The internet connection at the airbnb here in Menerbes seems somewhat weak so pictures may be slow...
9:00pm: at our airbnb in Menerbes, a sleepy rocky little hilltop town in the Luberon region of Provence, where we will be for 4 nights. The airbnb is a cool little stone townhouse type of home right in the middle of town.
This morning, we set out from St. Remy around 9 and made it to a little town calle Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, which apparently has a huge market but is otherwise a little sleepy. The church is supposed to be nice but it was closed, I think because of the Pentecost holiday stuff that has been going on all over the place here. There was also some kind of big biker convention leaving the main square, which is always interesting. The town is cute, winding around the Sorgue river with cute cafes and waterwheels. There was a bizarre Italian food and crafts fair going on as well.
Next, we went to Gordes, a small town perched on a hill. Google Maps took us some insane way around three hairpin turns and narrow streets, basically for no reason. We ultimately parked at the hospital and wandered around town, which was busy and felt touristy. Coming out of a shop that was down a few stairs with a low overhead, Matt conked his head again though thankfully not too badly. We will not be going into any more shops down stairs!! As an aside, the magnet scene in Provence has been seriously disappointing so far - everything I have seen has been imported from China.
We then had crepes for lunch at a cafe with a cute little terrace and then made our way to the next stop, Roussillon, which is known for ocre. The recommended parking lot was full so we parked a few minutes downhill. We started wandering around town a bit and were going to do a highly recommended walk through the ocre, and then it started to rain. Matt suggested going to a cafe to grab a drink and that was a great idea because a few minutes later it started DUMPIING, and I mean a legit thunder-and-lightning sideways-raining storm. We stayed at the cafe for a while and once it lightened up a little, we booked it down the few minutes’ walk to the car.
It was about a 20 minute drive to our stop, the little hilltop town of Menerbes. The house is on a narrow street in the center of town so we drove down a bit and found what looked like a parking spot (we will find out tomorrow morning if the car is still there, I guess!). We let ourselves in with the lockbox and took a bit of a rest. There is a washer here so we put on some laundry. I then went to the bakery a few steps away and got a couple cookies as a snack. We hung up the laundry (no dryer) and wandered town a bit. I had marked off one restaurant in town and we made a reservation for dinner. Thank goodness I speak some French! I am pretty sure we saw the whole town more or less in about an hour.
At 7 we went to Le 5 for dinner and were seated in the cave, literally downstairs in a cave. I had a slow-cooked beef and we had some rose wine, naturally, and it was delicious. I am not sure what we ate for dessert, but it was like a meringue cloud floating in some kind of cream with caramel and almonds and it was all very delicious. France is definitely not disappointing in the food department!
Tomorrow it will be an early day to see one of the region’s most famed markets, if the weather holds up......
Today’s totals: 19,527 steps and 7.8 miles.
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