This weekend, we went to Provence in the Southeast of France to explore. I have been wanting to go here for awhile – Vanderbilt has a big study-abroad program in Aix-en-Provence and everyone who I know who went there loved it. We stayed in Aix but arranged a tour for Saturday to see many of the other towns in the region.
After a stressful journey that involved all five of us questioning whether we’d actually make it to Provence or not, we got to the hotel around midnight. As usual – the hotel beds were insanely comfortable compared to our beds in Agde. We were downtown by 8:30 the next morning at the Office of Tourism. [Tangent] All of the towns in France have an Office du Tourisme, even the smallest towns. You can go there to ask about tours, get maps, and lots of them have full books printed for free about things to do in the town. It’s pretty great. Any who – at 9am, we met our driver, Mad Max. Mad Max was a skinny, early 30s-ish Frenchman with long hair. He drove a giant van and he drove it with no regard for road laws. Hence the nickname he earned, Mad Max. We thought that Max was going to be a tour guide, telling us information about each place, but he was actually just a driver. Oh well. He drove us to Gordes, Roussillon, Lourmarin, and Les Baux.
This is Gordes. It’s a cute little stone village that sits on a hill – many of the houses are built into the side of the hill and they overlook farmland and, of course, vineyards. We spent some time walking around Gordes and it was really cute. All of the villages that we visited were exactly what you’d imagine when I say “French Village” and could have been straight out of Beauty and the Beast.
Next, we went to Roussillon. If you look closely in the bottom right, you can see the orange rocks. You will also notice that the houses in this town are a color similar to the rock. Since all of the towns are so old, the houses in the villages are made out of whatever rock is closest. A completely different meaning of terroir. We walk around a park that was build into the red rocks and it seemed so much like I was back home in Colorado. There were definitely more trees, but it looks like it could have been Red Rocks or Garden of the Gods.
For lunch, we went to Lourmarin. It was my favorite place I’ve visited in France so far. It was larger than the two other towns and still really cute, with giant trees lining either side of the streets, lots of curvy alleyways with shops and art galleries, and a castle at one end of the town. The castle was closed for a wedding (umm… idea?) so we couldn’t go in, but we got to see the gardens and it was really great. We did some shopping and I got some really cute mugs and found a bunch of home decor stuff and furniture that I wanted to buy but didn’t have a way to get home. The lunch that we had was amazing. I got the vegetarian dish and it was fabulous with lots of veggies. If I had more time, I would go back and just hang out in this town for a few days.
There are tons of hiking trails that go through this region too, and you could hike from one village to the next. Sounds like another one for my vacation bucket list. Next, we went to Les Baux. I don’t have any pictures because it was extremely crowded and touristy and I didn’t like it at all (neither did anyone else).
On Sunday, we took the train to Avignon which is also another place I could spend a few more days. The main reason we went was to see the Palais de Papes (Palace of the Popes), but the town was also really awesome. At the end of the main street was a giant pedestrian street and all of the cafes and restaurants had outdoor seating lined up on the side, so you could sit outside sipping your coffee and having a traditional (i.e., extremely long) French meal while people watching. The Palace of the Popes was also a cool site – we didn’t have time to tour the whole thing; we spent about two hours walking through and doing the audio tour and didn’t even see half of it. It was built in the early 1300s when a French pope was elected after a long reign of Italian popes. Due to politics and war, he moved the Pope’s residence to Avignon and there it stayed for over 100 years. It’s amazing because the majority of the building is still intact, including original floor tiles, ceilings, statues, and paintings (not just the structure). We also had a great lunch here and I ate some delicious ice cream, including a scoop of Honey-Lavender. By the way – Provence is known for their Lavender and Sunflowers, but they are in bloom usually in June and July so we totally missed it. Just another reason to come back!
More Croissants, Please! 