Gordes, Provence

The road to Gordes takes us through many pretty little villages.  Most of which would never be listed in a tourist guide.  They have the usual offerings, butcher, baker, pharmacy, bistros.  All for the local's enjoyment.  One such village had a Musee de La Lavande (Lavender Museum).  The town is called Coustellet, which sits within Provence in the region of Luberon.

 The Museum provides a rich history of Lavender farming.  The thing I remember most regarding our visit here was the thick, sweet scent of Lavender.  It was so rich that it permeates your skin.  I can still smell it today, it is not unpleasant just singular.

The worker above is demonstrating the distillation of Lavender.  It takes quite a stack of the stuff to make a litle liquid.  A quick and interesting stop.  All that fragrance made us thirsty.  That is never a problem in France.  Just 5-10 minutes into the Luberon we spot a vineyard, "Open for tastings" says the sign under the "Domaine Des Peyre" Logo..  Excellent timing.  

Our young and very knowledgeable host walked us through the award winning Rose followed by the whites and reds.  The former two better then the red.  We must have tasted 6 different crus....in France, most wineries do not charge for tasting...the few that were, are still very affordable. What a way to travel....always a wine tasting in every area that we visit....we are blessed! The site for the tasting at le Domaine des Peyres was very nice and getting nicer.  They were in the final stages of opening the hotel on site.  We were offered a tour of the rooms and the facilities to be built.  Each room kept the old French farmhouse style in mind while offering lavish modern amenities.  This will be quite the place when it is all finished! The owner is a lady who used to run the Gault Millaud Guide organisation...she knows what it takes! They have also built a commercial kitchen for cooking  classes that will be part of the guest experience.

An interesting place, we will surely check back with them next time we are in the area to see the finished product.  We got back on the road to Gordes.   The picture below is what we saw.  Impressive!

Above is the view we enjoyed while we had a picnic on the bench below.  Gordes is a great village for a day's visit.  Lots of artists and restaurants and a little bit of history. Mostly, people go for the views.

On the way back, we stopped at Fontaine-de-Vaucluse.  In the valley below Gordes, this village has a beautiful river front location with natural spring waterfall, the fifth largest in France.  The river powered a paper mill in the past.  Today, the mill is used for more artistic purposes.   You can take a class in paper making..  The resulting paper is then used by the local artists as their canvas.  

The ruins of  Chateaux Vacluse look down upon the village from the cliffs above.  Getting up there must have been a real challenge back in the days.

This place was interesting.  The containers above were like bulk spices.  Except these liquids were vinegar's, oils, liquors, ciders...pretty much anything in liquid form was for sale.

During the day, the narrow street to access the main square is closed to traffic. In order to get in, you must park along the road and walk about 2km.  "Timing is everything" they say, we arrived late in the day just as the city worker was removing the barriere, re-opening the street.  We drove right in getting a front row parking spot, next to the centre.  It made our visit much more convenient.  OK we are lazy, I know you are thinking it so I am just going to get it off the table.  Guilty as charged.

After a nice visit, we headed west towards home.  The drive would be about an hour, which coincided nicely with dinner time.  We had spied a Pizza parlor that was always packed to the rafters in Maussane.  Since it was on the way home, we thought it might be fun to try it.  The restaurant's picture is below.  The seating is along the right side of the shop.  There are menus in 8 different languages hung outside the main door.  If you are lucky enough to find a table, grab it right away.  Pizza Brun fills up and stays full from open to close.  The menu has about 15 different choices, all interesting with lots of unique local ingredients.  The fun part is ordering.  You enter the shop, it's cozy.  There are two owners (husband and wife) behind the counter.  You shout out your order and a name.  The wife, who speaks English,  gives you a time, at which point you proceed to the cooler to choose your beverage.  I take a bottle of the house Rose and two glasses.  Holding them up for the wife/owner to see, I am out the door to the table that Johanne is preciously guarding. This process took all of 2 minutes.  There were 4 others doing the same thing at the same time.  Still it worked very nicely.  20 minutes later the wife/owner leans out the window, calling my name.  I enter the shop, grab the pizza, offering payment at the same time..  She says, "too busy, pay later..  Go Eat".

It was delicious, light thin crust and perfectly cooked ham, artichokes, olives, grilled chicken with a goat cheese and pesto sauce.  We chatted with some locals and enjoyed the night. The meal and the conversations were so engaging that we almost forgot to pay.  After bidding our dinner companions adieu, we started to head toward the street to leave. Thankfully, we remembered before it looked like something else was about to take place. Re-entering the shop ,we are greeted by the wife.  L'addition s'il vous plait"  I annnouce in my best french...even Johanne was impressed with my delivery.   The wife shouts what we had and in a heartbeat, the husband, without any help from a calculator, provides the customer (us in this case) with the verbal bill..... "Pay now" the wife says!   Our bill was easy only two  items..... the next customer has 15 items..... BAM, same drill, same result.  They've been doing this for years making it look easy but it is still impressive to all of us waiting to pay.....imagine the mental gymnastic this man goes through all day long! Amazing!

Tomorrow is a golf day followed by an outdoor concert at a Chateaux in the Camargues.

Be Well

Sante