Thursday 10 July 2014

Mas Vacquières

This is a very special place.


It is not expensive or exclusive
but it has a magical quality
that seeps into your dreams.


You drive through a countryside
of vines, ripe wheat and sunflowers
and arrive in a tiny hamlet.


At the far end of the hamlet
is a cluster of buildings
with yellow shutters
looking out over a sheltered valley.


As soon as you arrive
you are enveloped in quiet.
The rooms are cool and tranquil
each with a tiny terrace.


In the beautiful gardens
there are places to sit and dream
or fall asleep in the shade.
You can swim. Or just admire the flowers.


This wonderful place is the creation of
a Dutch couple, Thomas and Miriam van Dijke,
and their hospitality is courteous,
with their guests comfort as top priority.


There are historic towns to visit nearby
and lots of places to eat delicious food
but you are always making plans
to return to Mas Vacquières
and make the most of every moment there.


On the first night I saw a doe
step out of the woodland
and look up to the terrace
where I was sitting.


As I said, it is a very special place.

Mas Vacquières

13 comments:

  1. AnonymousJuly 10, 2014

    Alice, I think your blog may be carrying a virus; I get a curious range of tunes playing when I start looking at it. The music always include 'this is what you want this is what you get' which doesn't seem your sort of music!

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    1. Hello Anonymous - thanks for your message. This is an issue with MySpace Video Pop-ups linked to sitemeter.com which is a statistics log used on many blogs. I have used sitemeter since I started blogging and found it very helpful but this is a recent problem and seems to be affecting more readers so I plan to follow Annie's example at knitsofacto and remove sitemeter. It is unlikely that this blog caused the problem unless you clicked on the sitemeter logo at the bottom of the page but when you visit any blog with sitemeter installed you will hear the music unless you are reading using an RSS feed such as Feedly or Bloglovin. You can read more about the problem on various user forums. Thanks again for bringing it to my attention.

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    2. Hello Alice, yes it stopped for a while actually but has returned with an even longer playlist!

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  2. Anonymous - I have had that too visiting other blogs.

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  3. Alice - this looks divine.

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  4. It looks wonderful (I'm not getting any music when viewing through Bloglovin)

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  5. AnonymousJuly 10, 2014

    What a beautiful place to be.

    I don't have the music.

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  6. I might visit France one day, after all.

    No music here.

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  7. My goodness. I never thought I would go to France, but now I shall have to. I need to see this place for myself. It looks idyllic.

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  8. AnonymousJuly 10, 2014

    Thanks Alice - I'm a regular follower of your blog and it's good to know the reason for the music and know I can enjoy your words and pictures without it now.
    And yes, I'm loving the French pictures too...

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  9. Oh, I so would love to be there... It looks just the place to recharge batteries. Please keep sharing!

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  10. AnonymousJuly 13, 2014

    This post has given me a "tragic case of the wanties" and filled me with a sort of nostalgia and homesickness for a place I've never been to. Liz

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  11. That looks dreamily perfect

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Thank you! I love reading your comments and even though I don't always have time to reply I am really grateful to every one who joins in the conversation.