Welcome To Summer in Provence -
I’m not sure if summer is really here, but for the second day in a row (April 6 & 7) the temperature is right up around 80 degrees with lots of sunshine.
Getting back to our visit to Luberon, besides visiting Isle-sur-la-Sorgue and Gordes, we also went to Joucas, Roussillon, LaCoste, Bonnieux and Loumarin.
Joucas is a very small hillside village. We had lunch in a 5-table café. There were four men kind of sitting and wandering, eating a little and drinking. It turned out that two of them spoke fluent English and one of them seemed to speak English as his primary language. The more French-speaking gentlemen wasn’t bashful about sharing that he was anti-American, and he sounded pretty anti-French. We got a photo of a Joucas street and a house on the main street of Joucas.
We drove on to Rousillon, which many use as a central operating town for touring Luberon. I’ve seen Rousillon described as Santa Fe on a hilltop. Never having visited Santa Fee I can’t vouch for the accuracy of the statement. You’ll see a photo of the main town square, a church at the top of the hill, and one of many views from Rousillon. We got a couple of photos of Rousillon residences and an overview of the town.
We drove into LaCoste, another hilltop village, but kept on driving as we were limited by time. The Marquis de Sade (look him up) lived in the local castle for 30-years. Today Pierre Cardin lives in the lower part of the castle, having spent a few bucks to make it livable. Cardin sponsors a high-priced summer opera series and has the locals fearful that he’s going to change everything around this small and quiet village. The LaCoste story is interesting, connecting with a one-time French tennis star and the LaCoste clothing line (again, look it up).
We drove through Bonnieux (again, time did not permit a stop), which supposedly has some good eating places. It’s another hilltop town and it’s at the beginning of a curvy mountain road that heads south to Loumarin and back towards Aix-en-Provence. Loumarin is only 45 minutes north of our house, so it’s easy to get to, and, in fact, we went there on the second day of touring Luberon (visiting for the second time) and spent some quality time, getting a photo of a Loumarin street scene.
As an aside, Marlene and I and Sophia went to a Mediterranean beach yesterday. It was too hot for the women after less than 30 minutes. Without beach chairs it was too uncomfortable for me. Lots of stones and rocks on the beach, which is typical of the Mediterranean beaches. There’s a stretch along the sea just west of Marseilles that is referred to as the Blue Coast. That’s where we were. There are some nice villages, a number of beaches and lots of hillside and seaside homes. Not bad at all, but pretty mundane compared to Cannes and Antibes and that stretch over near Nice. There were a couple of restaurants at the beach we went to, along with a snack shop. Marlene insisted on purchasing a hot dog and then insisted on throwing it away after a bite or two. She’s having a tough time learning the lessons of French beef. We have had some “porc knacks” that we prepare at home, which are skinny hot dogs made of pork. They’re not great, but you can get by with them. Now, remember it is very difficult to find yellow mustard and there’s no pickle relish, so your porc knack is garnished with Dijon mustard (how many varieties can you imagine?) and catsup. It’s not my choice, but one can’t be choosie.
School for Sophia and Keaka is quite different. They recently completed a section on the United States, looking at migration to, foreign trade, the manufacturing Northeast, the SunBelt and major cities. The curriculum didn’t have everything quite correct, but close enough. Another section they studied was migration -----from Poland to the UK. It was all about Poland and seven other Eastern European countries joining the European Union in 2004, which created a wave of migration to the UK. I don’t think that gets studied in United States schools.
Tomorrow (Tuesday) Marlene has us going back to Isle-Sur-la-Sorgue, “just to see more of it”. It was a nice place last Thursday, so it should be nice tomorrow. It’s only 45 minutes from the house, so we can’t go too far wrong.
The Wilsons
