stood around and soaked in the fresh air and the sweeping views.  Maya was sitting "downstairs" (I'm not sure if that's the correct description, but she was several levels below us) at a cafe waiting for us.  Since she had been up to the garden only a few weeks before, she couldn't be bothered to do the climb again.  As Todd and I walked around chatting about nothing and making random quips at each other, a girl who was probably in her late teens or early 20s asked us if we wanted her to help us take a picture of us.  It was better than trying to take a selfie, so we agreed and thanked her, noticing she seemed a bit weary.  She started chatting to us and as she got ready to take the picture, her parents appeared and started instructing her on how to take the shot.

Todd and I both laughed a little and talked about it later.  The poor girl seemed to be German and was clearly being dragged on a French holiday with her parents.  We guessed that she was probably desperate for any interaction with people who weren't her parents.  We both thought back to when our parents used to drag us out on holidays and the torture that it was to have to slowly follow them around.  At least Todd and I both had younger brothers who could keep us company... 

Aix-en-Provence

I'm not really quite sure what it is about Cote d'Azur which makes it feel a little bit less classy than it should.  Don't get me wrong, it is an incredible part of the world and I am very fortunate to be able to spend some time visiting.  I  really do love the place, it's just strange that it seems to have this odd vibe to it.  It might be the seaside nature of the place or the type of people it seems to draw, but it does have a bit of a griminess at times and something about the buildings feels very... 70s.

The next place I went to was the exact opposite of this.  I hopped in my car and I drove into the heart of Provence.  I was headed to Aix-en-Provence.  The drive wasn't too long, and only took two hours.  In that short amount of time I could see the landscape around me changing from the sparseness of Cote d'Azur to the greener countryside of Provence.  Once I reached Aix-en-Provence, there was only a little bit more of a trip before I was able to find the main parking garage in the very centre of town.

This place was stunning in every regard.

The buildings were beautiful.  The streets were elegant.  The people were attractive.  Everything about Aix-en-Provence (or simply "Aix") seemed to be well packaged and polished.  I was quite surprised that there was even a big change in how everyone was dressed, and I was impressed by how all the girls were fashionably dressed.  In Aix, the girls were definitely adopting a truly French sense of dress, with a very refined and chic style of fashion.  The image in my mind's eye of how French people should look was how the girls in this city dressed!

I wasn't just here to look around though.  I was here for a very specific reason.  My old housemates, Manon and Gabby were back living in France and were by chance, both now based in Montpellier.

A drive from Cote d'Azur to Montpellier was a bit too far for me to do as a simple day trip (it was about 4 hours drive), so we decided instead to meet in the middle in Aix.  I had a bit of time before they arrived, so I wandered around the town for a bit.

The historic old town of Aix isn't too big, so it's an easy place to explore walking.  The churches were beautiful and the houses were large and clearly built during a time of great wealth.  That was probably my main take away from wandering around Aix, the whole place just exuded a feeling of wealth, money and privilege.  Every building was designed and built with the highest of standards and the gardens were all meticulously maintained.  There wasn't anything in particular which seemed to stand out as a tourist attraction though.  That was fine for me, much like many other parts of France, it was clearly more the ambiance and atmosphere which a visitor should embrace in this town.

After walking around for a few hours, Manon arrived!  I hadn't seen her for a few years, so the happiness we both felt seeing each other was incredible.  She and Gabby used to live with me and they were like my little sisters.  After I left Australia, one of the toughest things I went through was moving from an apartment where I used to see them both almost every day to living by myself.  There was a sense of community and family I had living with the both of them that I missed dearly.  Gabby hadn't arrived yet, so Manon and I wandered around Aix a bit more.  We went and bought and ate some calissons (which Manon first introduced me to and which I still love to this day) and then found ourselves a nice cafe to sit and chat.

We ended up at a cafe called "Le Grillon" on the main street.  It was a classic French cafe, with the old wooden chairs and tables and ornate decorations all along its front.  We watched the world pass by as we ate crepes and I drank my first Kir.  

Time past, but we didn't feel like moving.  There wasn't much to do other than enjoy the surroundings and one another's company.  We stayed in our seat and just kept chatting way.  The waiters came and brought us more drinks and offered us small snacks of bread with fish and olives.  Manon saw a plate of popcorn, which seemed to be far less French, and grabbed that to munch on whilst she drank her beer.

After sitting for a little longer, Gabby arrived.  Seeing both of them again made me immensely happy.  They both screamed with laughter being together and I really felt like I had my two kid sisters back with me.  The last time I had seen the two of them had been back in our apartment in Coogee and now we were all wandering through the streets of Aix.  It was a strange flip as well.  Back in Australia, I was the local and whenever there was a need for any additional language expertise or knowledge of the area, they would both come to me.  It was strange that I was now relying on them to guide me.  We went to a restaurant that had been recommended to Manon to get some dinner.  There, I was once again surprised by these two French girls.  Both of them are incredibly slim, but when it came to the ordering they didn't hold back.  The each ordered a pot of foie gras as an entree and then they each ordered a grilled sirloin topped with a slab of seared foie gras.  Maybe there is some truth to the old rumour that French girls don't get fat....

We walked back to our cars after dinner through the now dark streets of Aix.  The city was still beautiful and the people were still well dressed.  It was strange to say goodbye to them.  When you get accustomed to having someone around, goodbye is normally just a polite comment, a passing statement until you see them next.  When you say goodbye to someone knowing that it'll be long time before you catch up again, the words become so much more charged and tinged with sadness.  Hopefully it wouldn't be too long till the next meeting.

Valbonne

Even going for a quick and casual lunch in this part of the world seems to take you to breathtaking locations.  You easily find yourself sitting in spots that would be lauded in your hometown as being some "world class" location which was "famous" around the world.  Yet here, it's just another spot amongst many, lost in a crowd of beauty.

After catching up in Biot, Maya and Adam decided it would be nice for all of us to go to Valbonne for lunch.

It was very pretty.  Sitting in the town square having just a casual lunch felt like something out of the set of a movie.  We ordered our food and drinks, lounged in our chairs, enjoyed the sunshine and just enjoyed the atmosphere of a place that seemed to have the ideal balance of business and quiet.

The area felt quite "English" compared to other places we had been and so we weren't surprised when Maya explained that Valbonne had experienced a lot of English migration over the last few years.  Apparently these English expats had decided that life in this village in the south of France was nicer than living in their rainy suburbs in the UK.

Valbonne did feel a little bit too perfect though.  It's a stretch of a complaint, as it was a beautiful place to wander, but everything seemed to be near flawless.  The streets in Valbonne were kept impeccably clean.  The buildings were well manicured.  Everything seemed to have a place and everything was in its place.  Even the town's layout was set out on a near perfect rectangular grid.

It made everything easy though.

Walking around was easy.  Finding things were easy.  Getting to  and from lunch was easy.

Given all of that, my complaint is probably better described as an "observation" rather than an actual complaint.

Biot

Maya lived close to the town of Biot with Adam and their kids.

It is a picturesque town sitting on a hill in the south of France.

It is so stereotypically French, you feel like you've been hit on the head with a baguette by a wine drinking mime.  The mime would of course be wearing a beret and holding a wheel of cheese as well.

Todd and I drove over to see her early in the morning, finding parking at the bottom of the hill (again....) and climbing to the top to see her.  We sat in the middle of the town square, eating bread, drinking coffee, eating cakes, talking, eating the local socca (a local chickpea flatbread).  It was a relaxed way to soak up the essence and atmosphere of this tiny French town.  For outsiders like Todd and myself, this lifestyle was incredibly attractive and an absolute world away from the usual hustle and bustle of our respective homes.

Walking around the narrow streets, it was strange to think of the three of us all together in this place.  It was lovely to be able to visit her with Todd, it had probably been over ten years that we had all been together in one place.  Each of us had gone in different directions in life and had found ourselves in very different locations and circumstances.  Todd was now in Jakarta.  I was in Hong Kong and Maya was in the south of France.  Three dramatically contrasting locations.

I enjoyed walking through the town.  The quiet of the place was lovely, more so for me given the usual constant noise I live with in Hong Kong.  I don't think there would have been even the briefest of moments that the three of us would have considered it possible all those years ago, that the next time we would be able to all catch up together would be so far away from where we started.

Very weird place

After eating lunch at Gourdon, we decided to move on.  We still had quite a bit of time, so we went back to the map.  The town of St Paul de Vence was kind of on the way back to Biot.  Why not we thought.

The drive down the mountain from Gourdon was fun.  I probably drove too quickly, but twisting down the narrow roads is just so enjoyable.  I'm not sure if Todd agreed with me on that.  We got down into the valley that we had been looking down at from Gourdon and found ourselves in front of the town of St Paul de Vence.

It's a weird place.

At first, walking into the town we thought we were just entering into another one of the quaint French towns in the region.

Turns out that this town was a bit different.  St Paul de Vence was a popular haven for artists from around the world and was also full of celebrities who wanted to be around other "artistic" people.  We did our usual thing of walking around and trying to find the best things to see in this small town.  There wasn't really all that much to see.  There were some viewpoints to see some of the surrounding region, but nothing as nice as from Gourdon.  The town itself was quite small and there wasn't too much special to go and see.  As we were walking and talking, one of the artists who was sitting and painting by the side of her gallery looked up and exclaimed "that's an interesting accent" in a very distinctive Australian twang.  This artist was herself an Australian from Sydney.  She had been living in St Paul de Vence and painted glow in the dark paintings using a variety of luminescent paints that really didn't seem that safe to be handling.  We chatted with her for a bit and she explained to us a bit more about the town and some of the grim realities faced by the residents.  It was still a "real" town with residents, but it wasn't really a working town anymore.  There was no butcher, boulangerie or market within the town anymore, high rents had forced all these shops out.  This meant that the older folk living there were now reliant on being taken out for shopping trips.  She pointed out an old man who was walking his cat on the edge of the town's walls.  Apparently this happened every day, he would wake up, get drunk and then take his cat for a walk.  There's something very odd about seeing someone taking a cat for a walk and the cat in question seemingly agreeing to this arrangement.  No leash, no rope or any other form of connection... just an old man walking with his cat slowly following.  She also said the walls of the buildings were full of arsenic due to earlier construction using poor quality materials.  Apparently this arsenic was poisoning the residents (though she didn't explain why it was then that she decided that it was still safe for her to stay there).  It was a grim overview of the town she was giving us...

Then things started to get weird....

She started to tell us about her art, and how there were cosmic forces and dreams that inspired her and gave her visions (her pictures were nice, but the Australian Aboriginal influences were undeniable, a fact she refused to acknowledge).  She began to mix in scientific words into very unscientific topics as she described her artistic process and why it was that her work was so powerful.  She mentioned eddy currents and magnetic forces which was an immediate and gigantic flashing red light for me.  She told us about her rejection of money and finances, whilst then telling us in detail about her sales to Qatari royals.  There was a constant contradiction to her which I found incredibly interesting, yet startling at the same time.  She finished everything off with an attempt to cold read the both of us, having decided that she wanted to read our palms.... of course.  She then proceeded to give us her in-depth cosmic assessments of our characters.  It probably would have been a far more intriguing and amazing insight had we not been talking to each other for close to an hour... it's not really all that insightful a "reading" when you've already been quizzing someone for that amount of time.  Still, it made me think about how often something like this would work on other people and how she genuinely seemed to believe all of this.

It was getting late.  We said our goodbyes to the Australian artist, who for all of her peculiarities was very nice, and went back to the car.  It was a very strange town.

High up in the South of France

Sadly for all of us, Phil couldn't stay with us any longer.  He had to head back to the UK, so he hopped on a train at Grasse and headed to the airport at Nice.  We wanted to drive him there, but with there was a visit from Macron and Xi Jinping in the region which meant that the traffic in the area was very uncertain.  Going by train seemed to be the more secure approach, so we said our goodbyes at Grasse.

Todd and I had all day free until we were to catch up with Maya and Adam later in the evening.  With all that time, we decided to keep driving north.  Looking at the map, we noticed the town of Gourdon.  It seemed to be in the perfect spot for us to visit before looping back around to Biot.

The drive up to the town was itself worth the trip.  The road was long and windy, and the elevation increased quickly to take us up the mountain.  In the distance, we could see the town on the other side of a small ravine.  We stopped the car by the side of the road to take in the view of this small town perched on the top the mountain.  It looked like something out of a story.

Once we arrived at the Gourdon itself, the views were just as impressive.  We were able to see all the way down into the valley (and Maya later explained to us that you could even see Biot from up there).

This was as good a place as any for lunch.

We sat down at a restaurant with the best view and ordered some French classics.  I went with the coq au vin, which of course tasted even better than the normal because of the location.  Todd sat into his chair looking happy with his chicken stewed with mushrooms.  As I ate, I looked at him with a bit of jealousy as he was able to wash down his food with a cold beer.  I wanted a glass of rose to go with my food, but I had to be responsible since I was driving.  Iced tea for me instead.

After lunch we kept walking for a little bit.  The town of Gourdon is very small, so you can walk most of it within half an hour.

We took in the views for a bit longer, found our favourite spot near a big tree, then decided it was time to start heading down the mountain.

This whole region is so much nicer when you have a car to take you everywhere.

Lovely smells

The last few days had been exceptionally fun.  Being able to spend so much time with Phil, Todd and Maya was itself worth the cost of the trip.

Maya and Adam had some errands they needed to run, so Todd, Phil and myself decided to go for a bit of a drive.  Looking at the map of the region, we noticed the town of Grasse on the upper edge of this Cote d'Azur region.  Why not we thought?

The drive turned out to be far more fun/dangerous than I thought.  The roads were narrow, windy and poorly sign posted.  I had become accustomed to driving on European roads as a result of my last trip to Italy and I was now very aware of the fact that if I was to have ever become a race car driver, I would have wanted to have been a rally car driver.  I had a great time twisting and turning up the mountainous roads (at a decently fast speed), but I'm not so sure Todd and Phil had as much fun.  Still, we made it safely to the town of Grasse, found a parking spot (in what later turned out to be a terrible spot to park) and went out to start exploring.

Grasse is a bit higher up, so it is another one of the beautiful French towns sitting on a hill.  The slow slope gives a lovely view of rooftops which slowly descend into the valley below.

Once we were further inside the old town itself, we found an old town that felt like it needed a bit of care.  There were plenty of towns like this around the world that have been dressed up for the purposes of tourism, but Grasse felt like it needed a bit of work to be done still.  The buildings needed repair, paint was chipped and there was a bit of grime everywhere.  It wasn't a terrible thing to see, as it was more of a unique experience.  It felt as though this looked closer to the original than the more manufactured towns you would see closer to the coast.

We walked up the hill towards the centre of town.

As we walked up, we saw lots of free parking spots which were much closer to where we wanted to go.  We briefly went through the mental struggle of whether to turn back and get the car before we realised we had gone too far.... after all the cheese, we probably needed the exercise anyway.

We reached the top and the main part of the town.

Grasse by itself probably isn't that amazing.  There are prettier towns with nicer scenery.  What Grasse has is a history which makes it very special.  It was the centre of France's perfume industry and it still holds itself to be the world's perfume capital.  None of us are all that interested in perfume, but this seemed like something unique to look at.  We went to the Fragonard perfumery and signed up for the free tour.

I don't think I had ever read or learnt anything about perfumes prior to this visit.

It was a relatively enlightening experience, seeing how the different products were made.  These perfumes were all made with natural products, so a considerable amount of effort and resources went into the extraction process for each of the base scents.  Seeing the work put into slowly drawing the smell out of a flower or some other herbs made me realise and understand where the value was in these products in comparison to the mass produced products made from chemical compounds.

As part of the tour, they let us take part in various "tests" of our noses to see how well we could identify the different base smells which were used to create all the perfumes that were made.  There were a couple of girls on the tour with us who seemed confident in their abilities.  Our first set of tests was to try and identify the various underlying smells in different perfumes.  With prodding and a bit of help, we were able to start picking out how various fragrances were constructed.

The tour then moved on and we were taken to look at different vats and machines used in the process of fragrance creation.  We reached the end of the tour and we were  given our final test.  We were given ten different smells and we were asked to match them up with the correct name tags.  We all started the test and I was quickly shocked by how difficult it was to link a smell with a name.  It was an odd feeling.  I "knew" the smell.  I could clearly differentiate the smell from the different smells.  But when it came to the point of trying to identify "what" that smell actually was, that was a significantly more difficult task.  The first five or so we thought we had quickly, but the last few... those were tough.  We put in our selections and waited for our tour guide to give us our grades.  Phil, Todd and I all scored the same.  The girls on the other hand were much lower.  The look on their faces told the story of their shock.  These three random guys all had better noses than them!

One incredibly surprising thing for all of us was the complete lack of any allergic reaction.  All of us to an extent have suffered from hay ever or some random allergies over the years towards things like scents and fragrances (or so we thought).  We all went into the perfumery with a slight sense of concern about whether we would be reduced to red eyed, sniffling creatures trying to hold back our sneezing.  Instead.... nothing.  No reaction at all.  Todd had been struggling a touch with some hay fever since he arrived in France, and he found himself feeling better inside the perfumery than outside.  It made me wonder how much of our allergies are triggered by other less natural irritants as opposed to the natural world around us.  Everything in this perfumery was naturally made and of the highest quality, and yet we were all fine.  On the other hand, maybe we just had incredibly refined noses which reacted positively to the quality of the products....