Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Day 7 Roussillon, Gordes, Menerbes, Bonnieux




Took a local road trip today through some of the little villages in the Luberon area. The first was Roussillon (left picture) which is a hilltop village that sits on an enormous ochre deposit that gives the earth and buildings beautiful shades of orange. It's small enough that we walked it in less than an hour, and most of that was taking pictures. It's an extremely scenic place that must be crazy with tourists in the summer. The second town we visited was Gordes (right picture). another striking hilltop village. The whole damn town is made up of rocks - walls, steps, houses, everything - really quite beautiful. It's another place that must be nuts during tourist season. I'm really glad we travel when we do; you get to see so much more. It was getting close to two o'clock and lunch time so we drove over to Menerbes which didn't seem quite so touristy. It's also on a hill and overlooks the Luberon mountains. It had a few small cafes and seemed like a working community that would be a good place to stay when visiting. We had lunch at a little cafe with a beautiful view called Le P'Tit Bouchon. The Pasta with truffles was outstanding, as was the bottle of Rose. The Rose's in Provence are so good that it's just about the only wine we've been drinking. On the way back to Lourmarin we drove around another hilltop village called Bonnieux . We did not spend much time there as it has no real village pedistrian center. It too seems like a very pleasant place to live. For dinner we just went to one of the cafes next door (L'Ormeau) and tried to eat light.

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