Our first excursion

Inspired by a copy of The Most Beautiful Villages of Provence that I’d seen at my friend Marjorie’s and then found on a bookcase in La Maison Rose, we did our first exploration of the area on Friday. Taking off in our rental car after lunch, we visited the three small villages perchés of Venasque, Roussillon, and Gordes. Our first challenge was finding the right road off of D974, even though we had a map of the area. We headed back toward Carpentras as planned but somehow got lost several times, ending up in Mazan and Pernes-les-Fontaines before getting on the route towards Venasque. The roads between towns were small and twisty with a lot of “nature” up close and personal. Venasque proved to be a very small, quiet town without even an open café at this time of the year. We did catch sight of the eleventh century Romanesque church Notre-Dame and its gargoyles as well as pretty flower boxes in windows throughout the town.

Heading off toward Roussillon, the road became mountainous, one of those with hairpin turns and beautiful panoramas of the valley below, but you’re almost too terrified to look!
Our next stop was Roussillon, which did not disappoint in any way. Site of the famous sociological study by Lawrence Wylie, Village in the Vaucluse (1957), Roussillon is a tourist mecca, with medieval walls and beautiful multi-colored ochre land and buildings. The landscape reminds me of the mountains of Sedona, Arizona that we saw with our family during the 2007 Christmas vacation. Strolling through town, my husband snapped a picture of a 150-year-old vine. Fortunately for us, there were also things to do besides walk around: a bookstore was open as well as a small café.

Finally, we took the short drive from Roussillon to Gordes, a place you’d swear was in its original sixteenth century condition. Apparently, though, the entire town had to be rebuilt after the Germans destroyed it in 1944. Another thing we didn’t realize about Gordes is that the most striking view of it is from the road coming in to town, where you can see houses built into the entire south side of the cliff. Next time we’ll get a picture going in to town. It’s going to be fun to keep discovering le Vaucluse!