Mouries Provence

Golf Club de Servanes, in the heart of Provence. Surrounded by mountains, olive trees and vineyards.  Sounds perfect and it was.  Built in 1989, the course is part of a group that has hotel and golf course operations throughout Europe.  We are greeted with proper French politeness...... a closed security gate.   I mean that as a compliment.   Golf is a sport for the rich in Europe.  The gate, while designed for security, is also a status symbol.  Our course is private, exclusive and only to be entered by those who are worthy.   The first thing you must know about golf in France is you must follow the rules.  The R&A rules of golf, right down to proof of proficiency aka.... a handicap.  A letter from your home pro verifying your character,  a passport, credit reference, university diploma, driver;s licence and at least three years of tax returns. We don't have any of these things.  We do however, have a seasoned Tour Leader with an Exotic Tours business card.  Check-in went off without a hitch.  The clubhouse and hotel is below.  Provence themed to be sure.

The course starts off gently with a very short par 4.  Distinctly uphill, the second is a medium length par 3, also up hill.  The third is a medium length par 4 also up hill.  I tell you this because after the 3rd hole the course is relatively flat until the 16th hole.  How smart to put the majority of the hard exercise early in the round so you don't run out of energy for the end of the round.  The course was a good layout.  A nice mix of trees, water and sand.  The conditioning is typical European, not as manicured as we are used to in North America, but certainly at an acceptable level.  Johanne played her usual 104, she could have broken the magical 100 if she didn't become results oriented over the last few hole.  She added up her score and knowing what she needed to score for the remaining holes became the kiss of death.  Just play and add it up at the end.  You will be surprised how well you will do.  I posted 77 with a Bogey, double finish.  Maybe I need to take my own advice.

After golf we had planned to drive a short distance to the Camargue.  The Chateaux d'Avignon is having a concert and acrobatic show.  Sitting in the shadow of the castle and being entertained sounds like a perfect way to finish off the day.

The Camargue is a delta.  Surrounded by the Grand Rhone and the Petit Rhone rivers and the Mediterranean.  Famous for it's feral white horses, it is also a tremendous habitat for birds.   The production of sea salt has always been a large part of its history, dating back to pre-historic man right through to today.  The Camargue is also home to the raising of fighting bulls for export to Spain.  The area is constantly changing due to the amount of mud dragged in from the Rhone river.  The land continues to move out into the Mediterranean as mud deposits get pushed into the marshland.  The best example of how it has moved is the the town of Aigues Mortes, originally build as a port town, it is now found 5 kms inland from the sea.  Over the years, man has built dykes and overflow systems to slow the movement down.  However flooding still remains a problem.  All this wetland has one very difficult result...some of the most ferocious mosquitoes in the world.  They might even give Manitoba a run for their money.  Thankfully, today no pests are around.

 We went for a nice tour of the Chateaux before the show.  The owner of this Chateaux was way ahead of the curve in terms of running water, electricity and overall hygiene for his staff.  The home had many of these capabilities a full 30 years before the rest of the Camargue started to have access.  Electricity was one of those luxuries found on the estate.  Today we have a little acrobatic show in the park just off the West side of the estate.

 These two characters were the comic relief for the talent.  They had a trained chicken that they used during the performance.  It would play dead.  Very funny.  Everything was going well until the chicken stopped performing and tried to run away.  At that moment, a very energetic little Yorkshire terrier took off after the chicken.  It was something to behold, the chick bobbing and weaving between the seated audience with the dog in hot pursuit.  The chicken seemed to have the upper hand, running toward the open field, the dog turned on the afterburners, it wasn't pretty.  The chicken owner chasing the chicken, the dog owner chasing the dog.  Everyone caught their target, sadly the dog got his first.  Thankfully, the chicken went back to acting, playing dead...the dog lost interest.  The performance was over at that point.  I don't think the chicken was coming out for the second act.

Cirque du Soleil style spinning.

 The dog chase over, everyone took their chair to the back of the chateaux for the entertainment.  A duet that performed folks songs from the Camargue.  Kind of sounded like French country music.  They were very talented. it was quite something to be sitting on the doorstep of an 18th century castle listening to great music on a beautiful summer day.

   Hard to beat!

Tomorrow, we have a little reunion with our hosts Michel and Cathy and their 2 lovely daughters (all returning from our house in Palm Springs ) along with their neighbours Frederic and Florence, who we got to know during our stay. We prepared an impromtu dinner before our departure for Bordeaux the next day.  It has been an amazing experience.  We love Provence!

Be Well

Sante