Welcome to chapter 12–A Summer in France: Provence Villages. In my last post, we stayed in L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue to use as a base to explore several towns and villages in Provence.
If you’re not familiar with the Provence-Alpes-Côté-d’Azur area of southern France, here’s a map to highlight where it is.
We were able to visit several villages during our week: Apt, Bonnieux, Ménerbes, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence and a very quick trip into Avignon to meet up with friends. There are many more places I’d love to visit, but we were out of time. Of course this means we’ll have to come back!
Apt
Apt is another ancient city. It was first documented in the year 314, when the area was formally represented by a priest and an exorcist. Personally, I’m not sure what that says about those who lived there at the time, but history can be strange.
We arrived in the downtown parking lot (which plays a stressful role later in the day) and then headed into the old town center. It’s another city with very narrow alleys, shops, cafes and ancient architecture. we walked through the Port de Siagnon gate that was built during the 14th century to wander around the inner streets.
Oops, the officer wasn’t happy…
Ok, it was now time to head to our next destination. However, it was a bit of a struggle to exit the parking lot due to conflicting signage, multiple policemen directing pedestrians on the outside of the lot and the nagging voice of our GPS that kept saying turn here, recalculating. So Danny decided to leave in the same direction we entered. The next thing we knew the cop directing traffic ordered us to turn around and pull back into the parking lot. He was not happy and Danny couldn’t figure out what he did wrong.
After handing over his driver’s licence, insurance and car registration we learned we were going down a one way, the wrong way-oops. Of course it’s easiest to claim “sorry, we’re tourist, we don’t speak French, blah, blah, blah…” But he wasn’t happy. He couldn’t speak much English and we pretended we didn’t understand much French. Ignorance is bliss as they say.
He questioned if we’re tourists why was the car under our name instead of a rental car company? We said lease and he continued to explain in French the infraction is 4 points against your license and 19 euros fine. We didn’t care about the points since that didn’t apply to us, but we quickly learned you apparently should never pull out cash to give an officer money for a fine. Oops, #2.
He looked shocked and he said no, no, no, and became increasingly frustrated. We just smiled, and said “sorry” in English. After several stressful minutes looking over Danny’s paperwork, he finally gave us back all the paperwork and told us just to turn around and leave. We said thanks and sorry once again and quickly turned back the other way. In the midst of the drama, I completely forgot to take pictures, darn. Another fun photo opportunity lost.
Final oops of the day…
Ok, anything look weird about this picture?
I took this photo from the passenger seat not 5 minutes after our police incident. Let me explain by backing up two minutes in time. We left the previous scene and Danny followed the GPS to our next destination. We were finally back on the road again. The GPS then says “hard right turn” so he followed the little blue line on the dashboard. This lane seemed awfully tight. Then we heard and felt THUMP, crap. What was that. Then another THUMP. What the hell, why are the walls getting closer? And then a third THUMP! So he stopped the car and I got out…carefully as the walls were very close and I couldn’t open my door all the way.
I then realized that the THUMPS were from the concrete pavement that was actually elongated slabs descending as STEPS. This is a PEDESTRIAN lane that DEAD ENDS says the confused man looking right at us. Oops #3.
Have you ever tried reversing UP steps in a manual car without ruining rims and tires? Neither have I. But Danny did, very carefully and without a scratch. I knew if someone called the cops before we got out of this situation, we wouldn’t get away this time! Thankfully we escaped and headed back on our way as we kept hearing “recalculating”. That GPS witch is going to kill us. After all these mishaps today, we need a drink.
Bonnieux
Bonnieux is a small village, about 1,200 people, perched on top of a hill. We drove up the mountain for a bird’s eye view. For those of you watching the Netflix series Emily in Paris, an episode of the 2023 Season 3 was filmed in Bonnieux.
You can climb the 86 stone steps to the top of the hill, where a 12th century church is located. It’s known as the “old church”, as opposed to “new church” built in the 19th century in the lower part of the village. Both are in the photo above. It’s a great village to walk around, up and down so you’ll get plenty of exercise, but I do have to admit the views are stunning. We stopped for pizza when we saw the wood burning oven. What is up with this lack of a “personal size” pizza? Everyone is expected to eat their own, whole pizza. I skipped dessert after eating all of this, although Danny didn’t. It’s so hard to resist a good crème brûlée.
Ménerbes
The walled village of Ménerbes sits on a hilltop in the foothills of the french Alps and has a population of about 1,100. Ménerbes became well known in the English-speaking world through the books of the British author Peter Mayle, who settled here. Mayle’s best-known book was A Year in Provence.
Saint-Rémy-de-Provence
From 1889-1890, Vincent van Gogh was a patient at the Saint Paul Asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence and painted some of his most memorable works featuring this town. Nostradamus, an astrologer and physician, was born here. Saint Rémy is an historic village built on one of the oldest archeological sites in Europe. The ruins of the Roman city of Glanum, including the Arc de Triomphe and the Mausoleum, date back to 30-20 BC. This is a quaint and picturesque city full of life, shops and cafes in the old town center. We had another day of beautiful weather and the bonus is that there was no drama 😉.
One of highlights of the day was our lunch. We love a good Croque Monsieur sandwich whenever we’re in France. If you haven’t had one before, it’s a hot, gooey ham and emmenthal (Swiss) cheese sandwich with béchamel sauce. You can also order it with an over easy egg on top and when served this way it’s called a Croque Madame. When we first arrived in Paris, I mentioned eating a croque monsieur made with Brie de Meaux when we visited Meaux one day. Of course it’s usually always served with salad and fries.
Now, I have been told that I make a really good croque by friends at home. But when we saw this chef’s version on the menu, we couldn’t resist. This croque was made with slow cooked, chopped beef instead of ham and topped with chopped black truffles in a cream sauce with emmenthal cheese. OMG, we both agreed this was the absolute best one we’ve ever eaten! I’ll have to try and recreate this at home.
Avignon
Today was another public holiday in France, Victory in Europe Day, celebrating Germany’s surrender and the end of WWII. Our friends Keith and Sharon are staying in Villeneuve-Les Avignon, which is a suburb of Avignon. As we drove through Avignon, I was able to snap a few photos from the car before we met them for wine and lunch. The Pont d’Avignon was built with a 12th century chapel on one of the piers. We then passed the Pope’s Palace before arriving at our destination. Too bad we didn’t have time to stop and visit, but maybe next time.
It was great to see Keith and Sharon again. Like me, Keith is celebrating his retirement this year and kudos to him for surprising Sharon with this trip on her milestone birthday! Woohoo, she looks FABULOUS and no, I won’t share which milestone decade it is. HA.
They prepared appetizers so we could visit awhile before lunch. We then walked down the street and had an excellent meal before talking a walk up to see the Fort and Abbey Saint-André. The Fort construction began in 1291. The afternoon just flew by, but we’ll see them soon when we all meet up again in Paris.
Thanks for reading chapter 12–A Summer in France: Provence Villages. We’re leaving the south of France to drive back up north toward Paris and visit friends for a long weekend. We look forward to relaxing without a sightseeing agenda and taking a break before we drop off our car. Then, we have a month in our apartment in Paris.
Stay tuned for more…
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