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

Bonnieux, Provence

We had arranged to meet up with our Colorado friends, Lynn and Dale, and they suggested Bonnieux, which is near Lourmarin. It's definitely a hilltop town. The road into Bonnieux is very narrow and windy all its streets are steep. And it is so pretty! We had lunch and then just looked around. Lovely views.