I have not been writting much or taking a lot of photos, Provence is much more like California so it slows me down. The plants, the coastal mountians, the weather, etc. They do have 1000 year + old things, Calif does not have that…
So our village is perched in a national forest called the Luberon. We are high above; and if you come, you should too, the area below is hot, dusty and CROWDED. Our village has tiny roads that tour buses cannot get up, you should also make sure of that when you come, otherwise, lots of tourist you will find.
We went hiking at the fountaine-de-Vaucluse, which is this cool space with a massive spring that comes up from no where, they cannot locate the source, in fact Jacques Cousteau lost a bathescape trying to find it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fontaine-de-Vaucluse. The town is cute for lunch or a drink and the fountaine is at best an oddity, but a pretty one at that. We did stop in L'isle sur La Sorge before for a bite, cute town lots of antiques, worth a stop, but maybe just for coffee. The canals that run all over the town are feed by the fountaine so the water is crystal clear and cold.
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The town of Apt is close to us, too big, too low, too run down, but there is something ou should try to see... The northern side of Apt near the lake in a very ware-house-y area you will find the Chabaud Brothers place. It is a giant sprall of pieces of castles and chateaux just for you to pack up and take home. I was trying to figure out how to get this gate in my suitecase...
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After going to a local food market as a group Michael and I decided to go over our hill 25 miles to the town of Aix. Now Aix is big and crowded and hard to park a car in, but you need to go if you are in Provence. We took the smaller D roads on the back roads. Very naroow, lots of trucks and fast cars, but lots of trees, mountains, views and cute tiny villages. One stop we did was the town of Lourmarin. Very cute, a bit Disney-esque but cute with lots of shops and cafes. A nice place for lunch if it is not crowded with no parking, we lucked out.
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Aix was crowded, after circling for a while I decided to park in a pay lot, always a better idea as you never know how long you may be, and pay lots are usually underground and usually not too expensive. We had a VERY unforgetable meal, we did not plan ahead and ended up at a touristy place that was not good, so we drank alot of wine, it was a cheap meal at least.
We ended up finding a cute out of the way cafe and drank some Pastis, the local licorice flavoured drink. Then we walked the massive pedestrian zone CUTE, and I ended up buying a hat, the same hat I left on the plane two weeks ago...
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After our Pastis and shopping tour we headed back home. On the way we found this field, among many, of poppies in bloom, we had been drinking so of course photos followed....
