Provence - April 2019

In April Nancy and I went on a short trip to Provence in the South of France.  The trip centered around a self-guided hike in the Luberon area. We left Manchester on a morning flight to Marseille courtesy of Ryan Air, my least favorite airline.  From the airport we took a short bus ride to the Airport train station and then caught the train north to Cavaillon. Cavaillon did not appear to be a pretty town (at least not around the railway station) and there was not much activity there at 3:00 in the afternoon.  A brief walk around town looking for food (Nancy’s food wall was approaching) a second rate pizza and beer and then we caught a bus to the town of Apt where we had the first night of our hiking trip in the small but lovely Hotel Sainte Marie.

Old Town - Apt

Main Square - Apt

Apt is quite a nice town and we had a pleasant evening walk exploring the old parts of town.  We ended up in a busy restaurant (Chez Mon Cousin Alphonse) adjacent to one of the main squares (La Bouquerie).

After breakfast at the hotel, where we sampled something called basilic, a sweet jelly like substance made from basil but not really tasting much like basil, we set off on the hike walking through town and up the hills towards our destination of for the day, Bonnieux.

Lavender Fields before blossom

Old Vines

On the first day we covered around 17km walking through some lovely countryside on pleasant trails - lots of vines, a few orchards which might be cherry trees and some lavender fields where the lavender was not quite in bloom yet.  

Follow the Red and White Markers

For the most part we were following a marked trail so route finding was not an issue. Most hiking routes in this area appear to be marked with colored bands on trees and walls. Today we were following the red and white bands. We ended the day by walking into the town of Bonnieux. At the roundabout below the town we visited the church identified as the Eglise Neuve (New Church). There was another church, the old church on top of the hill behind the town.

Bonnieux - New Church

Our lodging for the night (and for the next night) was a modern B and B just out of town (Une Sieste en Luberon).  Our hosts were a Belgian couple who had a summer B and B in Bonnieux and a winter one in Belgium and they spend half of the year in each place - a nice life.  

Bonnieux - Old Church

In the evening we walked back into town and visited the old church on top of the hill.   It was quite a climb up to it so you can see why the locals wanted a new church that was more accessible.  There was a beautiful view from the top of the hill and a nice church yard with lovely old cedar trees. From the town of Bonnieux you can look across the Luberon valley and see the adjacent town of Lacoste as well as Mont Ventoux (of Tour de France fame) in the distance.  In the evening we dined at Un Petit Coin du Cuisine and had a wonderful meal - great food, nice wine and reasonable prices.

The trail up to the Forest of Cedars

The next day we did a circular route from Bonnieux up to the plateau behind the town and then through the Cedar Forest before dropping back down to the valley and walking into town through vineyards and orchards.  It was a pretty unrelenting hike uphill for a few miles followed by some nice flat forested land on top (planted with cedars from Morocco apparently).  The route down into the valley again was another relentless downhill rocky path. The cedar forest on top was part of a National Park serviced by roads and there were a few other folk up there but on the trails up and down we saw no one.

The Forest of Cedars

In the B and B that night there was an American/Australian couple, Cathy and Bruce, doing the same hike as we were but a day behind.  Walking around the town of Bonnieux again we visited the Bakery Museum which was only mildly interesting, even to a baker like myself. Then to an antique shop where Nancy considered buying a set of cutlery for her daughter. However, with all our skills we couldn’t get the owner to come down to our price.

At dinner that evening, we again had another fine meal, and just as we were leaving the restaurant the Antique Shop owner came in. I approached him and brought up the subject of the cutlery. By now he was quite inebriated without much pressure from me agreed to another price reduction and we shook on the deal.  We then followed him back to his shop and then to his father’s house to find a box for the goods and we consummated the deal. Now we had a heavy box of cutlery to schlep around for the rest of the trip.

Bonnieux Market

The next morning we said goodbye to our very nice hosts in Bonnieux and headed on the final days hike to Roussillon.   As we left town it was market day so we did our rounds. All the usual stuff - cheese, sausage, honey, lavender and all sorts of clothing and baskets.

After the market we walked on lovely trails through woods, vineyards and orchards. At one point we crossed the Calavon river where there was an old Roman Bridge, the Pont Julien.  It was a beautiful and impressive structure which dated from 3 BC.

Pont Julien

As we approached Roussillon the landscape changed and we started walking along nice forest trails in the red earth for which the area is noted for.  There are many areas where ochre has been mined or quarried in the area and it makes for a beautiful landscape.

Lavender Fields

Approaching Roussillon

 As we arrived in Roussillon we passed by the Ochre Museum and we paid a visit.  It is an interesting museum but as with the Bakery Museum there was not much English text to explain what was going on.  As I understand it they excavated large quantities of the ochre earth, then washed it repeatedly to float off the finer ochre sediments.  These were then dried and ground up as color additives for paints.

Ocre Factory, now a museum

Our hotel for the night was the Hotel des Sables d’Ocre, a larger characterless modern hotel on the outskirts of town.  We walked into the town in the evening. A very pretty old town with a church on top of the hill overlooking the valley below. We had drinks in a cafe in the square and then dinner (perhaps the best of the trip) at a restaurant, La Grappe du Raisin.

Roussillon

Next morning after breakfast we made an early dash back into town to visit a park, Le Sentiers de Ocre, which has trails around some of the more impressive exposures of ochre colored earth.  It was a short trail but the cliffs were a spectacular red-orange in the morning sun.

Le Sentiers de Ocre

Back at the hotel we were met by a taxi that took us back to Apt where our hiking holiday finished.  Saturday was market day in Apt and it was a big and very busy market. We walked around the market for a while before settling into a cafe on La Bouquerie to wait for the next bus to Avignon.  

The bus ride to Avignon was around an hour. We missed the correct bus stop near the Avignon city walls and were deposited a little outside town at the TGV station.  From there is was another bus into town again and to our hotel right in the center of the old town, the Hotel d’Horloge.

The Pope's Palace and Cathedral

The Hotel Horloge was not a great hotel but it was in a great location on the square below the Hotel de Ville and the Pope’s Palace.  We did the normal tourist things in Avignon - a visit to the Pope’s Palace, a visit to the Pont d’Avignon and then a city walk through the old part of town.  The Pope’s Palace entrance fee came with a iPad and a nice virtual reality application that gave you an audio commentary and a video presentation of what the rooms might have looked like in their day.  It was an impressive complex, part palace, part fortress and the home to six Popes in the 14th century.

Pont d' Avignon

The Pont d' Avignon, despite its fame in the children's song, was not so impressive. First it is only half a bridge, the stone bridge cross the Rhone was built in the 13th century only to be abandoned in the 17th century after it kept getting washed away in floods. The Rhone is quite an impressive river however.

Water Wheels in Old Town

In the old part of Avignon there was a canal through town taking water from the Rhone that was then used to power a series of water wheels that were in turn used to power various factories. Most interesting and ingenious.

The next day being Sunday, Nancy went to church while I walked around the city some more.  There is a wonderful park above the cathedral that overlooks the Rhône and the Pont d’Avignon.

After church we headed out to the TGV station where we picked up our rental car.  A nice new Dacia which we were told could be returned to any other Avis or Budget location in France for the sum of 79 Euros (more on that later).

Pont du Gard

From Avignon we drove to the Pont du Gard.  This is an amazing Roman aqueduct with three tiers of arches that was constructed around 50 AD to take water over to Nimes.  A wonderful structure that is still in excellent condition and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Being Easter Sunday the park admission was free and there was a small market and various entertainment acts performing in a small park by the aqueduct.  Well worth the stop on the way to Nimes.

We had booked into an old hotel in Nimes that was secluded down a narrow one way street and was actually covered in scaffolding and sheeting during a refurbishment of the outside.  The only indication was a sheet of paper pinned to the door identifying it as the Best Western La Marquis de la Baume. Inside however it was quite a nice hotel in a wonderful old stone building.

Maison Carre - Nimes

Amphitheater - Nimes

 We walked around Nimes and found it to be a lovely city.  Not too touristy with a nice old part of town with several Roman buildings (including the beautiful Maison Carre and an Amphitheater).  There were also some nice parks and buildings and, one of my favorites, an old part of town near the University with a lot of graffiti art. In a beautifully ornate old cafe I tried to be really French and order a Pernod. Alas, the waitress didn't know what Pernod was and got frustrated with me. We had help from the people at the next table and I ordered an anise.

Amphitheater - Nimes

The next day we walked around town some more and visited the interior of the Amphitheater. An amazing structure for its age but the interior was spoilt by a lot of scaffolding and modern embellishments.  I guess they still hold events in the arena.

From Nimes we headed towards Arles where we had heard there was a bull fighting festival.  It was the Easter weekend festival and yes there was a bullfight but there were also a lot of people there. Also we discovered that at the Easter Festival it is the only time they kill the bulls in Arles so that idea got nixed by Nancy. Normally they only taunt and tease their bulls in France.

Running the Bulls in Arles

Amphitheater in Arles

The town center was really crowded with no parking to be found so we crossed over the river (Rhone) and left the car in a neighborhood and walked back to the center.  As we approached the main street we noticed it was barricaded off and people were waiting for something to happen.  Just as we arrived it happened, a group of bulls were being driven through the town by horsemen with wooden lances. It was quite dramatic and our arrival was well timed. The bulls were driven into trucks and carted off to the bull fight and presumably their demise. There were just too many people in Arles and after a walk by the old Roman amphitheater we left town.

Chateau Varennes

From Arles we drove north to a small village called Sauveterre.  In Sauveterre there was a Chateau where we stayed for the night. Chateau Varennes.  It was owned by an Englishman from Nottingham and his Irish wife. Obviously very wealthy but very accommodating and quite personable.  We had a lovely meal in the evening in Sauveterre marred only by being surrounded by all smoking French people. Smoking is still quite common there.

What remains of Chateau Neuf du Pape

Next morning we drove into Châteauneuf-du-Pape, for some reason a big draw for Nancy Pape.  There was a rather good wine museum there where I actually learned quite a lot about wine production.  We wondered around the town and paid a visit to the now ruined Chateau on top of the hill.   

Gordes

Leaving Châteauneuf-du-Pape we headed towards the Gorges du Verdun area.  It was quite a drive taking us again back near Avignon and out eastwards. The countryside was quite beautiful and one could only imagine how spectacular it might be when all the lavender fields (of which there are many) are in bloom.   We stopped on the way in the quaint little hilltop village of Gordes. Very nice but obviously a stop on the tourist route and full of touristy shops.

Moustiers

Moving on we drove to Moustiers-Saint Marie where we stopped for the night.  A most picturesque town nestling up against the limestone cliffs with a stream cascading down through the middle of town.  In the evening we dined at the Restaurant La Treille Musca. Perhaps the most gourmet looking restaurant of the trip, certainly the most expensive and but not the best meal by a long way.

The next morning we set off to drive around the Gorges du Verdun.  This is a national park and it is known as the Grand Canyon of France.  I had been there in 1969 and had been impressed and was looking forward to seeing it again.  Alas, on this day the weather was miserable - windy, cloudy and wet. We did a little drive around the area but really it wasn’t the best of conditions and we peered over the edge of the canyons while the wind and rain battered us.  On the higher parts of the road the mist was blocking all views of the canyons below. Still we were able to realize that this is a most spectacular area and might be worth a revisit.

Gorges du Verdun

Gorges du Verdun

Driving away from the Verdun area we headed towards Aix en Provence.  On the way we passed through the town of Allemagne en Provence where there was a beautiful old chateau.  We probably would have stayed there if it had been open but alas no. We had to observe it from outside the walls.  I’m not sure what Germany in Provence is about but apparently it retained its Allemagne name during the World Wars while other similarly named towns in France changed their names.

Allemagne en Provence

Arriving in the big and bustling Aix en Provence we parked in a garage in the middle of town and went off to explore the town and find a hotel.  This is the town of Paul Cezanne and there is his a house (which we didn’t visit) and a statue in the main square (which we did visit).  We found a reasonable hotel, the Hotel de Gantes, adjacent to the main pedestrian street, Cours Mirabeau. After checking in we found that the room door would not lock. Interesting, but only a minor inconvenience. We had a nice meal that night in a side street pizza/Italian restaurant where I wrestled a dish of Provençal prawns - they were big beasts.

Gauguin in Arles

In the morning I walked around the old town while Nancy did some shopping in the market. As usual, there were lots of wonderful churches and squares and buildings. I followed the guide books walking tour.

Calenques near Cassis

Leaving Aix at lunchtime we headed south towards Cassis which is a town on the Mediterranean south of Marseille.  It was certainly a nice part of the world but again a bit touristy and there was obviously some serious money there. After walking around the port area we headed out of town on a hike to an area called the Calenques.  This area, the Calenques, is an area of limestone cliffs and inlets from the Mediterranean. In parts it was quite a treacherous trail and it was busy with lots of people that were not particularly equipped for hiking down steep rocky trails.  We decided to take an alternate way back which turned into quite a long way back. An easier trail but twice as long.

From Cassis we drove north to skirt Marseilles and then cut across the Camarque to Montpellier.  It might have been a nice route in the daytime but shortly after passing Marseilles the sun set and all we could tell was that we were driving over the flat marshy area of the Camarque.  There was lots of water all around us. We arrived into Montpellier on a rainy night and struggled a bit to find our hotel. With the aid of Google Maps and without the misdirection of Apple Maps we finally negotiated the complicated one way system to arrive at our hotel.

The old hotel, L’Hotel du Palais, was a lovely small old hotel in the heart of the old town right next to the court house.  Not very fancy, not very big, just perfect.

Promenade du Peyrou, Montpellier

Promenade du Peyrou, Montpellier

We explored Montpellier next morning.  It is a lovely city - the Arc de Triomphe, the Park Peyrou, the Saint Clement Aqueduct, the Cathedral Saint Pierre with its spired towers, and then the wonderful Place de la Comedie with its most amazing buildings. Though we spent less than 24 hours there, I thought it was one of the best cities of the trip. I will return to explore some more.

Cathedral Saint Pierre, Montpellier

Place de la Comedie, Montpellier

We had a nice lunch in a small backstreet restaurant and then headed back to the hotel to get our bags and the car.  We drove south towards Perpignan where we were due to catch a train the next morning. As we approached Perpignan the Pyrenees came into view - spectacular big snow covered mountains.

In Perpignan we stopped at the station to make sure we knew where the car rental return was for the next day.  Lucky that we did because the agent of the Avis agency would not accept a Budget car even though they are the same company and we had been assured when we rented the vehicle that it was possible.  We could not convince them to allow us to return the car there and eventually they closed up for the night. We went out to the airport where we had the same response. After much discussion on the phone with Avignon they finally agreed to accept the car at the airport and somehow try and get the car back to Budget. That was 3 hours of very stressful arguments.

At 6:00 the next morning I rose early to take the car back to the airport and leave it in the Avis lot and leave the keys in a box. The airport was deserted but there was supposed to be a bus. Alas the bus left, not from the bus stop outside the airport but from some other location - I saw it leave. That left me in a bit of a pickle - there were no more buses, no taxis, no Uber, not even any flights for the next 2 hours.  I resorted to hitchhiking and remarkably someone stopped and took me back to town. I was most grateful.

The TGV to Barcelona

We boarded our very efficient and on time TGV train in Perpignan for our short trip to Barcelona. The end of a another wonderful trip.

There are more photos here.

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