These photos are of Roussillon. It’s called The Ochre Village because it is, er, constructed from ochre. It’s beautiful. We were there in the morning to go to the market. I have a feeling that the late afternoon sun would have shown off the amazing hues of burnished red in this delightful town better but it was still awesome in the morning. We really enjoyed walking all over Roussillon. Lovely people, lovely spot. Cute cats, too!
I was up at 5:30 am this morning (thursday Sept 28th) ready to go. After sleeping for 12 hours I have adjusted to the new time zone. That was easy. But not so fast. Around 3 pm today I was ready for bed. We were still touring towns and looking for a good place to eat. It could have been the lack of food today that had something to do with the change. We were so focused on getting out there and seeing stuff we failed to do the basics like feed ourselves.
We left the Airbnb around 9:30 am and our first stop is Roussillon because it’s market day – and French markets are outstanding. The open air markets are really wonderful places to interact with locals and see what the local culture has in store for you. We got there and parked and 2 wonderful couples from Michigan helped us with the parking meter (and even gave us 30 centimes because we didn’t have enough change!). Our first glimpse of the market was a musician singing a wonderful French song overlooking the valley below. The market was in a parking lot between 2 spectacular vistas. The town is perched on a hilltop and you can see for miles and miles around the countryside.
We wandered around the market where they displayed everything from prescription glasses to anchovies. They had an olive bar, lots of scarves and dresses, vegetables, and bread and jams. It is wonderful to see all of the items but just as fun is to watch the people and listen to the conversations. Trying to pick up where people are from. Its a BEAUTIFUL day and its time for coffee and donuts … I mean Croissants. Bunny asked someone for a suggestion as to where we may find a nice cafe for a cafe’ practicing her French language. We were directed to a nice little cafe’ we a gorgeous view over looking the valley below.
After a little coffee .. I mean LITTLE ..
we were off to explore the town of Roussillion. The town actually sits above the market so it was an uphill climb. We toured the town and then off to the next destination. Our next visit is to a town called Gordes. not more than 15 minutes away. The town looks spectacular from just outside the city, but we got inside and it was crowded with cars and people. We did a little picture taking and wandering around and then its time for a late lunch.
The main attraction next to Gordes is the Abbey. So we visit that and then the next little Beautiful town not to far away was Vesanques. So we set our sites on that town. It turned out to be VERY small with no real amenities for food. We were now in food mode. It was 3 pm and we had neglected our need for food. I was tired and hungry. So we headed toward Menerbes. A nice town on the other side of Robion from where we were. After some wrong turns we finally were on the way. We parked and walked up to find a nice little restaurant ( by nice I mean “OPEN”) and sat in the courtyard and had Omelettes and salad. It was really nice to sit and talk and watch people milling around the town. We had our meal, toured the town and now its time to call it a day. I am bushed. The jet lag had caught up to me. We got in the car and drove back to the Airbnb and I was asleep by 5:30 pm. Hopefully I will catch up soon Tomorrow is another full day of driving. (More on driving in France tomorrow .. I love driving here).
Au Revoir
We flew into Nice at 10 am (Nice time) or 2 am portland time. We left Portland at 7 am so thats 19 hours of travel time. We flew 51 minutes to Vancouver BC. Then we flew to Montreal. Around a 4 hour flight. We had just over an hour layover and then a 7 hour flight to Nice. It seems much easier when the flights are broken up into smaller chunks.
When we got in we immediately grabed a bus to downtown Nice and got our rental car and got out of Nice. Extremely hungry and tired we stopped at a truck stop and got chicken sandwich and fries at McDonnalds. Hopefully the last time we are gonna have to do that. We then closed our eyes for 30 minutes and caught up on our sleep a little then got back on the road to finish our 2 1/2 hour drive to Robion France. We had rented an Airbnb for 3 nights in Robion which is in an area with some other beautiful little french towns which we will be touring over the next few days. We arrived around 4 pm. We were given a tour of the rental by Michelle and settled in. We took inventory and determined we needed to go to the local market for some items. In particular marty forgot his toothbrush.
After a trip to the store we hit the hay around 5:30 and now its 5:30 am and it seems like the 12 hours of sleep resolved my jet lag. Bunnys still sleeping. Its GREAT to have that plane ride done. Really excited about the travel coming over the next few weeks ….
Bunny and I will be spending October in France this year. She is going to French Immersion school the first 2 weeks we are there and then we will be traveling around France for the next 3 weeks. We fly into Nice and her class starts a couple of days later in Villefranche-sur-Mer. We will then travel to the Brittany area of France which is in the NW corner. We will be staying in a town called Rochefort-en-Terre. It is quite a drive from Nice but it is a beautiful area we want to visit. We will then be traveling back towards Nice to an area around Toulouse a town called Estang. Then back to Nice and fly out at the end of the month.
Voila! 🙂
While we are there we will be meeting up with Bunny’s friend Greta (in Brittany) and, perhaps, Bunny’s sister Shelley in Estaing. (Shelley is currently walking the Camino de Santiago!)
Our goals? Besides learning a bit more French, they are: to see beautiful medieval towns, eat fantastic French food, visit as many boulangeries as possible, and have some French adventures! C’est tout!