Bonjour !
Who would have thought that the worst problems I would have with Internet during the holidays would be in France?
Each time that I moved to a new accommodation, people were telling "I am so sorry, the wifi is out of service at the moment".
No problem, I can survive without Internet but, as a result, no blog update until today.
Which means that I have a looooot to tell you.
The first part of the trip was in the Luberon, a small part of France which is full of beautiful small villages, not invaded yet by the tourists at that time of the year.
I spent most of my childhood there, so most of it was not a discovery, but a hunt for memories.
It is a very nice part of the country to visit, because usually you only have to drive 5 or 10 km until the next interesting spots.
The first villages I crossed were:
Ménerbes
Goult
Lacoste
and then Bonnieux, which is the place where I lived as a child.
And here is the school where I spent several years. It has not changed at all :)))
Does anyone want some cherries from the garden?
Roussillon, which is called the Small Colorado
Gordes, the village and its "bories", dry stone houses built by small farmers, growers and shepherds who went in for "self-build" constructions using the stone that they found on the spot.
The stones are placed one on top of the other, slightly inclined to encourage rainwater to run off and to provide better insulation.
The only tool used was a two-handed hammer. The only opening, the door, is always low, narrow and south-facing, based on needs determined by the climate: protection from the heat in the summer and the cold North wind in the winter.
Sénanque and its famous abbey (in all the pictures on Internet, you will see it with a lavander field in front of the church, but it is too early for lavander, no flowers before June)
As a child, I spent days building shelters with dead wood in the cedar forest in Bonnieux, and it seems that children keep on doing it until today.
Lourmarin (you can see Albert Camus' grave in its cemetery)
Buoux, where the human presence goes back to prehistory, when men used the cliffs are natural shelters, more than 50 000 years ago.
Then a fortress was built on the top of one of them, in order to control the valley.
Saignon, and its rush hour traffic jams
Back to Bonnieux, and to the Pont Julien, built by the Romans.
Oppède: perched on a rocky spur, with its medieval fortress and the church which was partially rebuilt in the 16th century.
Some lords first owned the whole village before becoming the property of the Pope in 1274.
Fontaine-du-Vaucluse, and its paper mill:
L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue
