Tag: Provence

Provence Day 6: Avignon and Orange

Our last day in Provence and only two places to see: Avignon and Orange. I have to say, we have had enough of cities and towns, I miss mountains, nature etc. It’s nothing new – I’m not really a city person, but I have a feeling that I used to handle touristic places like that better than now. In any case – I’m not moaning or anything. I enjoyed the whole trip, it’s just that I liked our lavender fields trip, and ochre fields more than places like Avignon or similar.

We started from Avignon castle and here another confession – my expectations twoards it were much higher than what I saw. Perhaps once it was a splendid place but now only walls are left. On top of that, Wojtek started to feel a bit bored but our programme and he showed his discontent in a pretty obvious way, so we really had to rush through the castle. To sum up, the castle wasn’t the highlight for me. But I did enjoy the walk around the city. Avignon is pretty big and there are quite many places to look around. We wandered without any destination and made a longish loop that gave us a gist of how people live in this city.

 From Avignon we headed north to our home, however we stopped in a little town called Orange. It’s widely known for its amphitheater  and I have to admit – it was spectacular. A place worth doing a detour.

And so our journey has finished. Next holidays: skiing somewhere in Tatra mountains.

Provence Day 5: Sound of the sea

If you know me well you know I love planning. What I love planning most is my holidays and it was no different this time. Before departure on vacation I buy a guide, search the Internet and do a very detailed list of „to see” places. It’s rather rarely that I don’t stick to my plans, as there usually are various variants to choose from and one of them always fits. Today though we decided to make a drastic change and we headed to the seaside – which was not planned at all. I guess we both have had enough of „hard core sight-seeing” and needed a day-off from running around. So we took a map and basically chose a place that seemed nice and had a beach. So it happened that it was in a national natural park and since I love nature – we made our steps there.

It

It was unbarably hot so we didn’t spend much time with the flamingos. Sure they were cute but I really needed a water breeze to cool down so we shortened our walk around the ponds and headed to the seaside.

At the seaside… What can I say… Oh sweet laziness. We did absolutely nothing. I spent the entire afternoon under the umbrella reading and relaxing. The weather was perfect – it was super sunny but also windy from the sea so I didn’t feel hot at all. Wojtek loved the beach and in principle we didn’t need to entertain him at all. Am I getting old? I really wish I planned more of such days this year 🙂

Provence Day 4: Cities of Provence

Today we decided to wander around some small and big cities of Provence. I have to admit – this is not my favourite way of spending time on holidays – I prefer natural marvels way more than architecture must-sees. But I still enjoyed the day. In the end, there is some charm in sitting down for a coffee in a busy cafeteria at the heart of a centre.
We started the day with Saint-Remy-de-Provence. We made a quick walk around its morning market and headed to Glanum – the archaeological site of an ancient Roman city. Radek was delighted to see all of that as he always admires engineering skills. And you can’t rely deny that Romans had them!

Our next destination was a well-known city Beaux-de-Provence. There were loads of tourists but no wonder as the place had a lot to offer. The first thing that sticks out is a hilltop castle (or its remains to be precise) with a great view on the plains (see 1st photo). The ruins are really maze-like as there are lots of different little paths that you could follow and the area is huge.

But the real attraction to me was Carrieres de Lumiere – a high-end light and sound spectacle shown in a former limestone quarry. I have to say this was real something. Classical music played loudly in a chilly cave with visual images accompanying the sound made us really contemplative and relaxed. Worth visiting for sure!

From there we drove to Arles – a somewhat bigger city with a huge Roman amphitheater perfectly preserved and still operative.  Again – Roman architecture and engineering amazed us.


Another city that has an amphiteatre is Nimes. This time we didn’t go inside but from the outside it looked spectacular. We were already a bit titred by this action-packed day so we decided to stroll around Nimes without any specific destination and made quite a long loop like that.


And finally, a cherry on a pie for the day – Pont du Gard. Yep, that’s right, another masterwork of Romans.

Provence Day 3: More Lavender and Ochre

We didn’t feel like we had enough of ochre and lavender the previous day so we decided to see more of this beauty. Also, it’s not really a new discovery to me, but I so much prefer visiting nature resorts than the cities and typical touristic places. So the plan for today was to follow a Colorado Provencal ochre trail and then drive up to Chateau du Bois region to have a walk around the lavender fields.

Colorado Provencal is a truly remarkable place. It’s a 3-hour trail of no technical difficulty that leads through ochre canyons and deserts. The path leads first above a panoramic point where we had a look over the marvels of nature, then we reached a White Desert full of pale formations and white sand, then through a panoramic view of the canyon at the other side and finishing with another desert – this time red. See yourself.

From there we drove to Chateau du Bois to have a strall in lavender fields. Pretty romantic scenery for commemoration of our 7th wedding anniversary (that would fall on the next day).

We got hungry so decided to pass by a neighbouring village – Saint Saturnin les Apt. It turned out to be a lottery win as the place was secluded by tourists – I really don’t know why as I would say it was one of the prettiest settlements we visited throughout the whole visit. There was a castle on a hill, a dame, charming streets, fountains etc. The views were really nice as the whole place was situated on a hill. Worth doing a detour!

Next we visited Mines de Broux – another place worth recommending. It was an old minery complex that now was open to tourists. A 40-minute long tour with a guide tought us a lot about the industry and was really interesting. The day was getting to an end so we had time to visit just one last place and decided to go for Menerbes which is on the list of the most beautiful villages in France. We were super lucky as there was a men choir concert for free that we attended with pleasure. Even our son liked it and it’s not often an almost 2-year old sits quietly and listens to the music! Another beautiful day past us!

Provence Day 2: Lavender and Ochre

Mission completed. Lavender fields: check 🙂
Our main goal of a trip to Provence was to see the lavender blooming.  In the end, this is the main attraction there. So our first tourists’ steps headed to Abbaye Notre-Dame de Senanque. The view you see above appears in most of the postcards sent from here. No wonder… 🙂 Although we were a bit late to see the lavender in full bloom it was still pretty. We also made a walk in the abbey but to be honest – without the violet frame it would have been a bit boring.

We made a stop in Gordes where I discovered my utter love to lavender ice cream. I ate at least two boules of them every day throughout the whole visit. Even now, when I think of them, I start drooling and wish I was there again.

Our next destination was Village des Bories –  beehive-shaped stone huts that date back to the Bronze Age (and have been restored some time ago). A short 30-minute walk around the settlements and we’re off to the next place – Lavender Museum.

Ok, so there was a lot of lavender that day. But what not many know, Provence’s treasure is also its ochre industry. Ochre is a pigment used in all sorts of products. Starting from rubber, ending with cosmetics. To be honest, I never heard of it earlier so I didn’t know what to expect but when we visited ochre trails I was simply stunned. The three ochre-connected places we visited were the most interesting to me from the whole trip. First on: Rousillon.

It’s worth mentioning that these photos were not retouched. The landscape was simply like out of this world. The soil was red. Like… red red red. Check out this (untouched) photo:

Can you see the colour of the soil? Amazing! We made an hour walk around the Sentier des Ochre and then we headed to Rousillon which was … wait for it … red too 🙂 Truly amazing place – worth paying a visit.

Provence Day 1: Pernes-les-Fontaines

Holidays! Knowing that we’re soon coming back to Poland and have lots of days off to be used, we booked a last-minuted stay in Provence, just a 4-hour drive from Geneva. Our main goal for the trip was to see lavender fields. We’ll get to that 🙂

The village we’re staying in – Pernes-les-Fontaines – is a nice touristic place but definitely not impudent. It has lots of little fountains scattered around the place. They are really tiny – don’t expect anything sumptous – but they give a charm to the streets. As every place in France, this one also has a little castle (or what’s left of it), little old city square and a market place. It’s a pleasure to walk around.

We made a short walk around the village, stayed for a beer and ice cream and went back to our quarters to prepare for the next day that would be full of adventures. Stay tuned!