Provence

A land of immense blue skies & breathtakin landscapes. where Paul Cezanne lived and found his inspiration to paint. click on pics to view larger size.

we arrive at Avignon TGV station and rent a small peugeot. The roads are impossibly narrow & dearie has to reach out & fold in his side mirror when another car passes us by.

but the view and vines on either side for as far as the eye can see make up for small inconveniences!

we reach our hideout... it's perfect for us.. with our own private terrasse & plenty of sun. which we all know can lift one's spirits!

our neighbour with the Luberon mountains in the back.

our first visit to l'Abbaye de Senanque - an abbey where the Cistercian monks of long ago practised a life of poverty, work & prayer. They sold lavender & honey, in exchange for this isolation deep in the valleys of the Vaucluse region. They lived and worked in silence and only talked once a day! And i thought goin to church once a week was tough!

we stop for lunch at the picturesque village of Gordes, one of many villages scattered around the Luberon. Can i just say the olives in Provence are huge & juicy... not the puny half-hearted ones here. yummy.

Roussillon - famed for its ochre cliffs and orange-hued houses. We hiked up the cliffs but i'm tired after a while cos my birkies are not great for hiking AT ALL.

Dearie gamely manouvres the sandy paths & explores the nooks and crannies but i just wanna sit down & watch the world go by... which we do, alot here in fact.