Friday - Small Towns in Provence

Friday, March 20, 2009 Small Towns in Provence
Up and out before 8 AM to explore more of Provence…Our first stop was in the hilltop town called Ansouis that has a castle (they all have a castle at the top of the hill, sometimes its just a shell but each town seems to have its Châteaux) An American lady by the name of Yvone Lenard redid an old house next to the castle and wrote a story about it called “The Magic of Provence”. Martha was sure she could drive up to the Châteaux so up and up we went around each corner the road got smaller and smaller the last turn was really tight and we found a pole blocking the end of the street with a car parked on the other side….. I got out of the car, found a man and showed him what our problem was…he spoke no English… I speak no French ..but it was evident that we were in a jam (no way could we back the car out)…He was amazed that we had gotten ourselves to this point…but we have a very small car.. anyway he called the municipal people who could unlock and remove the pole blocking the street and knew who the car belonged to so he went and got the keys and moved it out of the way. We have now agreed not to explore streets that are to narrow especially when they lead uphill. We really thought we might get a ticket because a lady came by while we were waiting and said it was illegal to have a car on this street……..think that the men felt sorry for these two old ladies.
Our next stop was in another hilltop town called Lourmarin where we found a wonderful street market going on. It was like the Thursday market in our town but not quite a large. We bought some wonderful Macaron Cookies, some fruit and a jar of spread (basil,cheese &Olive Oil) for our bread. By 11 AM we were in the town of Bonnieux (another photo opportunity) and then on to Lacoste partially famous for a castle (now in ruins) that belonged to the famous Marquis de Sade who had it built in 1766. This property now belongs to the famous designer Pierre Cardin.
Noon found us in the lovely little town of Menerbes. We have both read the book written about this area by Peter Mayle so we were very interested in finding some of the places that he had written about but then neither of us could find our notes regarding this town…. So we just did a walk about and enjoyed the old buildings. Menerbes has survived centuries of strife and Peter Mayle remarkably well. When Mayle wrote A Year in Provence (1989)here it brought the coachloads of tourists to photograph every square inch of the village. But now Menerbes has returned to what it was - a beautiful, quiet medieval village, exquisitely poised over the Luberon valley. Driving on winding roads we made our way thru the back roads of Provence to our little home away from home at the Hotel Les Nevons in L Isle Sur La Sorgue…… another perfect day…..
Last night we did walk in town and found a small shop that sold us potato patties and wonderful ham and cheese Quiche.. both of these we ate by hand while walking the riverways of Sorgue. We did not stay out too long tho as the wind had come up and its looked like we may be getting a Mistral Wind (kind of like a Santa Anna wind in California). But this morning the wind had calmed down and we had another pretty day, but now this afternoon the wind is back again. Told Martha that I would love to go back for another Quiche tonight as that really hit the spot. She did some bookkeeping last night and said that for the past 31 days (after leaving England) our food was only costing us each 6.50 euros a day…. Know that will increase as food cost will be higher in Italy. We have plans for two more small towns tomorrow then a day in town on Sunday before we leave for Nice on Monday. So for now Au revoir