One of the really neat things when travelling out of the summer season is seeing things in nature that you hadn't seen before. When we arrived in January the Mimosa (or Acacia) trees were in full bloom and were just fabulous. The downside is that these trees are so prolific in the area they cause eye infections for a lot of people. And when you add all the burning of slash related to farming and the fact that the French are still smoking like fiends....it's a triple whammy. The Mimosa branch is in one of the many pastis water bottles we collected at flea markets when we were there. We had a lot of fun finding these and pastis is so typical of the area. It also never seems to taste any good outside of the south of France. The flea markets were also great for book browsing and people watching.