Update for Sat 29 Aug to Thu 3 Sep 2009

At Bonnieux (Luberon) - Camping Le Vallon

Saturday 29 August 2009

Today we moved on from the Domaine de Belezy to a small campsite in the Luberon area of Provence, a distance of just 42 miles to the south-east. Camping Le Vallon was recommended by a friend in England and it seems to be a simple but very nice site.

We packed up quite efficiently at Belezy, said our goodbyes to various friends we had made there and to the ladies at Reception, assuring them that we will visit again in 2010. Jon (of the Dutch couple opposite our pitch) had warned us yesterday that he had heard a forecast that the Mistral wind would blow with strong gusts overnight so we had taken down our awning as a precaution; in fact his forecast was about 12 hours premature as the wind didn't start blowing properly until mid-morning by which time it was a stiff breeze with the promised stronger gusts. But it proved useful to have taken in the awning already as it helped speed our getting ready to leave, and we drove out with our entire outfit at about 11.30am.

To get to Bonnieux we had to traverse the dreaded Carpentras again and found ourselves on the Avignon road as we hoped to get diesel at LeClerc but the supermarket was accessed via a very narrow side street (how silly is this?) and we decided against trying it. Hiding supermarkets and their filling stations in obscure places down narrow roads seems to be a Carpentras speciality as Intermarche is exactly the same. But we found our way easily via Monteux on to the fast D31, intercepting the D22/N100 (at least those are the numbers on our map but they seemed to be different on the signs - it was definitely the same road) towards Apt, turning right on the D36/D194 for Bonnieux.

At Velleron there was a convenient and accessible (but expensive) Total station at which we refilled the motorhome with diesel - the first refill since Naucelle on 30th July! It is only managing 21mpg, not all that surprising given the terrain and the hilly roads it has been driven over, and especially with the trailer and Smart in tow.

Camping Le Vallon was well signposted from the N100 though it was interesting getting our outfit through the narrow streets of Bonnieux - the campsite lies in a valley (as its name suggests) on the south-west side of the village. It is a lovely site and we had a friendly reception from the couple running it; we were soon installed on a large shaded pitch:



The site is only about 15% full, a sure sign of the end of the French holiday season. Although a simple site, the facilities are clean and more than adequate. The Mistral wind increased in strength during our journey and at the campsite its gusts were so strong that we had to hold things down on the table as we ate lunch outside. But this relieved the heat of the sun and made for a pleasant day. After lunch we walked into Bonnieux (about half a mile or 10 minutes) and did some food shopping in the small mini-market. We strolled around looking at the menus in the various restaurants - the ones that looked nice were also very expensive! Laden with our purchases we walked back to Le Vallon - at least in that direction it is mostly downhill. We ended the day with a barbecue supper of lamb steaks. There was a magnificent sunset but at 8pm it was cool enough outside to wear a fleece!

Bonnieux:




Sunday 30 August 2009

It is now much cooler in the mornings and evenings and we notice the days shortening as Autumn approaches. It still warms up considerably during the day - today the afternoon temperature reached 32C. But we wake up to a thermometer reading as low as 16C inside the motorhome.

After breakfast we borrowed some IGN walkers' maps (1:25000 scale) from the campsite reception and decided to walk to the "Foret des Cedres" on top of the hill to the South of the campsite. With the help of a decent map we found a good path up the hill, waymarked with yellow markers and climbing steeply in places - this was a climb of about 400m and an energetic exercise as the day was warming up. The path gave good views back to the North across the Vaucluse with Mont Ventoux still visible in the distance:




Eventually we came to the road which ascends from Bonnieux to the "Massif des Cedres" and ends at a parking area, beyond which normal vehicle traffic is prohibited and barred by a large gate. The path emerges onto this road about 1.3Km East of this car park and there is a sign pointing across open ground to a "Table d'Orientation". We followed this as we thought it would be interesting to be able to interpret the very widespread views to the South and East across the valley of the River Durance towards the Mediterranean coast. There were two more signs as we walked and we continued in the indicated direction, but eventually the path ended in impenetrable bushes with no sign of the promised feature. We met and chatted to a friendly Dutchman who lives in France with one house in Paris and another in the Luberon, and has a French wife. He was also mystified but said he could act as our "table d'orientation" and proceeded to point out all the significant features in the view! We talked about this year's weather in Provence and the extreme lack of rain throughout the summer months - this is very noticeable in the state of many small oak trees with entirely brown leaves, giving an autumnal look to the woods in places - it is the lack of water, not the season, that has caused this.

We returned to the road and walked to the Foret des Cedres parking where there were two contradictory notices on the barrier both announcing access restrictions because of the risk of fire. The first said access was restricted to 6am to 8pm while the second said it was allowed only between 6am and noon. It was now coming up to 1pm and as we could see loads of people walking the other side of the barrier we decided to take account only of the more liberal notice; we thought it entirely possible that the tighter restriction had applied yesterday when the wind was so strong (it has dropped off today to almost nothing) and had just not been removed. We walked into the very pretty forest - it is literally a forest of cedar trees:



and we found another footpath leading off to the South which was signed as a "Sentier de Decouverte" or (on another notice) a "Sentier Botanique"; the map showed that this is a circular route of about 2.5Km so we decided to take it. In practice the names of the path ("Decouverte", "Botanique") simply mean that there are regular information boards with descriptions of flora, fauna, ecology and geology; these are in French of course and quite technical so fairly difficult to read. But it's a lovely path with a wide variety of trees and bushes:



The path descends about 250 feet and then climbs back up again with good views to the South and, this time, to the West. We were disappointed though not to see much bird life (yes, we were looking!) - we saw no Egyptian vultures which are said to frequent the area; indeed we saw no larger birds with the exception of one bird of prey about the size of a kestrel. We suspect this is because of the heat.

The path rejoins the ridge track a bit further West from where it departs. We turned right (East) and walked back to the car park hoping that one of the two picnic tables we had spotted on our way through would by now be unoccupied, and one of them was! Far more picnic tables are required in this area. It's fine for people in cars (as usual about 90% plus of the visitors) who can bring their own tables (many did) but what are walkers supposed to do? Sit on the ground we suppose - after all they're only walkers! But this table was free just after 2pm and gave nice views so we unpacked our picnic lunch from our rucksacks and ate it here:



Talking of cars, almost all the ones we saw today were French (we think we saw two German cars and one Belgian). We saw no Dutch registrations at all. Similarly at the campsite - there are 12 pitches occupied out of 80, one of which is ours, three of which house German visitors; the rest have French campers. This is undoubtedly because of the end of the fairly short holiday season (mid-July to the third week of August) rather than the Dutch not coming here. We are sure it would now be the same at all the previous campsites we have used that were so dominated by the Dutch at that time. Yet the weather is still superb and indeed all the more pleasant for being a little cooler. The only disadvantage is that far less happens (in the way of events, concerts, festivals and entertainment of all sorts) and far more is shut once September approaches.

We walked back into the forest and continued several kilometres along the ridge track to the West until we found the Roques des Bancs - these are large limestone cliffs - you are above them and they form a splendid viewpoint to the Southwest with the distant Camargue and the coast just visible:



This spot was also recommended by the same English friend who suggested Camping Le Vallon. We are pleased we made the effort to find these impressive cliffs shining silvery white in the sunlight:



We strolled back to the parking, welcoming the shade of the forest, and then continued, sadly without shade, along the road Eastwards, passing the point where our ascent path emerged with its false sign to the non-existent "Table d'Orientation"; we followed the road as at descended towards the interesting-looking Tour Phillipe (which Phillipe, we wonder) - we took a photo of it:



but we must try to find out more about it (we could see no explanatory board there, but to be fair we didn't walk right up to the tower). Just after this, on the North side of the road, there is a small "Gite d'Etape" serving snacks and drinks. We stopped for ice creams and cold orange juices. These were lovely but very expensive. M had an ice cream with two "boules", R had one with three "boules", and the two orange juices were admittedly pressed directly from the oranges, but the bill was 16 euros! Mouth-watering and eye-watering at the same time! Be warned! France is now an expensive country for the British and Provence (or the better-off bits of it) are even more dear.

Just past the cafe a small path (it would be easy to miss this one) leads left (North) downhill, back towards Bonnieux. It's waymarked, also with yellow markers, though not as well as the path we used to ascend the hill. At one point, where the path turns left on a track and then almost immediately right again as a path, the landowner has deliberately tried to get walkers lost by erecting "Proprietee Privee" and "Chien Mechant" signs too early, before his actual property boundary; as there are no waymarks at the first junction to tell you to turn left, many people would have seen the prohibitive signs and turned right, ending up heaven knows where. Had we not been following a decent IGN map which showed the left-then-right junction very clearly we might have done exactly that. The landowner who put up these signs (there is another sign placed reasonably at his actual property boundary where the path bears right again) should be shot along with his "chien mechant"!

There's another piece of poor waymarking where the path, now close to Bonnieux, meets another track at a t-junction; here you must turn right but it's not obvious as there is no waymark at the junction - there's a yellow mark further up the track to the right but not easily seen from the turn. This route emerges on the D3 at a corner about 100m from the lane to Camping Le Vallon. It would be quite hard to follow in the reverse (uphill) direction. In general the 1:25000 IGN map is essential for walking in these hills - without it you will soon be lost!

This was a splendid day's walking, but tiring as the temperature had again exceeded 30C throughout the afternoon. So it was back to the motorhome for the inevitable short siesta and a barbecue of pork chops with salad and red wine.


Monday 31 August 2009

We spent the morning relaxing at the campsite and had a picnic lunch at our pitch. In the afternoon we drove the Smart via Lacoste, the next hilltop village to the West:



We didn't stop at Lacoste except to take a photo:



but continued to Menerbes where we parked and had a walk around. We spent time at Menerbes which we liked very much:

Menerbes:



As a Calvinist stronghold, Menerbes was beseiged for five consecutive years during the Wars of Religion. Its castle was built by the Catholics in 1581 and although quite small was evidently well-defended. It is flanked by two towers and its walls are pierced with gun openings. We wondered about its present-day ownership and use, as it is now protected by an array of "Propriete Prive" signs as well as impressive stone lions:



It is clearly not accessible to the public in any way; unfortunately there was no-one to ask about this as it was the long lunchtime and the tourist office was closed. Menerbes was not crowded with tourists when we visited and seemed a tranquil place apart from a party of Americans who were very audible as they walked around. The car parking areas contained some exotic machinery - BMW, Mercedes, Alfa-Romeo and Audi TT convertibles seem particularly in vogue and there was even a British-registered Ferrari. The Smart was entirely undaunted by all this flashy display of serious wealth. We added a dash of plebeian taste with our slightly ancient shorts and T-shirts; most other strollers seemed to be clad in designer this or that with elegant accessories. We were as undaunted as the Smart!

View from Menerbes:



Hot Dogs at Menerbes:



We continued in a Northerly direction to Gordes:



We found this famous fortified village heaving with people and cars. The "season" may be waning, as evidenced by lower campsite occupancy and fewer specific events and attractions, but on this last day of August Gordes was doing its best to be the exception - it was very crowded indeed. We had to resort to the parking at the top of the village - all parking at Gordes is "payant" (3 euros). Walking back down the hill towards Gordes' impressive hilltop chateau, the pavements could hardly contain the crowds of fellow-tourists. We strolled around the main part of the village in the afternoon sunshine. One problem we found at Gordes is that the lower areas are so "built-in" to the precipitous cliff that they are hard to access; in fact there are many small cobbled alleys and sets of steps giving wider access but they are steep and very hard work in the heat. So we limited our walk to the area around the castle:



This was pleasant enough although our enjoyment was greatly curtailed by the crowds of people and, especially, the cars. It took patience to get photos that didn't make this too obvious. We concluded that the best thing about Gordes is its external appearance from a distance, the houses clinging precariously to the cliff with the great bulk of the chateau above them. In the light of late afternoon this made a magnificent sight:



We needed to buy food for our supper and found all the useful small shops closed, including the butcher - only shops aimed at tourists seemed to be open. Fortunately a small "Cocci" market just by the castle (but easily missed) came to our rescue and we struggled back up the hill to the car with our purchases which included heavy items like wine and bottled water.

Our next destination was the nearby "Abbaye de Senanques", well signposted from Gordes along a narrow one-way "corniche" road descending into the steep-sided valley containing the Abbey:



This is billed in relevant literature and by tourist information as a working monastery but the situation is slightly more complicated. Founded in the 12th century, Notre Dame de Senanques, to give the abbey its full name, reached its heyday in the 14th and continued as a working monastery until the mid-1700s. It had suffered various misfortunes in the 16th century: "heretical" revolts of the local "Vaudois" peasants, an especially violent period in the religious history of France with brutal counter-inquisitions - these events were widespread in France, especially in the South, and became known as the "Wars of Religion". Senanques suffered two serious and damaging attacks, the first by the Waldensians and the second by the Hugeunots. By the mid-1700s there was a mere handful of monks left and the Revolution finished the place off. Its modern renaissance began in the 19th century but faltered several times until the 1980s when the Abbey was properly re-established, albeit with just 6 monks. Although this number has grown somewhat in the last twenty years, we were unable to find out the present-day number of monks at Senanques - it seemed that no-one wanted to tell us; we would guess that there may be about 12. It is entirely fair to say that Senanques is a working Cistercian Abbey but it is also a major tourist attraction and, for us, the latter role seemed dominant when we visited. We arrived at about 5.30pm. There is a large car park which is free-of-charge. The Abbey building has been superbly restored and is beautiful:



Its setting in the valley is magnificent; the buildings are surrounded by lavender fields in which the monks work. In the car park we met a young English couple with pannier-laden bikes who had descended the long hill from Gordes. They had hoped to visit the interior of the Abbey and had been bitterly disappointed when they were told that the only way of doing this is to pay for a guided tour. The young man of the pair speaks very little French and so they asked if they could not walk around on their own and were told that this is impossible. So the only way to see inside Senanques Abbey, presented as a place of contemplation and worship, is to pay for a guided tour in a language you may well not understand! And instead of quiet contemplation in the cloisters, you will be herded like sheep at the pace chosen by your guide.

Unless you're a monk of course! Or perhaps, just possibly, a local official, a celebrity or one of the seriously rich. One wonders what the driver of the English Ferrari might have achieved had he sought a bit of contemplation for a change. Perish these thoughts!

By the time we arrived, the guided tours had stopped anyway and the Abbey was firmly closed except for its shop which was doing great business in spite of some seriously inflated prices (CDs at 25 euros each, anyone?). So we never saw the interior of the Abbaye de Senanques but got some quite nice photos of its exterior and contrbuted to the profit margin by buying 4 books from the shop, at least one of which showed us something of what we had missed inside the Abbey.

We drove back to Gordes by a different route (an effective one-way system is operated because of the narrow road down) and continued to the "Village de Bories":



This is a very effectively restored set of traditional dry-stone construction buildings, most of them in the shape of conical huts but also with barns, pig-stys, wine-stores and even huts in which silk-worms were bred. There were two larger dwelling houses of rectangular form with external staircases to access an upper floor, all in dry-stone. The conical dwellings had ovens:



and also wooden sleeping platforms. Although it cost 6 euros each to tour this attraction, we thought it good value and we were pleasantly surprised to find it still open just before 7pm. The dry-stone buildings and walls were particularly attractive in the warm light of the evening sun:




Tuesday 1 September 2009

After breakfast we walked into Bonnieux and did some essential shopping at the butcher and the Cocci Market. Laden with our purchases we explored the village quite thoroughly, including the steep walk up to the Old Church atop the hill using the cobbled lane known as the "Rue des Penitents Blanc" followed by 79 steps to the church itself:



The old church is shut but the views from there make the climb worthwhile:



The old and new churches at Bonnieux present quite a contrast:

Bonnieux old church:



and new church:



Returning to the campsite for lunch we set off in the Smart again, this time heading for the pretty and famous village of Rousillon by way of the Pont Julien a well-preserved Roman bridge.

The Pont Julien lay on a major Roman route, the Via Domitia. It spans the River Cavalon and stands alone beside its modern equivalent and near a major road junction:



At this time of year the river appeared entirely dry.

Rousillon is another big tourist magnet and like Gordes was busy even at this just-out-of-season date. Its main claim to fame is its situation in an area famed for its "Ocre" cliffs, rocks and quarries. The quarries closest to the village are no longer worked but form a major part of the attraction for tourists, a 1Km long footpath having been constructed that threads its way through cliffs and pilllars of red, orange and yellow. But also like Gordes, everything here is "payant". Having forked out 3 euros to park for three hours (we were lucky and got a space in the small car park in the village centre), we decided against paying a further 5 euros to walk around a natural landscape, some of which you can see from the road and the rest of which you can see in photographs in the book we bought for 5 euros - it gets expensive visiting one of these villages. So we confined ourselves to strolling around the narrow streets which was very pleasant indeed. The reds in the local soil and stone contribute to the red colouring of the buildings (rather similar to Collonges-la-Rouge in the Correze); also much use is made of "ocre" based paints in decorating doors and window frames. Rousillon deserves its fame for its good looks. Like all such tourist destinations though, useful shops are confined to the less handsome part of the village and the prettier parts are replete with businesses targeting visitors and selling everything from postcards to handbags, clothes, pottery and serious works of art. Some of it is tat, some very stylish and elegant; all of it is overpriced.

Today it was not only hotter than it has been recently but significantly more humid; by the afternoon it was unpleasantly sticky with no breeze. So we patronised one of the many street cafes in Rousillon with outside tables shaded beneath large parasols. We enjoyed fairly modest "coupes glacees" (dishes based on ice-cream) and orange juices. The bill was 19 euros, making the little place on the hill above Bonnieux seem almost reasonable!

We wouldn't want to put anyone off a visit to Rousillon though as it is really lovely to stroll around; we thought it much nicer than Gordes.

Rousillon:



Rather than driving directly back to Bonnieux we included the town of Apt in our route, intending to stop for another stroll, but the traffic and parking difficulties put us off; it is yet another town with an old centre at its heart - narrow streets, interesting buildings and so on, but we had done enough for today and contented ourselves with driving through.


Wednesday 2 September 2009

It rained heavily during the night, hard enough to wake us at about 3am when we had to get up and close all the roof vents. We awoke to extensive cloud and a cooler feel to the day. We had decided to visit Avignon today so this turn in the weather didn't bother us at all; indeed the lower temperature was quite welcome. But by the time we drove into Avignon, some 35Km to the West, the temperature had risen again to 30C and with even worse humidity - sauna-like conditions once more!

Avignon is a sizeable city; much of its outlying suburbia is fairly tatty and its attractions - the "Palais des Papes" and the "Pont Saint Benezet" together with many other fine old buildings are all within the relatively small walled area. On the way into the city the traffic was heavy and the road intersected at major junctions with traffic lights making it slow-going. At one such junction there was a small army of young men of North African appearance armed with squeegee mops and intent on cleaning windscreens at 50 cents a time. Whether you wanted them to or not! The Smart's already fairly clean screen was attacked by one of these lads with great gusto in spite of us shouting "No!" at him in several languages. As he cleaned we explained (in English since we thought is wise not to admit to speaking much French) that we had said "no" and he would not be paid; we're pretty sure he understood this. But the delay at the junction was long, the man finished his cleaning and stuck out his hand. We shrugged and he didn't get paid. There were fortunately no consequences other than a windscreen that was even more clean, but the incident was strangely upsetting. We've no doubt that some, probably most of these men are genuinely poor, but we're not going to help condition them to believe that if someone says "no" then you just go ahead anyway and still get paid!

Luck played a major part in delivering us through the maze of the city centre to a multi-storey underground car park right by the Palais des Papes:



We found our way to the entrance and paid for the tour of the Palais; this was self-guided with the help of an excellent audio-guide device, available in numerous languages. So all the time we had the benefit of a detailed and very informative English commentary, simply by keying the number of each of a series of "pillars" on the route of the tour as we reached them. The commentary also ranged more widely than simply the fascinating period when the popes were based at Avignon; indeed it offered a complete potted history which included not only the development of Avignon and its sister community, Villeneuve d'Avignon on the opposite bank of the Rhone, but also relevant aspects of Provencal, French and wider religious history. The present-day building is really more of a set of buildings comprising different parts of structures that have been built, demolished and re-built during its almost 700 year history. It is enormous and impressive. The tour took us over two hours. Given the quality of the audio commentary we thought the 10 euro entrance fee, which included access to the famous "Pont Saint Benezet", was actually very good value.

The truncated "Pont" (on which no-one dances) was a bit of an anti-climax although it was saved by continuation of the fascinating audio-commentary which used the bridge as an excuse to reveal yet more interesting historical material. We had seen the bridge before anyway, many years ago, from the opposite bank of the river and from the left embankment also - when you are on it you get very little idea of what it looks like. We thought the Saint Nicolas and Romanesque chapels, the Chatelet giving access to the bridge and the drawbridge were of rather limited interest. At the very end of the audio commentary for the "Pont" (it's a separate unit from the one you get at the Palais) they play the song, inevitably. No-one ever danced on the thing but apparently they did dance under it, on the river's banks, when fairs and the like were held. So the commentator's theory is that it originally ran "Sous le Pont d'Avignon" and got corrupted to "Sur" with usage. Probably as plausible as any other explanation!

One thing going on the bridge does do, or did for us at least, is emphasise the great width of the Rhone here, and how small a rise would be needed to reach the roads along its banks; no wonder they have had several very serious incidents of flooding. It is a vast River.

Avignon:

The Music School:



Palais des Papes - interior courtyard and cloisters:



Place de Palais:



Sur-le-Pont:



A view from Le Palais:



It took us a long time to drive out of Avignon in the rush hour on an arterial road characterised by a succession of joining streams of traffic uncontrolled by lights, the drivers fighting their way into the mainstream. R said it made the approach from central London towards the M4 seem quite civilised, although he admits that this relies, most fortunately, on a distant memory. We turned off to Robion to see if we could find the start of the walk we have planned for tomorrow (the IGN map shows this to be accessed via a maze of small roads and streets) but armed with only the Michelin road atlas in the Smart, we completely failed. However the detour had a happy benefit for on the D3 back to Bonnieux we took a right turn to Oppede-le-Vieux:



The village of Oppede is an entirely different place although it is nearby as it was established by residents of the orginal village. This was eventually abandoned by the remnants of its population as most of the community had already migrated elsewhere. So modern Oppede was built and in some cases houses and buildings were moved literally from one place to the other. Oppede-le-Vieux became a ghost village but is now being gradually restored as a small number of the original houses have been re-occupied and other houses built only just below the original site making an effective modern addition to the old village with a nice square, a small hotel-restaurant and a cafe-bar:



It is a place that seems to be coming back to life, albeit slowly, and although progress may well be delayed by the economic downturn, it seemed to us to be a very worthwhile project and we wish it well. You are asked to park on the way up at a charge of 3 euros rather than try to park further up where space is very limited. We didn't begrudge this given what we found and indeed walking up through a lovely set of terraces was no hardship, though it does call for a reserve of energy if you have just done Avignon's Palais des Papes while seemingly enclosed in a sauna! We mustered enough to climb through the fascinating ruins to the church at the very top:



This too is being slowly but effectively restored. The task is an enormous challenge given the fragility of many of the medieval wall-paintings, some no more than faint outlines. The 16th century pulpit is supported by a Roman column - a truly extraordinary sight! We were impressed that as we entered the church we were given an information sheet to take around with us - this is available in five languages and proved most useful. There are fine views from the church - to the South the Petit Luberon massif and to the North as far as Mont Ventoux, still visible on the distant horizon.

The uphill walk through Oppede-le-Vieux is made more interesting by the leaflet you are given at the car park but it is also well worth buying, as we did, the small book available at the church (4 euros) giving a more detailed history of the old village. We found this history fascinating; it is hard to imagine either the significance of this small place between the 14th and 16th centuries or the deprivations, natural and man-made that it endured. The guide leaflet says that "The old village of Oppede is the result of over a thousand years of history followed by a century of abandonment". Now there seems to be real hope of its renaissance as a modern community. Rousillon and Gordes are essential visits for most who come to this part of Provence, but Oppede-le-Vieux seemed to us to be a very special place. And we might so easily have missed it!


Thursday 3 September 2009

Today we planned to walk from Robion on a path passing the Roches de Baude which after reaching a summit allows one to descend to Robion by a slightly more Northerly route - all these paths are shown as waymarked on the IGN map. Yesterday our efforts to identify the start of the path were abortive but today with the help of the IGN 1:25000 map we had with us we did better. We wandered around in the Smart for about 20 minutes until at last we knew exactly where we were and how to proceed to the start of the path marked on the map. At exactly the moment we decided we knew what we were doing a very nice French lady pulled up in her car. She was getting on in years but very alert and helpful; she had seen us studying the map and assumed we were lost. Two minutes earlier she would have been right but when we pointed out where we wanted to go (to the start of the footpath) she explained that she lived just along the road and suggested that we follow her car - she would take us there! We conversed in French. She conducted us to the beginning of a dirt track leading to the path but we could go no further by car - we hadn't realised that this access track wasn't surfaced. However it was clearly the right way - the map left us in no doubt - and so we said goodbye and thanked her very much. She replied that she very much appreciated and liked English people and R diplomatically responded that we feel the same about the French. Whereupon she said that no, she hadn't meant "appreciated" in that way at all - she actually meant that the French owe a huge debt to the English for their liberation. She had spent some time in the North of England at the age of 19 in, we think, 1948 - this means she was born in 1929 and is now about 80 - she seemed much younger than that and clearly still possessed all her faculties. R talked a bit about his Dad in the second World War and she spoke of her husband who, she said, is every bit as lively as she is and still has a wonderful smile. She said she judged people by their smiles and and that we passed the test (or words to that effect). This was a lovely encounter with a genuinely nice person and we were so pleased she had thought we were lost!

We parked the Smart safely off the road, put on our rucksacks and set off along the dirt track leading towards the mountains which presented a steep escarpment strewn with formidable-looking cliffs. It was hard to imagine the route of a path across this terrain, a situation which excited R as much as it worried M. But we were not destined to resolve this question today. After a few hundred metres of walking a man appeared riding a bike towards us - he was clad in a kind of uniform - an orange shirt and matching orange cap with letters on it that R recognised as relating to the authority responsible for the forests; he also carried a clipboard. He stopped to inform us that access to the hill was forbidden today because of the fire risk. He was pleasant and helpful, even suggesting some lower level walks we could do. But we had set our sights on a proper hill walk and so we abandoned any idea of a walk and drove to the vineyard whose wine we had sampled at the restaurant, L'Arome, in Bonnieux. We arrived 20 minutes before they re-opened after lunch and used the time to enjoy a picnic just inside the entrance to the Chateau. Then we bought nine bottles of wine, six red and three white. This Domaine is called the Chateau de Mille and is well-represented on the list at L'Arome - the wine we tasted and bought is excellent. The year 2000 red (11.30 euros) is stunning while the 2004 vintage (9.90 euros) is also very good, drinkable now, but will keep and improve for another five years. These red wines, like much in the Luberon, are predominantly from the Syrah grape (60%), Grenache (about 35%) and around 5% Carignan from old vines. The white (just one, 2008, 8 euros a bottle) is also superb and uses less well-known grape varieties of Roussane, Clairette and Bourboulenc; we drank this at L'Arome - it is excellent with fish and as an aperitif. The vineyard has been in the same family for over 200 years and has been hailed by some critics as producing the best wine in Provence. It is on the D3 between Apt and Bonnieux and well signposted on this road.

We returned to Le Vallon to put the wine into the motorhome and then drove along the D943 through the Combe de Loumarin to Cadenet - the main purpose behind this drive was to assess this road as an exit route for our onward journey tomorrow in the full outfit - motorhome towing trailer and Smart. We think the route is feasible but worryingly narrow and twisty in places; meeting another wide vehicle, especially one towing (a caravan for example) could present all sorts of interesting challenges! This is a decision yet to be made. Having reached Cadenet R wanted to see if a small mountain road he had heard about is in fact driveable, and if so, of course, drive it! It crosses the south-western corner of the Petit-Luberon mountains and is a "Route Forestiere". He knew it could only be driven in a North to South direction (in effect it is one-way unless you are a forestry official) and so we spent ages wandering around little back roads trying to find its start point. Even with the IGN 1:25000 map in the car this wasn't easy. At one point we thought we had found it and enjoyed a delightful and pretty drive along a back lane that stayed resolutely below the cliffs showing no signs of climbing - more careful map-reading revealed our error and, simultaneously exactly where we should go! We got there and suddenly there it was, rising steeply into the mass of rocks with a multitude of warning signs including a 30KPH limit, a notice telling us that the surface was "en mauvais etat" and another signifying that this way round is the only permitted direction. Unfortunately there was also a firmly-shut barrier across the entry to the track and a no-entry sign! More careful reading of various notices on "panneaux" nearby revealed that this track, normally open to vehicles had also become a victim of the fire-risk restrictions and was closed! Indeed one notice made the true situation clear - if you want to drive this track you must do so out of the summer months, preferably before 15th June or after 15th September. M seemed quite relieved at this outcome but R just sighed and said "ah well, there's always next year". We drove back to Le Vallon on the by now very familiar D3 from Robion. In spite of an aborted walk and a frustrated would-be drive, we enjoyed our day.

Our original intention was to spend only four nights here at Le Vallon, Bonnieux but we extended this to five nights and now we have added a sixth so that we will leave tomorrow and head South East to Le Muy near the Mediterranean coast at Frejus. That will be the most Southerly point of our trip, so from there we will be making our way home via the Rhone Valley; the schedule still allows for a whole week in Alsace, but Germany and Luxembourg are now definitely off the agenda as a result of our dawdling in Provence!


Cheers:

Bonnieux - a lovely little town; and the Luberon - a great area for walking (though its important to be aware of the possibility of restrictions and closures due to fire risks in summer, especially in late summer). Walking, as in most places, will be even better in May and June, and we are told there are no restrictions prior to 15th June.

Restaurant L'Arome at Bonnieux - our dinner there was probably the best meal out so far on this holiday.

Chateau de Mille, the vineyard located between Bonnieux and Apt, producing excellent wines.

The tour of the Palais des Papes, Avignon, with its very effective use of audio guides.

Oppede-le-Vieux and its brave attempts at restoration, not to say resurrection of a forgotten village with a fascinating history.

Camping Le Vallon - a very nice site, excellent out of season, our only caveat being that the facilities would be very limited indeed if the site were more full; in the high season with all or most pitches occupied they would come under a lot of strain.

Boos:

The practice of insisting on guided tours given only in French in order to visit the interior of historic buildings, especially when applied to places of worship or contemplation, as practised at the "Abbaye de Senanques" for example.

The practice (very much the norm) of giving guided tours only in French, especially when no translated leaflet is even available. Many of the guides speak very quickly and swallow their words making comprehension impossible even for those with reasonable French.

The pushy gents at Avignon (and no doubt other cities) who clean your windscreen anyway when you've asked them not to, and still expect to be paid.

The amount of dog mess still lying around in most French towns and villages - this is a special "boo" from M who stepped in some!