Exploring The Luberon

Provence is a huge area in France encompassing many different regions, all interesting. Many people think that the Cote d'Azure on the Mediterranean is Provence and it is but only a small part. In my opinion, one of the most lovely and fasinating sections of Provence is the area known as the Luberon and I put together a driving tour of some of my favorite places. It really can't be done in one day but it would be possible to split it into two days with north of the Luberon mountains one day and south the next but be sure to take the chance to savor what makes the Luberon so special. From lavender fields to perched villages, rolling hills covered in vines, fruit trees or olive trees, the Luberon is a place to which you will want to return again and again. Be sure to keep your eyes open for advertisements on little signs announcing either vide greniers or brochantes for buying local Provencal products, antiques or maybe just someone's junk. Especially investigate at tourist offices if there are any festivals which are always fun and which give a unique view of what makes Provence what it is.

Most of the Luberon lies around the Grand and Petite Luberon Mountain range and there are intriguing things to see on both sides. The roads themselves can be narrow, always two lane, sometimes seeming more like one lane with barely room for two cars to pass each other. After a while you will get used to driving along, going around a corner and suddenly seeing a car or truck heading towards you. Just slow down and get over but be careful of the deep ditches that often run along side the roads for water run-off. I often won't give highway numbers but you will easily find the village you want by being alert as you come to round abouts which don't always give highway numbers but only which villages or cities lie in the direction of the exit. By the way, there is nothing wrong with circling a round about several times deciding which exit you need to take.

Heading north from the lovely city of Aix-en-Provence on D 956 you will reach Pertuis not, in my opinion, a very interesting city although it does have a nice tourist center in the old section of the city located in a nice tower. If you go west on D 973 in the direction of Villelaure, there is a really nice winery to visit, le Val de Joanis. It has a magnificant garden and a quality gift shop. Follow the directions for la Tour d'Aigues which you will reach by continuing through many round abouts on D956. la Tour d'Aigues has a charming ruined chateau and you can take a tour of the mostly empty interior. (You many notice that there are several villages with the word “aigues” in there names. This refers to their location in the valley of Aigues. Aigues is an old Provencal word meaning water.)


La Tour d'Aigues

Driving through la Tour d'Aigues continue on D 956 to the perched village of Grambois. It is worth the stop for a look at its petite square and the charming church. If it is Monday and if you have the time, there is a huge market-the largest in Provence- in the mornings on a town outside of the Luberon area called Forcalquier reached by taking N96, a major highway and taking D 12 or N 100 which is on the north side of the Luberons. From Grambois or la Tour d'Aigues follow the signs to Ansouis, winding your way through vineyards. Ansouis has a castle at the top of the village with tours given and a really lovely chapel attached and fantastic views of the country circling around. From Ansouis follow the signs seen at round abouts for Cucuron. Cucuron has a wonderful rectangle pond once used for tanning surrounded by two hundred year old plane trees. The inside of the village itself is interesting to walk around, and you can see how the typical person lives here.


Ansouis


Another alternative when in the area of Grambois is to take D33 in the direction of Vitrolles-en-Luberon, over the mountain and down into the village of Cereste. From there take N100 to Apt which is the site of a good market on Saturday mornings. It is fun to wander through the old streets and to visit the Cathedral of Saint Anne. On the way to Apt is the little village of Saignon well worth a visit. There is a stupendous view from a rocky cliff with lavender fields down below in the summer and, although there are only a couple of small streets, there is a beautiful fountain in front of a hotel and many photo opportunities. It makes a refreshing stop. From apt you can head on to Gordes or Roussillon.

Leaving Cucuron, follow the signs once more to Lourmarin, D 27. This will probably be your favorite village. It is a delight, especially on the Friday morning market day, full of all sorts of Provencal wares to buy as well as fruit, vegetables, cheeses and more. Wander around the alluring streets and sit and have a drink at one of the cafes for a spot of people watching.


Lourmarin

An especially lovely drive is the one on D943 from Lourmarin to Bonnieux, another perched village with breath-taking views of the valley below. From here you can visit Lacoste and Menerbes if you wish. I would recommend that you go to Roussillon, an ochre and rust colored village reflecting the ochre that was once mined there. There is a valley there to walk through too but it will leave your shoes covered in orange dust.


Roussillon

Gordes is nearby, a gorgeous perched village built totally of stone. There is a wonderful view of it as you approach.


Gordes

Not far away is the interesting village des bories, a deserted little city built entirely of rock and, lovely when the lavender is in bloom, Senaque Abbey. For those interested in antiques, Ile sur la Sorgue is a must although it is not within the Luberon. Sunday is the huge market day there but it is packed with antique shops and it is a delightful place to wander around as there are canals and water wheels everywhere. You can end in Cavaillon, a good place for wandering around, eating or shopping.

Corsica Part 3

After a nice breakfast (typical French with great bread) we backtracked a little as I wanted to see a village called SantAntononino. We were high in the mountains and as we took turn after turn we could see villages high on top of hills that we had just driven through across a valley or see the next village we would arrive at perched on top of a hill looking a long distance away but quickly driven into. We went back through Ile Rousse, a popular tourist stop packed with people and traffic as it is a sea side village in a beautiful setting with turquoise and dark blue water curving around the cliffs and beaches which we could see as we climbed again to find SantAntonino.



The whole area gives me the feel of Provence with rocks and boulders everywhere, and many perched villages, although there is a lot more vegetation called maquis here in Corsica. The village was one of those built totally of rocks easily found here with winding climbing steets also of stone reminding me of Gordes. There wasn't that much there to see other than the stellar view-just a few shops and places to eat. We stopped to see a 12th century church inside a cemetery with primitive carvings on the outside in the area.



Then we crossed what is called a desert here, although I'm not sure why. There were mainly rocks but there was vegetation, not sand with very little else to see. Maybe nothing can be grown there.
We made our way up and then down many curves and twists to St Florent, a little harbor village which we didn't like nearly as much as Calvi although my husband had good memories of it when he went sailing with friends years ago around the island. It didn't have the neat beaches and architecture of Calvi although there are apparantly beaches to be found only not easily accessed.
Our hotel was interesting. When we first pulled in we were appalled as we entered an unpaved parking lot full of weeds and unfinished walls. We would have driven on and found another place but we had already payed for our room with a credit card. We went through a garden which badly needed weeding to a dirty, messy office. Thank goodness our room turned out to be clean and it had a/c and a TV so all was fine. They even served drinks in the evening with a few munchies on a porch with a view of children's toys everywhere in the weed overrun yard and cleaning products and equipement on shelves with spiderwebs everwhere (I am a critical viewer of other people's housekeeping) and we met everyone staying there. The owner of the hotel is a Harley Davidson owner and so was one of the guests. He=2 0told us about really delightful sounding but remote beaches but it would require a four wheeler or be a three hour walk. A nice little lady sat next to me at the “cocktail hour”. She and her husband were from Paris and she told me that they had come to Corsica several years ago and fallen in love with it. Then she told me that on her first trip she and her husband had circled the island on their Harley Davidson motorcycle. This surprised me as she certainly didn't look the part sitting there with short gray hair cut in an old fashioned curly short style. I looked at her husband and he was more the type with a sleeveless t-shirt and beard. Just goes to show—you can't judge a book by its cover.

The next day we drove back to Calvi after passing through a really bad traffic jam in Ile Rousse. All the highways in Corsica are two lane and when you enter villages and towns it can really be crowded. After picking lunch, we headed on to Piana climbing, twisting and turning as all roads seem to do here passing breath-taking views of the deep blue sea below breaking on cliffs, and finally entering the famous calenques which are cliffs and rocks in shades of red and rust in all sorts of intersting shapes. It is really lovely.



We had dinner at the gite where we spent the night in Piana which featured wonderful salads made up from vegetables from their own garden-jullienned zuchinni, carrots, onions and anise and another of jullienned beets. We were also served sanglier, wild boar, which, as expected, tasted gamey but I ate a little of it for the experience. The gite is set up rather like a dorm-we have a room with a bed (no a/c or TV), and the bathroom is down the hall with showers down stairs. I haven't done something like this since high school camp. There is a young couple here riding their bikes. They started in Accacio and plan to ride up all the way to Ile Rousse which is over 150 kilometers with lots of climbs. It is rather dangerous with cars as one must slow way down to get by approaching cars. We had a really fabulous sunset as we sat outside in the rather chilly air eating dinner. Everyone went and got coats, sweaters and long pants. I'm not sure if it is a cold spell, or due to the wind, or if it is normal for this part of Corsica.
The next day was spent in Cargese where we scuba dived which was disappointing due to the lack of much to see. The town itself was interesting with two lovely churches and a tiny harbor down at the bottom of the hill on which the buildings tumble down. Back to Ile Rousse the next day where we caught the ferry for a five hour ride to Nice.
We really loved Corisca. We loved it so much we are going back next June. It's undeveloped and simple and, best of all, close to France.

Corsica Part 2

We left Calvi and set off to do a bit of exploring. First we went to the west coast to see a chapel called Notre Dame della Serra which turned out to be closed but was set up on top of a cliff overlooking a spectacular view of Calvi and the bay. A statue of the Virgin Mary was on top of a big group of rocks.





There are huge rocks in this part of Corsica, some with very strange shapes with part of the shell of the rock broken off with a halow section inside. It isn't unusual to see buildings using these in their structures. The whole area reminded me of northern Arizona which has an area that is very rocky, especially one called Granite Dells near Prescott.

Next we went back through Calvi and then took highway D 151 which took us to Calenzana where we had lunch, then to Zilia, Lunghignano where there was an olive press turned by a friendly mule named Charley where we bought some olive oil and a t-shirt.



The road kept curving up and up until we reached the summet full of some vegetation but mostly rocks and boulders and, I bet, snow in the winter. We finally made it to our village called Speloncato which turned out to be charming with two unusual churches and interesting streets winding up to a view of a lake far down below. Our hotel, A Spelunca, was made from the former summer palace of Cardinal Savelli, a minister of Po pe Pius IX.



There were no elevators or air conditioning (or WiFi or TV) but it was very charming with antiques all around. Our room had a strange little cubicle and a plastic curtain for the toilet but here was a nice shower in our room. The hotel was totally full and we understand that after the 15th of July it is almost impossible to get a room anywhere in Corsica, especially in August when most of Europe and especially France take vacations. We decided that we very much want to retun to Calvi again and stay at the same hotel we were in, l'Onda, which is near the beach but it will probably be in June to escape the crowds. We had a nice meal at the cafe across from our hotel in Speloncato with lots of Corsican rose. When the sun set the temperatures cooled off and with the open window I was thinking we would have a cool night which we did. By the way, there were signs all over the hotel warning clients to close the windows and shutters when they were there or left the rooms due to violent winds. I'm sure they must really blow around here with the village on such a high mountain. When we went into our room for the night there was a wonderful crescent moon in the sky that we could see from our window. Such a nice stop.

Corsica Part I

We finally had a trip planned to Corsica, a place I had had on my list of places to visit ever since we came to France. Corsica is French island which is 114 miles long by 52 wide lying between France and Italy. Sardenia, which is Italian, is immediately to the south. Corsica through many conquerers and rulers finally ended up being French although apparantly there are radical citizens who want to have their own country and sometimes set off bombs. As late as the 50's it was very primitive and under-developed and the Corsicans were known for their violent disagreements, usually over honor, and the shooting and killing of offenders often as many as 900 in one year being killed. Once 36 people died as the result of a vendetta when a sheep was wounded. I think it is pretty much a thing of the past. Now there are people involved in drug rings usually set up in Marseilles from what I read. It is now a haven for tourists with all sorts of hotels and resorts. There are many rugged mountains with forests inbetween and it is known as The Granite Island. It is also the birthplace of Napoleon although his family had to flee to France during a political uprising there and Napoleon only returned there once on his way back to France from Egypt.




We set off for Toulon to catch the ferry to Corsica. Various ferries can be caught in many places along the coast from France but Toulon was our hopping off point due to last minute tickets. We got in line with other cars and were supposed to be boarded and on our way by 10:30 PM but another huge ferry pulled in first and ours finally did afterwards. They are all enormous, able to hold six to eight hundred cars. We didn't board the ferry until 10:30 and we didn't set off until 11:30. It turned out that this was going to be an overnight trip taking almost eight hours. If we had left from Marseille and gone to the town of Calvi in Corsica it would have been a five hour trip. Sometimes you just can't plan these things in time. Almost everyone in France that I told that we were going to Corsica always replied, “So are we!” It turns out Corsica is a very popular vacation spot for both French and Italians. We didn't have tickets for either rooms with beds or special chairs that reclined into beds. Luckily, we just went to the bar, claimed long couches and, in a few hours, were stretched out trying to sleep. Of course it was noisy, full of bright lights and people walked around for hours. Around 2 AM a little girl started acting up and yelling “No!” over and over. Luckily they took her out. Around 4 AM a baby started crying but hushed up before long. Actually, I didn't sleep much worse than I do on a plane from Paris to the States although Maurice got very little sleep.



Finally we landed in our port of Ajaccio. Imagine two huge ferries carrying hundreds of cars each, both unloading at the same time. It took us quite a while to finally get on the road. We didn't even take time to explore Ajaccio as we had to head north to Calvi where Maurice's son and his girlfriend had to find a space at a camp where they were going to stay for a few days for a music concert and they had to get there early enough so there were still some places to chose from. There are two ways to Calvi from Ajaccio. One is a picturesque, winding road along the coast and the other is cutting across the island, then heading north and then west to finally reach Calvi on the northern end of the island. On the map it looks like the coast road would be best but actually, because of the curves, it takes twice as long. As it was, we twisted and curved our way across mountains across the center of Corsica actually circling the base of what looks like an enormous chain finally reaching Calvi in about three hours. A camp site was secured. The camps seem very nice with huge buildings holding shower stalls, toilets and sinks, swimming pools, trees to camp under, a unit with small refrigerators to rent, and a short walk to a beach.
We then had lunch and set off to have a look at Calvi which has a beautiful harbor full of huge sail boats and yachts and then a climb to the top of the village for breath-taking views of the turquoise and blue waters below. Calvi seemed to me to be a typical French village full of ancient buildings, interesting churches and shops for tourists. That evening we sat on the beach with a bottle of Corsican rose wine and watched the sun set. Nearby a small bar was playing music, a mix of pop and techno and young people were on the beach dancing and enjoying the music. I think I was the oldest person on the beach. We then had a pizza at a little place at the camp before calling it a day.