Saturday July 18 Took off early this morning for Apt. Met up with the whole family for lunch at Cafe Gregoire. The market filled the tiny twisty streets of the old town with booths in the squares and on each side of each little street. Clothing, food, arts and crafts, music. A fun time once we walked the mile there from our parking spot. These long lunches lead to afternoon naps and then long dinners. After naps and feeding the kids pasta at home, we drove to Roussillion for dinner. We ate on a rooftop terrace where the kids were penned in and couldn't do much damage. Then hiked up the tiny streets to the top of the castle. A lovely town whih is still well lived in, the castle walls having homes in them and people eating or toasting each other in their gardens. The view east out over Provence from the castle walls was unbelievably perfect. The heat haze lifted in time for a great view. We all drove home the 9-10 km distance over tiny pastoral roads that probably doubled the distance...one car wide, sliver of a moon rising, stars and the milky way guiding us. I will add pictures later when I have a better connection. The heat has been 95-100 daily since Jake's race and we are all wet rags that need to be wrung out each evening. Thank goodness for the pool, we spend a few hours a day in it with the 5 gkids and would be miserable without it. The old stone farmhouse we are living in (vrbo.com 555249) is great, but no air conditioning. We open it up at night to cool it off and then shut it down tight to keep it cool all day. By 7 pm, we are desperate for the cool evening to arrive! Mason has kept busy drawing pictures of bicycles and keeping track of the tour de France Results, Gracie dances everywhere with her dolls, Cooper builds lego sets in his "down" time and Kale joins in on it all. Paige is a terror as she is active as can be and can't be trusted around the pool. Fun time for all.