Provence – the final week

Days 32 to 35

Day 32, Provence day 10, Tuesday 11 September

After the efforts of conquering Mont Ventou today was a rest day. That meant sleeping in and a long petit déjeuner to start the day. We headed off to Rousillon as we had not had an opportunity to go there earlier.
There is a lot of bauxite in the soils around Rousillon and it gives the area a distinctive red hue to everything they build. We cruised into town mid afternoon to find it pretty relaxed and a wedding going on at the the local Chateau de Ville. While it is another hillside town it has a very distinctive personality from the other hill-top tourist towns. We had a very relaxed time there buying ice-creams and coffees and watching the locals celebrate the wedding.

Rousillon is the red coloured town of Provence due to the bauxite in the soil of the area.

The villages still rely on the ringing of the church bell (but no moon dial here).

using the local soils adds a a red tint to all things, other than the modern no-parking sign.

The houses in the town have a real character.

Day 33, Provence day 11, Avignon and Pont de Gard

While the rest of the group headed off to subjugate the Verdon Gorge we took the easier option and drove into Avignon to visit the Palais-des-Papes and the Pont Avignon and follow that up with a visit to the Roman Pont-du-Gard just West of Avignon.

Palais-des-Papes and the Pont Avignon

Basically the Popes of the Roman Catholic church moved to Avignon in the 14th century to avoid the conflicts going on in Italy. The French enjoyed having them there and over a period of 100 years the Roman Catholic Church was ruled from Avignon by nine Popes. While the building created by the Popes are still there, very little of the artefacts or history of the period remain. Visiting the Palais-des-Papes provides a tour of a lot of empty buildings and brief descriptions of a golden time of French history. Unfortunately most of the substance of the Palais was removed when the Popes moved back to Rome.

It is an interesting place to visit but lacks the atmosphere and content to connect it to the period when the Popes ruled the religious world from Avignon.

The palace and cathedral sit together in the centre of Avignon

The main facade and entrance to the Palais-des-Papes

The main courtyard was being prepared for a music festival. The building on the left was the Pope's tower where his living rooms were.

Pont Avignon

Cath on Pont Avignon

Pont Avignon looking back to the Palais-de-Papes

Pont-du-Gard

Pont-du-Gard is an amazing Roman built aquaduct completed in 55 AD. It spans a 500 metre course over a river using three levels of arches. Over two thousand years years after it was completed it still provides a solid link back to the period when the Romans managed this part of France. The stone to build the Pont was sourced locally and cut so that each of the massive stone blocks fitted together without the need for any concrete to assist the joins.

A foot bridge runs beside the Pont to provide pedestrian access to both banks of the river.

The Pont is 274 metres long in spanning the river valley.

The cutting of the massive stones to fit flush with each other is amazing.

The Pont is 49 metres above the river with the water flowing across at an angle of just 1 in 3000.

The scale of the aquaduct is just amazing and it was just one aquaduct on a 50km canal to deliver water to Nimes.

As the others were staying at the Verdon Gorge for the night we had dinner at a restaurant on the river at L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue. Another hard day in Provence!

Day 34, Provence day 12

We were allocated tomorrow night for our turn to prepare dinner so we went into L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue to buy food. Thursday is a market day there but it is a smaller market than on a Sunday and has more food stalls. We bought chicken, vegetables, cheeses and terrine and also went to a patisserie and ordered a large crème brȗlée for dessert. That filled in the morning very easily.
In the afternoon we headed back to Fontaine-de-Vaucluse to visit the Resistance Museum. The Luberon area had a very strong resistance force and a lot of information and material was collected for the museum. Unfortunately a lot of the information about the displays was lost in the very limited information provided in English. A lot of the material related more to how the French coped with the German occupation and the restrictions they placed on the population.
Having done the museum Cath headed off to the shops while I went to the small Petrarch Museum. It had an interesting collection of old books and prints as well as some contemporary pieces including works by Picasso, Chagall and Miro. Well worth the visit.

Day 35, Provence day 13

Plenty of movement in the morning as the girls prepared for a trip to the market at Carpentas.

The guys (except for John Locke) were heading off for a ride along the top of the Luberon range. Setting off from the house we rode to Lacoste and up to Bonnieux for a coffee and to buy some baguettes, jambon, fromage, avocado, tomatoes and lemon tarts for lunch. Climbing to the top of the range we followed the road up to a picnic area that was as far as the cars could go.

After a gourmet lunch we continued along the ridge through the cedar forests and some spectacular views of the valleys on both sides of the range. We eventually had to make our way down to the valley on a very rough road through some very windy, rocky country. Once off the mountain we headed back to L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue for a cleansing ale and then back to the house with a total of about 80 kilometres covered.

Lacoste sits on its rocky outcrop as we make our way across to Bonnieux

Bonnieux was a coffee and lunch purchasing stop

The views from the top of the Luberon range towards Mont Ventou were spectacular

Riding through the cedar forests on the range was very nice

The gourmet lunch was washed down by a fine Gigondas grenache

The descent from the top of the range took us over some rough roads and stoney country with a very strong gusty wind blowing

Cath and I were on dinner duty and Cath had already done the hard work of preparing the coq-au-vin and the vegetables and getting them in the oven before I arrived back. After setting the table and organising the serving of the food my main job was keeping the drinks up to the table and then clearing and doing the dishes. The evening went really well and we all agreed that it had been a great two weeks spent in Provence.

Day 36, Saturday 15 September, back to Paris

John and Shirley Locke were keeping one of the hire cars and heading West to visit sites in Southern France and offered to drop us at the TGV station in Avignon. We said our goodbyes and left the house at about 10am and arrived at the Avignon TGV station about 11am.

Our train arrived on time and we were in Paris at 3pm to find that there were no taxi's available. It was down into the Metro with suitcases and bags to get over to Les Halles. Not fun!

Eventually met the agent at the apartment and collected the keys. It was great to be back in Paris so we just sorted ourselves out at the apartment and then headed down to Le Bouledougue restaurant for dinner. It is just up the street in Rue Rambuteau and had been recommended to us by the agent for the apartment but had been closed for holidays during our earlier visit. We both had great meals and we never fail to be amazed at the number of places in France that offer great food at incredible prices.

It feels very comfortable and familiar to be back in Paris.