Roussillon and Gordes

October 14, 2023

Another day without biking, just seeing the amazing Provence sights! We started out with a trip to the Halle Gourmande, to stock up on food for the next couple of days. It is very much like having a daily indoor market available, but add in lots of prepared food, not just fruit and vegetables.

To give you a sense of scale, Marjory is trying to choose one fromage chevre (goat cheese) and you can see about 1/2 the ones available in the photo below.

Then off to Roussillon, the town that mines ochre - used as a paint colour. Red is the most famous, but they seem to have all colours available - red, orange, blue, green, yellow and everything in between.

The town itself is charming with photo opportunities around every corner.

The town is clearly well off, and all the stone houses are taken care of very well. Lots of brightly coloured shutters and doors to contrast with the stone walls.

Rather steep roads, and imposing entrances meant you must be fit to live there!

At the top there was, of course, a church. Not impressive at all, but the views of the landscape there were outstanding.

We came across this store which sold balsamic reductions, and love that still out front - the cooling coils were a give-away.

Then on towards the main event which was Gordes, we stopped on the way at the Julien Bridge. Under it was a dry river, which clearly had seen some strong currents at some time in the past.

It was, of course, built by the Romans.

At the approach to the center of Gordes, there is this lookout where everyone gets their picture taken. It was on a fairly narrow street with temporary parking, and people were pulling in non-stop. I cannot imagine how they cope in the summer time when the crowds are peaking. Now, in the off-season, it was still rather chaotic.

The old town center was fairly compact, and was at the very top of the hill. You could walk all the way down through the town, but we took just a short walk around to see the cool buildings and peaks of views to the landscape far below.

If we go down there, we have to come up again, right?

Then we found a quiet spot for a petit verre, at a very high end hotel. Marjory says it was the most expensive aperol spritz she has ever had, but the view...oh la la!

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