Discovering PACA

The region Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, which includes six départements including le Vaucluse, extends from Orange, Avignon, and Arles in the west to the Alps and the Italian border in the east. Funny thing, though, about what actually constitutes la Côte d’Azur, or what we call the French Riviera. On the east, no problem: Menton which is situated right next to Italy. The westernmost point, however, seems to be somewhat in dispute. According to my research, either Théoule-sur-mer (just west of Cannes) or Hyères (east of Toulon) serves as the Riviera’s end point in the west. At any rate, last Friday we took off in a rental car to do a bit more exploring of “our” area.

The bright sunny day made it extremely enjoyable driving through small towns nestled in the mountain range of le Luberon before reaching our first destination, Lourmarin. The weekly marché was in full swing when we arrived in town, so we spent about a half-hour looking at books, clothes, and gift and food items for sale there. Lourmarin is very lovely, with its art galleries and nice shops—quite surprising for a town of less than 1200 people. We took advantage of the warm weather to find a spot outdoors at a café to have lunch, relax, and do some people-watching. Then we headed to the town cemetery to pay our respects at the grave of Camus.




From there we hopped on l’Autoroute A8 heading east for la Côte d’Azur. After about a two-hour ride we got to Cabris, high in the mountains of les Alpes-Maritimes near Grasse. We had directions to our chambre d’hôte (“bed and breakfast”), of course, but still some detective work was needed to decipher the signs and arrive at the mountainside villa. It was fun walking around the small town, appreciating its views of le port and le phare (or “lighthouse”) of Antibes in the distance. We learned from the lady who owns the B & B that a home nearby, la Messuguière, used to welcome French intellectuals—such as Gide and Camus—to its quiet retreat and that Gide's daughter, Catherine, still lives in the town. There were actually a number of restaurants to choose from and we eventually settled on La Chèvre d’Or (“The Golden Goat”) for supper that night.

The next morning, despite the clouds, we were up early and headed off for Grasse and Vence: two working-class cities which proved to be largely disappointing. Luckily for us, other towns in the surrounding area had a lot more charm. It was enjoyable, for example, exploring the tiny streets of Châteauneuf de Grasse, even if our search for traces of Julia Child and Simone Beck were in vain. We were quite surprised to discover the attractive medieval village of Les Tourettes-sur-Loup, one of those small places where photo ops present themselves at every turn.  Sunday was the worst day of the weekend, rainy and cold, which cut short any plans for seeing the coast. Seems like everywhere we go, too, people tell us that the weather is never like this! Small comfort! We contented ourselves with une brocante (a type of flea market) in Carpentras on our way home.