Another late start to the day, but it's nice not to HAVE to get up early to get on board a tour bus! We left our apartment around 10:30 and drove to Gordes, about 25 minutes from Villars, in time to take in the market in the center of town. Gordes is classified as one of Les Plus Beaux Villages en France and is a perched village with steep cliffs and hillsides falling away from the stone buildings at the top. Its access is via hairpin turns on a narrow road, just barely wide enough for two small cars, bordered with 2 meter high dry stone walls. The walls are particularly interesting as the flat, horizantally placed limestone rocks are topped with stones placed vertically to expose their sharp edges. Beyond the rock walls leading across the countryside are hectares and hectares of vineyards, some of which have not yet been harvested, so clusters of dark purple grapes hang off the vines. Many of the plants have "trunks" that are bigger than my upper arm.
In most of these villages it is mandatory to park below the center, so one must walk uphill to get to where the action is. Having been to 3 markets now, we are beginning to recognize some of the vendors, or at least their products. Today there was a "cowboy" singer from the US entertaining (??) the market-goers with his nasal twang and guitar. We heard several languages spoken by visitors from other parts of Europe and the US. Lunch was salad and sandwich at a Pique-Nique shop while wandering the steep alleys and ruelles of the town. I love the pale green-blues and lavender-blues of the window shutters against the gray stone walls, and we never seem to tire of the sights in these villages.
Our next stop was the Village des Bories - old huts made with dry stone construction dating from the 1400s to the 1800s. There are 400 bories registered in Gordes. Again, the stone walls framed the winding,narrow roads; meeting a tour bus on a sharp turn is thrilling! On the way back to Villars we'd hoped to stop in Roussillon, but as we parked in the center of town, the rain started to pelt down, so we opted to visit another day when the sun enhances the rusty ochre colour of most of the buildings there.
No comments:
Post a Comment