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Holiday in South of France -  Loberon Valley near Avignon - September 08                                     

Ingredients for a great holiday:   Take some good weather Find a super place to stay Add a view, lots of exciting things to see, and a touch of good wine Take ALL your family, (including your dog) Mix  together, bake for 3 weeks, and there you have it A GREAT HOLIDAY

September 2008, we spent nearly three weeks in the South of France.  We had chosen where to stay with great care mainly because we wanted it to be a success for Bianca too. We had rented two different houses, each for a week’s duration, on either side of the Luberon Valley near Avignon.

The journey to France and back was l o n g. This is our first long journey with Bianca; 1800 kms - at least 18 hrs driving time each way. Both on the outward and return journeys Bianca was such an easy passenger. We stopped at regular intervals – usually to tank up, and I always went for a walk with her so she could go to the loo, and I think she must have sniffed every blade of grass at every tank station we stopped at, but she was always happy to get back into the car and continue the journey. Mainly she was in her transport box, but sometimes we allowed her to come and sit with me in her safety belt.  

One of the highlights of the first week was when we went to the TGV train station in Avignon to collect our son Mark – Bianca went absolutely bananas when she saw him – much to the delight of loads of other travellers. A show stopper to watch.  

After 10 days, and after having said goodbye to Mark again, we changed location and moved to a small town house in a very old village on the other side of the valley. This was a completely different environment, no enormous garden but a very large terrace and steps leading up to a smaller garden.  The exciting thing here for Bianca was to watch all the activities going on around her from the terrace. She had a good view of what was going on in the village, the car park was just opposite, and people were coming and going all the time, not to mention loads of passing dogs. Just a short walk from this house was a large lake, and we took Bianca there every day so she could swim, chase the ducks and have loads of fun.

 During our 3 weeks holiday Bianca has been to restaurants and/or cafe’s every day, been petted by loads of different people, been told hundreds of times how beautiful she is (as though she didn’t already know) been to markets, walked on very busy roads where there were no pavements, been in the mountains, and experienced tons of different things.  We did loads of sightseeing, went to churches, small villages, markets, tasted wine (sometimes she was lucky enough to play with the owners dog while we tasted his wine!). She was never a problem, was her normal happy self.  We made sure she got lots of treats and play-time, but she was an absolute joy to have with us, and unless we decide to go somewhere really far away like Africa or Asia again for a holiday ,I would never hesitate to take her with us again. Whilst we were on holiday we made sure that we never left Bianca alone, the down side was that only one of us could shop in the supermarkets (everywhere else she could come with us), and guess who did all the shopping and who went for a walk with the dog. 

  Thanks Bianca for making our holiday such a success - I'm really proud of you - thus said, not all of this comes naturally, and I've spent a lot of time and effort training Bianca, and BOY it's so worth the effort - although maybe "effort" isn't the right word, because it's been fun for BOTH OF US.

So- where are we going next time - well watch this space -!!!!