We were just back from our week-long holiday in Provence. We always wanted to spend some time in the South of France simply because it was rumoured to be warm and beautiful, and on the very last week of April that we visited, it was raining and cold on the first 2 days, but boy, it is beautiful nonetheless!
We chose Provence instead of the Cote d'Azur area simply because we don't like tourist hordes and would like to at least have some quiet time where you could simply do nothing and not feel guilty about it. For that reason we stayed in a bed & breakfast tucked in a very small village on the bowl of the Luberon mountains. It's such a small village that we even have to drive to the next town to get dinner, but it offers really amazing views and plenty of sloth time in private (no fighting for a pool spot for us!).
Of course, it is not possible to completely do nothing that we have our little bundle of cold-fusion energy with us (aka Cora). Even though she pretty much refused to eat anything for the whole duration of the trip, she somehow still managed to be as wiggly and energetic as always. For that reason, when we do get out and ventured, we prefer going to old towns with ruins, stone-age villages completely made of dry stones, the field, and all the places where you can still enjoy the cultural offers of Provence without the worry that she will break anything.
The first of the ruins we went to was Vaison-la-Romaine. The little town has superb and well-preserved ruins of a whole Roman town, complete with private houses where the kitchens are still visible, animal markets, town shops, and a still functioning amphitheater. The town itself is perched in a valley splitted by a river, connected by a Roman-age bridge. I love the place, I could go around the ruins all day imagining all kinds of daily lives going about.
Another fascinating spot was the Villages des Bories, a village comprised of huts and houses made completely of stacked dry stones. There was indication that they might have originated way back from the stone age, but what was surprising was the fact that some of these primitive houses were still occupied well into the 19th century. While they are cozy and cute, I can't imagine what live was there in the middle of winter.
But we also had time when we simply lounged around the pool. The water was still rather freezing, but since Chris was braving it, so Cora simply went along, wading around in the shallow part of the pool, getting cold legs, and ignoring it completely in the way children are ignoring simple discomfort for the fun of it (I do admire them on this respect).
For the time that we spent, we might had not broken the record for the most-sight-seen-per-day, since we tended to take it leisurely, going on long lunches as the locals do, and didn't tax ourselves with the touristy stuffs, but I believe we had real quality family time, as Cora got to spend the whole day with us and Chris and I got the chance to have long rambling conversation well into the night with nice bottles of wine since there were no distractions of TV or the internet once Cora went to bed. Might seem boring for all of you extroverts, but a real luxury for the hermit-in-heart like us.
Now if I can find a crumbling lighthouse somewhere closer to the coast on a bargain...
Pictures of Cora having Provencal fun to be found
here, while those who prefer unadulterated sights of Provence could find the pictures
here.
