Tag: France

Our drive today took us through the lavender fields of the Valensole Plateau although it was slow progress with all the photographing!

It was amazing how the colour changes within seconds as the sun goes behind a cloud.

We then made three stops, one in Forcalquier where the weekly market was just closing, but we still found some ratatouille and spinach tarts and nectarines for lunch, which we ate with our feet cooling in the town lavoir!

Next stop, the Haute Ville of Banon, where the houses form a guarding wall with the impressive Portail a Machicoulis gate and the hollyhocks which are planted everywhere give splashes of strident colour at every turn and an amazing scent.

Last up was Simiane …

… which is topped by the Rotunde, which looks like a keep, but is actually the chapel from the original chateau, with a white domed roof and great views.

We explored the cobbled streets with lots of little art galleries …

… and an impressive array of doors.

This area is called The Luberon, named after the massif comprising three ranges of mountains which sits in the centre of the Parc Naturel Regional du Luberon and we are staying just to the north of the mountains in Apt while we explore. The car park sign caused a little consternation, but apparently it has to rain for days on end for there to be a risk.

Christel welcomed us into her home, which had been part of an Ursuline Convent until the French Revolution. There are three B&B apartments, and ours was on the third floor, with a little sitting room, bedroom and huge bathroom and a delicious breakfast was served in the salon with the other guests.

Gordes is the home of a couple of the most photographed views in Provence. The first is a view of the town as it seems to tumble dramatically down the hillside …

… and the other is of the Abbaye de Senanque, another of the Three Sisters of Provence, but still lived in by monks. As we approached the town, we saw a sign for a viewpoint and we able to take the first picture, although it was a bit overcast and we thought we might take another look later. The Abbaye is only open for individuals in the morning, after that it’s just tours, hence our early start, but the morning was a bit misty, with even a small shower of rain and the Abbaye looked a bit subdued.

We looked round the cloisters, abbey church and chapter house …

… and as we came out so did the sun and the Abbaye lit up.

The Tour de France comes through here in a couple of days, and the road have been smartened up and given fresh white lines, and we’ve seen plenty of cyclists around, some maybe checking out the route! There are even some mobile homes parked up in prime positions for viewing the race.

Just outside Gordes is the Village de Bories, a collection of reconstructed drystone buildings all cleverly designed so that rain runs off easily and the temperature inside remains constant. They almost look prehistoric, but are mainly C18 and were inhabited till the C19. They reminded us of the trulli buildings with conical rooves in Alberobello in Italy.

We would have stopped in Gordes to look round and visit the castle, but it was market day and we couldn’t find a place to park, so gave up. Instead, we decided to return via Roussillion.

Ochre has been extracted from the rocks here since prehistoric times and produces a range of colours from pale yellow to blood red which are unaffected by sunlight. The ochre is made up of white clay mixed with iron oxides but when extracted it is mixed with a lot of sand that needs to be removed first. At its peak in the early C20, 40,000 tonnes of ochre were exported from the area, but by 1930 competition from chemical pigments ended the industry. We walked the Sentier des Oches, a short trail showing the landscape formed by quarrying and subsequent weathering and the sun was definitely out so the colours were amazing, very much reminding us of the Red Canyon in Utah.

We took a turn round the town, where ochre of every shade has been used to decorate the buildings.

Next day, we took a 6km hiking trail round Colorado Provençal, another former ochre quarry, and were quite pleased it remained cooler with a breeze. The trail began in a lavender field and we were surprised that the rocks certainly weren’t red on the first part of the trail …

… but they certainly warmed up as we reached the area called the Sahara and had been weathered into a striking landscape.

We took a tour of the Mines de Bruoux, where tall arched entrances led to some 40kms of passageways, all of which had been dug out just with manpower and a pick axe. Fortunately our tour was only 30mins as it was only 10 degrees inside and we only had one fleece between us (Chris lent me his fleece!) but unfortunately we couldn’t take pictures inside.

Last stop of the day was a climb to the Bellevue in the village of Saignon …

… which gives almost 360 degree views

… and then tomorrow we move on northwards.

Moustiers says it’s one of the most picturesque villages in Provence and it certainly is lovely. We arrived around lunchtime and it was busy with visitors.

We walked up the 262 steps to the little chapel Notre-Dame de Beauvoir, passing the stations of the cross on the way.

The view over the village and plain was worth the climb …

We looked  up at the small gold star, suspended above, which is in fact almost 2m across, but almost impossible to see in a photo. It has been replaced many times over the years, but nobody knows how it originally came to be there, although one legend says that during the Crusades the knight Bozon de Blacas was held prisoner by the Saracens and he vowed to hang a star over his village if he was able to return.

We found a boulangerie and bought fougasse for lunch, one with béchamel sauce and black olives and the other with bechamel and spinach and we ate them in a shady square beside a fountain.

Afterwards we wandered round the cobbled streets where many ceramics were for sale. Moustiers is famous for its pottery, thanks to a visiting Italian monk in the Middle Ages who brought the secret of how to make a white tin glaze which became very popular.

We are staying at Maison d’Hotes a Angouire for the next couple of nights, a lovely Provencal home set just out of town up a rough track amongst woodland.

And we’ve swapped resident sheep with bells for resident donkeys with bells … luckily they sleep in!

Our room was pretty with shuttered windows, wooden floors and crispy white linen and we arrived early enough to relax in the garden and watch a dozen or so hang gliders catching the air currents.

When we booked we requested dinner and Emmanuelle cooked us a fabulous meal of mixed entrees, pasta, cheese and homemade fruit tart which we ate sitting on the terrace, watching the sunset.

We made an early start next day to drive to Quinson at the far end of Sainte-Croix-du-Lac and had barely left the town before we saw our first field of lavender, followed by several others stretching in every direction. We had to restrain our temptation to stop and take pictures as we had a boat to catch, but knew we would have time later. Arriving at Verdon Electronautic, we picked up our little electric boat which would take us 9kms into the gorge and back again.

There were lots of people out on a Sunday enjoying the river, some more energetic than us in canoes and pedaloes but our boat was great and a really peaceful way to travel.

Back in Quinson, we followed another route back, stopping at St Croix for lunch with a lake view.

After lunch, we stopped at every lavender field we passed to take photos … and we saw sunflowers too! You really have to be here to realise that as well as the view that goes on forever, the air is completely saturated with the scent of lavender and humming with the constant buzz of bees.

As we approached Moustiers, the sun caught the gold star above the town and you can even spot it in the photo!

Having eaten lunch late, we picked up provisions and decided on a quiet evening on the terrace with bread, cheese, olives and another bottle of local rose to watch another sunset.

Tomorrow it is time to move on … west towards more lavender!

Having seen some photos, we felt we had to include the stunning Gorges Du Verdon in our trip. The ravine, some 25 kms long and up to 700 meters deep, has been cut in the limestone by the startling green waters that give the Verdon River its name. The river now flows into Sainte-Croix-du-Lac, the largest reservoir in France, formed when dams were built.

Our day began with a drive to Aiguines …

… where we walked up through the town to La Chapelle Saint-Pierre for a great view of the lake.

Afterwards, we explored the south of the Gorges du Verdon by driving along The Corniche Sublime where we got the first glimpse of the river Verdon …

… and the bright-blue Sainte-Croix-du-Lac.

We stopped at several viewpoints including the Falaise des Cavalier …

and Pont de l’Artuby …

… as well as at a little boulangerie where we were spoilt for choice.

We also saw our first lavender, just a plant or two growing by the side of the road.

The best views were saved for last at the Balcons de la Mescla …

… and Point Sublime.

The road was quite winding but not too busy but it was a little disappointing there were not more places to stop and take pictures. Not much further and we reached the Auberge des Cretes, a small family run auberge, conveniently placed to explore the area further, with our room looking out on the Pétanque court and a herd of sheep grazing in the field across the road.

Chris was pleased to see a sign advertising the match which he watched at the bar, saying there was a bit of a soft penalty for the first goal but France went on to deserve their place in the final.

After driving round the gorge yesterday, today we are walking into it! The most famous hike in the gorge is the Sentier Martel, laid out in 1928 by the Touring Club de France and named to honor the explorer Édouard-Alfred Martel. Martel visited the Verdon in 1905 to carry out geological surveys of the river and discovered the canyon. Today the Sentier Martel travels 15kms along the right bank and takes most walkers around 8hrs one way. Needless to say, we won’t be doing that one! Instead, we chose the Sentier de Pecheur or Fishermans Path, billed as 6km and taking 3hrs but also a circular route so no hassle getting back at the end. The day began a little overcast, and while that made our first few photos a little dark, by the time the sun came out later and we got hotter, we were glad of it. We had a steep descent from the car park, with loose stones underfoot, but the path evened a bit. We got good views of the gorge and river below and the path took us right down to the shore before rising again with more views and a steep climb upwards. We thought we had nearly got back when we reached a wild meadow with lavender growing, only to find we had another 45mins to walk … and not all on the flat! Exhausted we finished 3.5hrs later, after lots of stops to take pictures and catch our breath! I hope those fish were worth it!

On the way back through Palud …

… we spotted today’s lavender …

… and continued to the pretty village of Rougon …

… as I had read about a creperie with a view and we sat and relaxed, with lemonade and lavender honey crepes watching the vultures circling above.

Back at the auberge we had another great three course dinner with wine and coffee which was fantastic value for €100 a night for us both including the B&B, and Jordan cooked us mushroom risotto especially knowing Chris was a veggie.

We made an early start in the morning to avoid billed crowds on the Routes des Cretes, a road which runs close to the north side of the gorge and is renowned for its 23km of wiggles and 14 lookouts. As it happens, we beat any rush there may have been later, although it did mean the gorge was in shadow for our first few viewpoints.

The upside was that we were early enough to catch the vultures circling on the rising air currents. Some passed so closely overhead that we could hear the whoosh as they glided by and it was an amazing experience.

We were able to see the Corniche Sublime on the other side of the gorge that we had driven down a couple of days ago as well as some goats guarding one of the tunnels.

We returned to Sainte-Croix-du-Lac, where we had begun, and saw the docks for all the little pleasure boats we had seen yesterday.

The Gorge behind us, we drove on to Moustiers Sainte Marie.

Having flown into Marseille airport and collected our car, we then drove straight out, north-east, away from the coast. The road got smaller and wound between vineyards and olive trees until we reached the Abbaye du Thoronet, the oldest of three Cistercian monasteries, known as The Three Sisters of Provence and conveniently placed for a lunch stop. The little kiosk had tables set under the shady trees, perfect with the temperature just over 30, and made a great fromage gallette with salad. Revived, we walked round the monastery, built in the C12, and celebrated for its austere lines and pure proportions. Even the acoustics imposed a discipline on the monks as the stone walls created a long echo forcing them to sing slowly and perfectly together.

We then drove northwards, into the Parc Naturel Regional du Verdun, where the road was surrounded on both sides by scrubby woodland, until we reached Aups, in the foothills of the Alps. Capital of the Haute Var, Aups is also famous for holding the third largest truffle market in France during the winter months, and we are staying the night at Auberge de la Tour. The Auberge is just what I hoped for, set around a courtyard with faded turquoise shutters and a pretty bedroom.

We took a turn round the town, and took some pictures of clocks and towers and fountains, then had dinner outside in the restaurant, beginning with a kir and tapenade then moving on to pizza and port fillet.

After dinner, we walked down to the town bar as Wales and Portugal were playing in one of the Euros semis, but neither side had scored, and after our early start, we opted for an early night, only to find out in the morning Portugal had won 2:0.

We want to see purple as far as the eye can see … fields of lavender disappearing into the distance … and thought Provence in July would be the place to come.

Many of our trips include football and Chris was hoping to get some tickets for one of the Euro games in Marseille, but it was not to be. We will be in France for the semis and final, no doubt showing in a bar near us!

As ever, once we started planning, we realised how much there was to see! Finally we settled on a trip across the centre of Provence from the rocky chasm of Les Gorges du Verdun, across the Plateau de Valensole and the Luberon, known for their fields of lavender, to the rocky spires of Les Dentelles de Montmirail.

We’ve planned some walking, but we’ll see how it goes as it’s going to be hot … far hotter than we would usually choose for walking, but we had to come now to see the lavender in bloom.

There will be lots more besides with Roman ruins, Medieval abbeys, a Papal Palace, and lots of picturesque villages, many perched on the top of hills, and all claiming to be the most beautiful in Provence!

And then there’s the food … starting the day with a croissant and cafe creme, then since everything stops for lunch, maybe a plat du jour in a village bistro. I like the idea of l’apero with a few olives early evening … then dinner under the stars!

So if you fancy a couple of weeks off in sunny Provence, do come with us while we look for lavender!

Journal Entries

Aups and our first Auberge

Gorges Du Verdon

Moustiers Sainte-Marie

The Heart of the Luberon

Mont Ventoux

Vaison-la-Romaine

The Dentelles de Montmirail

Chagall en Provence

Map