Provence, France

Having spent an amazing week in Paris it was time to get on the train and head down to Avignon for a week in Provence. We had hired a car and the plan was to head to Gordes and take it from there. Getting away from Paris was almost a bit of a disaster. The SNCF were on strike and not selling tickets. The train was flooded with people and left an hour late. The conductor never came through so a free trip for us. After collecting the car we headed east for about 45 minutes and arrived at Gordes late in the day. It was quite smoggy but I was to learn this was the ash from the volcano in Iceland which hung around the region for the week. Anyway this is how I spent my week in Provence:




Friday


Ended up finding an excellent little hotel down in the Valley under Gordes. It was great to wake up to a nice sunny day and a view of the village. The meal there was without a doubt the best one I had had since being in France. We revved the car up and headed up to Gordes to have a Captain Cook. Gordes is a very old town perched high up on a mountain with an excellent view out over the valley. From here we cut a big lap around the valley visiting other towns including Joucas, Roussillion and Bonnieux. Had some delicious jambon and fromage crepes in Roussillion. Have to admit I was a bit village on mountainsided out by the end of it but still had a great time.

Gordes

Roussillion

Saturday


Continued to head east towards the Gorges Du Verdon. We were planning to follow a drive suggested in the 1991 guide book I picked up in an Op Shop in the UK. Made a random stop in a little town called Niozelles. There was basically nothing but a café but it was great fun to sit out in the sun and hang with locals. From there we headed to a town called Sainte Croix Du Verdon. This is on the lake and was pretty quiet but would be pumping in summer when everyone comes to go to the beach. Apparently the lake is Marseilles drinking water so maybe drink bottled water during summer. Got an excellent room with a great view over the lake that night.

Niozelles

Sainte Croix Du Verdon

Sunday


D-Day. That’s drive day. Nav set a course for the northern route through the Gorges Du Verdan. These are some amazing canyons up in the mountains of Provence. Here I was thinking Provence was rolling fields of vineyards and the next thing I know where 1500 meters up with snow visible on the mountains. I ended up driving like a grandpa down the mountain. Tracy was giving me crap that my knuckles had gone white as I was holding the steering wheel so tightly. Have to admit I was nervous driving on the other side of the road on hairpin turns 1000 meter’s up with no barricade. Stopped in at Castellan for lunch where there was this church built way up on the mountain and then onto Le Lavandou on the Cote D’Azur.

Monday


After the stress of yesterday I needed a day to chill out. What a perfect place we found to do this. We were staying just out of a town called Le Lavandou at the beach before it. Not sure of the name but the street was called Boulevard des Baleines. Had a room a couple of meters from the water. Combined with great weather it was a very chilled day at the beach. Shame the water was so cold as it looked so inviting.

Tuesday


Were going to head to some villages in the Pyrenees for the night but slept in so decided to hit Perpignan where we had to drop the car off. After some uming and ahhing we decided to head straight to Barcelona a day early. This should have been an easy trip but the train strike was causing chaos. Floated round the train station for 5 hours (joy) listening to pompous Brits and finally made it to Barcelona at 1am.


My initial thought of Provence was blown away after traveling round a tiny part of it for a week. I had these visions of rolling hills and had no idea of the diversity of landscape. The beach, mountains, dry valleys and fields of lavender all provide a fantastic contrast to a really beautiful part of the world.