After our week in Corsica we continued on to Lourmarin, a charming village in Provence, where we spent a few days at the residence of kind friendsof ours and from which we made a couple of forays in the Luberon National Park area, with its colorful hilltop villages, like Bonnieux, below, where we made the mistake of accidentally driving through the centre ville on a market day, and getting stuck in the traffic, where people oftendouble park in the narrow streets and dash in to do errands.
After our week in Corsica we continued on to Lourmarin, a charming village in Provence, where we spent a few days at the residence of kind friendsof ours and from which we made a couple of forays in the Luberon National Park area, with its colorful hilltop villages, like Bonnieux, below, where we made the mistake of accidentally driving through the centre ville on a market day, and getting stuck in the traffic, where people oftendouble park in the narrow streets and dash in to do errands.
The bright mid day light was not very good for photography, washing out the colors of the buildings and the sky:
Gordes, another hilltop town:
The Chateau of Lourmarin is the most dominating feature of that village:
Near the chateau, the locals enjoy a game of boules/pétanque. (For my pétanque player friend Debbie, I looked up the origin of pétanque; it’s from old Proveçal, meaning “feet together.” which makes sense if you look at her feet here.I was anxious to visit Roussillon and its ochre cliffs and houses, but it was the end of a tiring day and the town was much more touristy than when we were there in 1999, so our visit was reduced to about an hour. I would have loved to spend an early morning there with my camera.
The yellow, red and orange colors are pigments in the clay of the cliffs, and were heavily mined for the textile industry until 1930, when mining was stopped to protect them:
There’s a trail that winds through the old quarries, but I had only time to dash partway down for a photo or two:
The two figures at the bottom right give an idea of the scale:The buildings of the village are made with the ochre colors, true earth tones. It’s a feast for the eyes. That’s the city hall (Marie) on the rightand a bookstore (librairie) on the left.
By the way, about 30 percent of English vocabulary is of French origin, due to the consequences of the French speaking Normans’ invasion of England in 1056.
A side alley: I took this picture on our first visit.
It’s an upscale house built right into the cliffside:
