Into the Luberon

Saturday, we said good bye to the marshlands of the Camargue and headed into the Luberon for a complete change of scenery.  This region of Provence is a massif of the Alp foothills, straddling the departments of the Vaucluse and the Alpes de Haute Provence, 70km north of Marseille. The region is famous the world over for its outstanding natural beauty with craggy limestone hills.  In addtion, it is well known for its wines (Cotes du Luberon and Cotes du Ventoux), its lavender fields, its olive groves, and its charming medieval perched villages such as Roussillon, Bonnieux, Gordes and Menerbes. 

We booked a little two star hotel near Apt which, admittedly, we thought was closer to town than it is.  On the way there, we stopped at a town called L'Isle sur la Sorgue.  I have stayed near it several times over the last 25 years but never actually visited it.  It was a charming surprise.  It sits on the river Sorgue which lies between the foothills of the Alps and the Rhone river.  The town's narrow streets and upscale shops were great to explore before we stopped for our lunch at a little restaurant beside the "river".

From there, it wasn't a long drive to our destination although we did stop along the way at the dramatically located town of Gordes for a quick visit. 

Today, after my friend did a rather serious morning hike, we drove to the village of Roussillon, "un de les plus beaux villages en France" and it has received that designation for good reason.  The area around here is ochre-coloured rock and the town is a lovely variation of orange, yellow and red colured buildings.  It is in a spectacular setting and anyone would be hard pressed not to pick up their camera and start snapping away because no matter where you look there is a postcard perfect photo to take!

Tomorrow we start making our way east gradually back to Nice.