Hello everyone!
You know those kind of trips that marks your life in such a special way that you can’t get those moments out of your mind?! It was like this in the south of France. I have just arrived and already want to go back. I spent three weeks in Corsica, Provence and Cote D’Azur. You can’t even imagine the smell and the amount of magical corners there are within the lavender fields. Such a dream!
Today I am going to talk about two charming villages that are in a region called Luberon. It is formed by a chain of mountains of limestone of high altitude, at some points they are higher than two thousand meters. Its environmental importance is so great that it was entered as a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO. Between the mountains, there are productive lands with the most succulent fruits and many charming villages. Two of them are a definite must see: Roussilion and Gordes.
My base was Aix-en-Provence, where I walked around 50 miles to reach Luberon. You must have car to circulate through these villages because public transportation is very limited.
All of a sudden, a city with such special colors appears on the road – Roussilion! The shades of the houses follow the colorful Ochre Du Luberon park which is renowned worldwide due to the pigment that nature has concentrated there. Today, the Ocre is no longer used in paintings. It was replaced by pigments reared in laboratories. However, the village still lives in the light of the reservations that the park offers. After finding a parking spot, the question is where to start. If it is to the left you arrive to the wonderful medieval village full of little Provencal stores and excellent restaurants. If you go to the right, you enter the park by paying 2.50 euros and a walk about 40 minutes per two trails. If you go to Provence, this visit is absolutely mandatory!
Walking over 10 kilometers you arrive at Gordes. The mysterious city can be seen from afar because it balances with total harmony at the top of the hill between the stones. Its historic buildings are the most visited in the south of France. Don’t miss out on exploring the Vilage des Bories, where very primitive cabanas were built with stones along the lines of the Trulli in Puglia, Italy. Near there, the Abbey of Notre Dame de Les Gervais, dating from the 12th century, is full of lavender beds in the months of July and August. There’s nothing more charming!
I hope I have been able to carry you along these places with my words and pictures.
I wish you all a beautiful week and see you next Tuesday!
