A Few Of My Favorite Things

So you already know just how much I loved the French markets. I enjoyed not just the browsing and people watching, but taking photos of the stalls. So today is a photo day...some of my favorite photos of market stalls:

Cotes du Rhone Wine Road

Buis-les-Baronnies, best market award - helped along
by the fact that our hotel is in one of those buildings on the right.

Picnic cherries

We spent our final day in France first at the fabulous, weekly market right outside our hotel room door - who would have guessed that our tiny, little village home base would have such a nice market. And like many small towns, it's quirky citizens were easy to spot. One night while eating, a bearded man galloped into town on his horse, followed by a pack of dogs. We saw his dogs again, but missed another episode of horse play. The market in Buis-les-Baronnies netted us a few gifts, both for others and ourselves, and following yet another picnic lunch by yet another river, we spent our final afternoon visiting wineries, ala the Rick Steves guidebook for driving the Cotes du Rhone Wine Road. Nathan and I had a bit of a miscommunication in wine buying expectation - I thought we'd pick up a few bottles, while Nathan planned to pick up a few cases. With a total of five vineyards and/or cave(s) (pronounced kah-vay) visited, Nathan's plan took over the entire back end of our station wagon. Our cantina is now well stocked!

Our driving tour views

A favorite stop was our final one, which we reached just at 5pm - Domaine du Marchon. With a plan to do a quick tasting, then return to the local village of Seguret for dinner, we walked into the tasting room and were greeted with, "Are you here for the tour?" Ummmm...yes? Turns out that Wednesdays at 5pm is the tour (in English - owners are Scottish) of the vineyard. We tramped up to the vineyard and learned about the soil of the region and the classification of Provencal wines - this is just what Nathan was wanting as he'd commented on the afternoon drive that he'd like to begin learning more about French wines.  We headed back into the winery to learn about the production side of things, and then on to the tasting room. I can't tell you much about French wine as I was paying only marginal attention. I was very distracted by our other tour group members, one a set of eight or so young people (college age). I won't go into detail as it would be rude - oh, okay, it's because it was the most unattractive group of people I've seen in a long time. I mean really, really unattractive - distractingly unattractive. And one girl had selected as her outfit a completely see-through top over her black bra, so I spent a lot of time pondering today's fashion and considering just how out of touch I must be. Then there was another guy, American, who seemed to know everything about French wine and kept handing out brochures for a gorgeous hotel. Nathan talked to him following the tasting and we found that he'd recently purchased said hotel and was at the vineyard to stock his restaurant. Anyone would have been distracted by all these interesting people, except Nathan, who was focused on actually learning about wine. Domaine du Marchon provided, by far, the most comprehensive tour and tasting we've ever attended, and it was one of the most enjoyable. Our final day in Provence was the perfect end to our exploration of the region. We saw beaches, mountains, markets, old towns, new towns, ruins, wineries, and took full advantage of our love for the French cuisine...which meant we had to plan on hiking off all the extra calories at our next destination, the Swiss Alps.

Old Towns, New Towns, Markets, and Ruins

Notice the Roman bridge on the right side of the picture

Vaison-la-Romaine is a quite popular town in our new region of Provence, and has a large, weekly market. We grew to enjoy a morning browse through the Provencal markets, so we drove over early to Vaison-la-Romaine as we'd read parking could become a challenge. While we found parking quite easily, we were so grateful to have arrived early because by mid-morning, the market was so crowded as to be unenjoyable as well as stifling hot in the maze of streets that blocked any breeze. This market was our least favorite - I think that because of it's size, the quality of goods was diluted. There were many more booths of what "cheap crap," so we had to hunt a little harder for the fun stuff, including our picnic lunch fixings. We had more of a late breakfast picnic just to escape the growing crowds and found ourselves sitting by a clear, rushing river just downstream from a Roman bridge built about 2000 years ago. What is remarkable about it is that a 1992 flood washed away all the modern bridges in the valley. Guess which bridge was left standing? As we explore so many incredible buildings and structures in Europe, from bridges to palaces, my engineer husband is constantly remarking on how we can't build things like this bridge anymore - I'm sure I've written about this before. Either we don't have the techniques, the skilled craftsman to do the quality handwork, or, most importantly, the money. Vaison-la-Romaine's bridge makes the point perfectly. We dawdled by the river for awhile watching a lady play with her dog while we lounged about eating cherries (fresh, market cherries - so, so yummy), then decided we'd best do at least a little sightseeing.

Just in case you've
never seen a squat toilet

Vaison-la-Romaine reportedly has some wonderful, Roman ruins in the New Town. We skipped those and opted for a climb up to the medieval, hill town. There, I found my one and only squat toilet. I'd been concerned that many of the public toilets I'd find in France would be such things, but so far, France had gifted me with numerous, easy to find, free, clean, stocked with tp and soap, public toilets. Medieval Vaison-la-Romaine is where I met my fear. At 26 weeks pregnant and a belly that had popped, I had grave concerns that squatting down to the floor would result in me not being able to get back up without some hand and knee placements in spots I'd rather not have any skin touch. But also at 26 weeks, sometimes bathroom breaks become vital. This is already too much detail, so let's just say that things worked out and I remained clean.

Back on the road, we headed to Orange to see the Roman theatre there, supposedly one of only three in the world with the acoustic wall still standing. A couple of fun facts on Roman theatre, one of which is more gruesome than actually fun:  (1) In plays, if a character was to be killed, a condemned prisoner would take the place of the actor at the last minute and actually be killed on the stage, and (2) the first Italian drama was developed right here in Campania (here as in our home, Campania, Italy, not Orange, France). Orange was a wonderful town. Bustling, with a large, newer town surrounding the old town, we would have liked to do some more exploring...but relaxing back at our hotel garden sounded more appealing to our aching feet on this very hot day, and this trip was all about skipping the high powered sightseeing and spending time relaxing.

Exploring the Luberon

Pretty street in Roussillon

Le Colorado de Rustrel

Our next day in the region was for visiting nearby Roussillon (my original pick for our home base), the ochre cliffs of Le Colorado Rustrel, Mont Ventoux (of Tour de France frame), and ending up in our next home base of Buis-les-Baronnies to visit the Luberon region of Provence. Roussillon is startlingly attractive and quite different from every other quaint village we've seen in Europe in that it sits atop huge quantities of ochre, and all of the buildings in town have the ochre color. I'm not sure if they're made of ochre bricks or if the ochre is used to create a paint or plaster. We enjoyed a nice wander through the small town, gave thanks that we'd landed in busier, pretty Isle-sur-la-Sorgue as our home base, and headed out of town to Le Colorado de Rustrel, a park with lots of sandy paths among the ochre colored cliffs and rocks.

Mont Ventoux

From Roussillon, we headed toward Nathan's must-see sight in Provence, the top of Mont Ventoux, which I believe is used sometimes as the final point on the Tour de France route or is used as a Tour stage. Climbing out of the valley filled with lavender fields (and pulling over for a quick look at a working sheepdog herding some wayward sheep back across the road to the flock), we passed through a nice forest that thinned out to become a completely bald, mountaintop resembling the surface of the moon. Just white, limestone rocks everywhere. And at over 6000 feet, it's COLD at the top. We went from the Colorado de Rustrel, where we were guzzling water and had to sit in the car with the A/C running to recover from our hike, to Mont Ventoux, where I was pulling on jackets and wrapping a scarf around my bared legs.

Beautiful Buis-les-Baronnies

We ended up in Buis-les-Baronnies, a tiny, tiny village and one in which I was very apprehensive. This was to be our longest stay so far at three nights, and after spending nights in a town filled with restaurants, yummy ice cream parlors, and a beautiful river to walk along, I thought we might be bored silly in Buis-les-Baronnies. Wrong, wrong, wrong. We booked into Hotel Arcades de Lion d'Or, a lovely hotel in the Old Town - aka, the town since the only parts of town not in the "old" section were a few small stores and gas station on the road leaving town. Our hotel was so full of character with a room that felt like visiting a friend's home, a view of the Old Town and the weekly market out our window, and a beautiful, relaxing garden and pool (and hot tub and sauna, which we never used) to lounge in after our days of exploring. We found a restaurant on the edge of town with tables overlooking a scenic, mountain vista and a menu so appealing that we returned the following evening to try more of their food. Plus, nearing the end of a full week of traveling meant we welcomed some quieter, more slow-paced evenings.

Our hotel's relaxing garden

A favorite photo from Roussillon

Happy Accident

Since planning of this trip happened so late in the game, most of the towns where I actually wanted us to stay were out of hotel options. So we ended up in surrounding towns, and in every case, we were delighted upon visiting the "first choice" town to find it much lacking compared to where we were actually staying. The first of these "accidents" landed us in Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, perhaps the prettiest, little town we visited. Isle-sur-la-Sorgue was our home base for two nights in the Vaucluse region of Provence. The town is adorable, built atop canals for it's 13th century, flour mill industry that later added textile and paper mills. Once hosting over 70 waterwheels, today, there are only a few left.

Isle-sur-la-Sorgue's main canal on Market Day - lots of picnicking

Isle-sur-la-Sorgue's claim to tourist fame is it's antique stores and weekly, antique market. From Monday-Saturday, numerous antique stores inhabit stores on the canal. Isle-sur-la-Sorgue is said to have the best antiques selection outside of the fabulous, antique markets in Paris. On Sunday, the market takes over the entire town, with antiques on one side of the main canal, and the rest of town holding the more typical, market wares. And by "rest of the town," I mean the entire town becomes a market. We were enthralled...and hot. Thankfully, with Isle as our home base, we could head back to our hotel for breaks. Isle-sur-la-Sorgue is also where we figured out the best way to lunch in France is a picnic of market foods picked up in the morning and a pretty, shady lunch spot to enjoy it by noon. We typically found some type of soft, but pasteurized, cheese (the cheese sellers were excellent about pointing us to pasteurized cheeses that I could eat), fruit (cherries were our favorite pick), a baguette, and some type of sausage. And of course, a couple of light pastries.

Charming, tiny Gordes

We also headed over to explore the hilltop village of Gordes. Filled with buildings of stacked stone, the little village sounded like a wonderful visit. And it was, for an hour or so. We walked into town, took in the two or three streets that make up the village, and headed "home" to our small, but still vibrant, town. Gordes was a quiet visit with a couple of cafes, while Isle-sur-la-Sorgue has a river to walk along, ducks to watch as they surf the river currents, numerous cafes and restaurants and shops, and enough people to feel vibrant without feeling overcrowded.

Love, love, love French stores - how beautiful is this display!

One of my favorite antique store finds

Me, enjoying the antique market in Isle-sur-la-Sorgue...and
carrying around our lunch baguette

French Grand Canyon

Leaving the Cote d'Azur to make our way to Provence, we took the scenic route through Le Grand Canyon du Verdon, considered to be Europe's prettiest canyon at 15 miles long and almost half a mile deep. At the bottom, a river the color of jade winds throughout. Before reaching the canyon we had a fun stop by turning in at a sign indicating a cheese seller. Driving down an increasingly rutted, dirt road about half a mile, we finally reached a run down farm with animals everywhere - dogs were everywhere, cows, goats, and rabbits behind fences, and a movie worthy farmer selling large amounts of cheese to a couple of men. Nathan managed to get across to the farmer that he'd like some goat cheese, and off we trundled into the cheese room, where it was clear to me that I would not be eating any of the cheese we bought (but Nathan said it tasted fabulous). Our farmer was so sure that we understood his language that he kept up a rapid fire speech the entire time of our visit, little of which we actually understood. I really wish I'd taken the camera out of the car and asked the farmer for a picture. I'm pretty sure it would have been one of our more treasured trip photos.

To unwind from the excitement of the cheese farm, we slowly drove along the rim of the canyon, stopping off at the scenic viewpoints to gaze at the river below. One stop was along the Pont d'Artuby, the highest bridge in Europe. I had no idea France had such wonders as a Grand Canyon and a highest bridge. My mental picture of France is made up of the famous structures in Paris, goat cheese, baguettes and croissants, and stripy shirts and berets. Sadly, I never saw anyone wearing a stripy shirt, but there were quite a few berets.

At the end of the canyon is a most beautiful lake, Lac du Ste Croix, with a glowing, green color. We'd read that there were kayaks and paddle boats to rent here, but had already discussed continuing on to our destination, the village of Moustiers Ste Marie for a wander, then on to Aix-en-Provence. That was until we reached the lake and saw that we could paddle a ways up into the canyon. The colors were too inviting, and we needed to absorb a bit of nature. Our one hour paddle up into the canyon was, for me, a trip highlight. The area is absolutely stunning, and I wished we were able to do a full, canyon rafting trip. Unfortunately, there is whitewater in the canyon, so the rafting trips were out for me right now.

We took another break in the village of Moustiers Ste Marie and found ourselves surprised yet again. The village is set among mountain peaks with waterfalls and a stream running through the middle of town, a chapel set high up into the cliffs (a 30 minute, steep walk uphill that we did not do), and flower covered shops selling the town's claim to fame, faience pottery, a delicate, pretty style. Intending to do just a quick walk thru town (much like our intention to just drive by Lac du Ste Croix), we slowed down and enjoyed the quiet atmosphere...and ate crepes.

And finally, we reached Aix-en-Provence, a bustling, yet charming, town filled with university students. We happened onto a small restaurant with a set menu, Ze Bistro, and this meal is now one of Nathan's all time favorites. With only ten or so tables, we were fortunate that they could fit us in on a Friday evening. If you're in Aix-en-Provence and looking for a great meal, Ze Bistro is our recommendation. By good fortune, Aix-en-Provence's amazing market was the following day, so we had the morning to explore it before checking out of our hotel and continuing on our trip through Provence. This was our first market of the trip and marked the start of seeking out towns having their daily markets. The French markets are so different from our Italian ones, which I do enjoy...but, quite frankly, the French markets are far classier.  With our markets in Italy, generally I wade through and past dozens of tacky stands to find that one gem. In France, it's hard to pass up a single stall. Aix-en-Provence combined a large food market, filled with sausages, cheeses, and spices, with an antique market (oh, how I love vintage, French linens!), and then the ubiquitous stalls selling straw, market bags, beautiful pottery, interesting jewelry, and provencal fabrics. Needless to say, we spent a little more time than planned in the market, and by the time we finished, both of us had feet too tired to do anymore exploring of the town. Time to hit the road again.

Provence Finale

Our final day in Provence was my favorite. After sleeping in, we stepped out our hotel front door and directly into the Wednesday market. While smaller than the others we've visited, the market was still a nice, morning stroll, and we still managed to find a few unique items. After collecting our standard lunch fare and picnicking by the town's river, off we went for a drive along the Cote du Rhone wine trail. We visited cute villages and several wineries, lucking into a fantastic, vineyard tour at our final stop, Domaine du Mourchon. The proprietor spent almost three hours with our group of 16 or so, explaining all sorts of viticulture aspects, then providing tastings of each of his wines. Nathan learned all he'd been hoping to learn about the Cote du Rhone wines.

Tomorrow means lunch in lakeside Annecy, then on to Switzerland, where the forecast is for rain and cold.

The Rhythm of Provence

Our days have taken on a relaxed rhythm of sleeping in just a little, heading out to a Provençal market in the mornings (and finding coffee and a croissant), enjoying the market while hunting down a baguette, cheese, sausage, fruit, and cookies, and finding a shady, pretty picnic spot to rest our aching feet and enjoy our market spoils. For the afternoon, we spend some time enjoying a couple of new towns and driving through the countryside, then return to that night's hotel to relax by the pool before dinner. We are enjoying the slower pace...and the food!
This photo is of our picnic spot today - a beautiful, turquoise, clear river in the town of Vaison-la-Romaine.

Just a Photo

Pretty L'isle-sur-la-Sorgue, our home for the next couple of nights.

Paddling Around

Today we drove along France's Grand Canyon (du Verdon), and at the end of it all, we rented a paddleboat to go up the canyon a short ways. While seeing the canyon and river from above was spectacular, I preferred the peacefulness of being on the water and enjoying the limestone cliffs up close, complete with a waterfall and mountain goat sighting.