Last Days in France

We left Lourmarin in the first Provence rain we'd seen and spent five rather unpleasant hours on highways in rain and traffic. Things really improved when we turned off the major highway, though, and drive little roads through the Chablis region. Chablis itself was a lovely little town, and we were staying in Ligny le Chatel, even smaller and also pretty cute. Our hotel was charming,room comfortable and dinner really good. Great last night before airport hotel. Our drive the next day into Charles de Gaulle was part pleasant--through cute little Isle de France towns--and part awful--highway near CDG was as bad as any traffic ever. But we got there, returned our car, and got shuttled to the hotel. I am on my way home now. Mark day after tomorrow.

Ligny le Chatel Hotel

Room

Hotel Garden

Dining Room

Lentils and Bacon Lardons

Ligny le Chatel

Ligny le Chatel

Ligny le Chatel

Surprise castle in a village

Pastis With Our Lourmarin Neighbor

We ran into a nice old lady twice on the elevator and she told us in French that if we needed anything  just tell her, as she was in the apt next door. Mark got the idea to buy her some flowers at the Friday weekly market. When we delivered them she asked to come for an aperitif. At five on Saturday she rang our bell and we went next door. She spoke no English and I was worried I could converse or understand, but we stayed for over an hour and I really did okay. I translated for Mark and did a lot of talking myself. Mark and I had Pastis and she had whiskey. She is ninety and is a widow. She has two sons who visit sometimes but she was glad of our company. She gave us a huge bottle of Pastis when we left even though we tried to talk her out of it. Her name is Aimee.

Lauris and Ansouis

Our last day in Provence we visited two hill towns, each with a chateau. Lauris had some pretty gardens attached to its chateau and some pleasant streets, but was not that picturesque overall. Ansouis, though, was very cute. It's chateau offers tours but our timing was off, so we just walked and then had a glass of wine in a beautiful little Salon du The. 

Lauris

War Memorial

Lavoir, an ancient village laundry. We saw several of these in Provence.

Lavoir

Lavoir

Lauris street

Lauris Chateau Gardens

Lauris Chateau Gardens

Lauris Chateau

Lauris Chateau

Lauris

Ansouis

View from Ansouis Chateau

Ansouis Chateau

Ansouis Chateau

Ansouis Church

Ansouis Street

Wine in Ansouis

View

Ansouis Lavoir

Pont du Gard and Lourmarin Market

Lourmarin's market day is Friday, and it is much bigger than we expected. We bought a few gifts there, some cheese and sausage, some flowers for our neighbor lady, who is always so friendly when we meet her on the elevator.

After the market we drove 45 minutes to the Pont du Gard, which was huge and wonderful. We did major highway going (which was nerve-wracking), and smaller roads coming back, which was better, although the French drive too fast.

Sausage Man

Cheese Lady

Vaugines and Cucuron Provence

We chose to visit these two towns because they were so close. We had lunch and a visit to a Romanesque church. Cucuron was really a great little town, although we'd never heard of it. There was a pretty central pond-like thing in the town square, remains of a wall, an old church, a donjon (dungeon) high on a hill and a quirky little museum in town.

Lunch in Vaugines

Lunch

Lunch

A Photo of the Romanesque Church from the sign outside. It's actually covered with scaffolding right now.

Inside the church.

She said this font was 10th century?

Cucuron

Cucuron

Tour and wall remnants.

View from Cucuron

View from Donjon

Quirky museum