Picture 1: Carpentras street on market day with Mike in the middle.
Picture 2: A rainy day market
Picture 3: Lavander is a major product of north west and north central Provence
Picture 4: Old chateau near Vauqueyras. Many of these have been rehabed and turned into winery tasting rooms and caves.
On Sept 18th, our first full day in Provence we decided to head north east and see some of the villages on what travel guru Rick Steves calls the Côtes du Rhone Wine Trail. But first we headed to the town of Carpentras about 20 miles to the northeast because it was Friday and Friday was market day in Carpentras. Carpentras has been a market town since before the Roman conquest. In the late fall it is the center of the truffle market in France. The weather wasn’t cooperating. A stormy, squally, thunderstorm laden weather system had moved in for the day.
Like most old towns Carpentras has a concentric center, with the church or cathedral in the middle, and a street system that looks like a broken spider web. Outside of this older section is a modern urbanized town. Total population is around 26,000. The market covered most of this old town. We parked near the river and followed the vendors along it, across into parallel streets and around in circles until we were thoroughly lost.
There is a long park along the river and the vendors here were serious. They had self contained RV like vehicles with opening or expandable sides that displayed an amazing variety of food, produce, and stuff. No one was crowded together here but in the narrow center streets the center span was cozy. They would give an American fire marshal nightmares.
After finding our way out of the maze we headed north for the villages that circle the Dentrelles de Montmirail mountain peaks. Our first stop was in Vacqueryas at the wine cave Les Vignerons de Caractere winery for lunch at a restuarant called L'Eloge. Apparently we had stumbled into a restuarant by a locally celebrated chef, Eric Balan. Lunch took two hours. It was the most pretentious meal we had in France. The name of the restaurant means praise or eulogy in English. The food was good, the wine excellent, the service SOOO slow. It was one of those places only the beautiful are expected to attend, or to work at. Tables were draped around with sheer curtains hiding the unpainted parts of the chocolate brown concrete floor. It was in the downstairs of the tasting room and appears to have held large fermentation tanks in the past. Many of the tables were on raised circular concrete pads. Here is the restaurant’s website: http://www.restaurant-leloge.fr/
We drove through the village of Gigondas, a designated wine region of its own, on to Sablet. A pretty village, but seemingly deserted. The rain was increasing so perhaps the locals were hiding behind their shuttered windows. The same was true of the next village, Seguret. This was a perched village, clinging to the hillside, much rockier and with less paint that Sablet.
We drove on to Vaison la Romaine, the northernmost town on the wine village tour. But the rain was increasing so instead of braving the steeper, downhill roads on the east side of the mountains we bagged it and headed back to our hotel outside of Avignon. These villages were the part of Provence I was looking forward to seeing the most. Too bad nature didn’t cooperate.
Like most old towns Carpentras has a concentric center, with the church or cathedral in the middle, and a street system that looks like a broken spider web. Outside of this older section is a modern urbanized town. Total population is around 26,000. The market covered most of this old town. We parked near the river and followed the vendors along it, across into parallel streets and around in circles until we were thoroughly lost.
There is a long park along the river and the vendors here were serious. They had self contained RV like vehicles with opening or expandable sides that displayed an amazing variety of food, produce, and stuff. No one was crowded together here but in the narrow center streets the center span was cozy. They would give an American fire marshal nightmares.
After finding our way out of the maze we headed north for the villages that circle the Dentrelles de Montmirail mountain peaks. Our first stop was in Vacqueryas at the wine cave Les Vignerons de Caractere winery for lunch at a restuarant called L'Eloge. Apparently we had stumbled into a restuarant by a locally celebrated chef, Eric Balan. Lunch took two hours. It was the most pretentious meal we had in France. The name of the restaurant means praise or eulogy in English. The food was good, the wine excellent, the service SOOO slow. It was one of those places only the beautiful are expected to attend, or to work at. Tables were draped around with sheer curtains hiding the unpainted parts of the chocolate brown concrete floor. It was in the downstairs of the tasting room and appears to have held large fermentation tanks in the past. Many of the tables were on raised circular concrete pads. Here is the restaurant’s website: http://www.restaurant-leloge.fr/
We drove through the village of Gigondas, a designated wine region of its own, on to Sablet. A pretty village, but seemingly deserted. The rain was increasing so perhaps the locals were hiding behind their shuttered windows. The same was true of the next village, Seguret. This was a perched village, clinging to the hillside, much rockier and with less paint that Sablet.
We drove on to Vaison la Romaine, the northernmost town on the wine village tour. But the rain was increasing so instead of braving the steeper, downhill roads on the east side of the mountains we bagged it and headed back to our hotel outside of Avignon. These villages were the part of Provence I was looking forward to seeing the most. Too bad nature didn’t cooperate.
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