A Busy Week (part 2)

Thursday was chosen as "sight-seeing with our visitors" day.

Both Shona and Kevin were keen to have lunch at the Café de la Gare at Bonnieux, having read about it here and in Peter Mayle's Year in Provence.  We also planned a bit of wine-tasting and a visit to the village of Roussillon, home to some of Provence's famous Ochre cliffs.

Pont Julien

First port of call was Chateau la Canorgue in Bonnieux.  We arrived just at noon - lunchtime, unfortunately, (the French take their lunch breaks VERY seriously) so we decided to carry on to the Café de la Gare, stopping at the Pont Julien en route.  George and I visited this Roman bridge in the middle of the cold weather, so it was nice to see it in temperatures higher than -10C and with water actually flowing underneath it!

On to the Café de la Gare, where we had another excellent meal - buffet starter, duck confit, dessert and wine, still only €15!  Kevin was less impressed than the rest of us, though, he's used to Catalan prices where he'd have had the same meal for €8 (so he says anyway).

We waddled out of the Café with the intention of tasting wine in the Bonnieux Co-operative across the road, only to find that they were still on lunch break until 2.30, another twenty minutes.  To kill time, we went up to Lacoste, which is a nearby hilltop village.

Shone & Martine looking across the valley from Lacoste to Bonnieux

Shona was keen to find the factory shop, but there were no signs with little crocodiles on them (joke!!) so we drove into the village and read the tourist information sign.  Wow!  We hadn't realised that the Lacoste Chateau was the home of the Marquis de Sade.  Well, of course we had to walk up to the Chateau, just to say we'd been there, here's the proof :

Campanile on the way up to the Chateau

The designer Pierre Cardin has "adopted" the village of Lacoste - he owns the Chateau, as well as several houses in the village and some of the outlying farms.  There is a lot of restoration work going on at the Chateau, and there are also two interesting sculptures situated at the top of the hill, just beside the Chateau.

"Arms" sculpture, with Mont Ventoux in the background.  

The Marquis, imprisoned for eternity beside the
scene of his depravities

From the "arms" to the Chateau.

Shone & Martine on the way up to the
Chateau, Bonnieux in the background

Um, did the Marquis have some sort of "arm" fetish going on?  Just wondering, giving the elongated arms in the "arms" sculpture and the floating arms underneath his imprisoned head in the other one.  If you know, tell us, but we don't want lots of gory details, ok? (I might need to start "approving" comments after this post!)

Back to Bonnieux, tasted some wine, Anne and Shona bought some and then we carried on to Roussillon.  None of us had been there before and we were unprepared for the beauty of the town.

Once again we were surprised to read about a famous person's connection with a small Provencal village - Samuel Beckett lived in Roussillon during the war years, and was an active member of the Resistance while he was there.

We did a half hour walking tour of the Ochre cliffs, where we were blown away by the natural colours and textures all around.

Tired and dusty!

Shona and Anne had been invited to a friend's house for Aperitifs that evening, so we parted company once we got back to Céreste.  The LSH, Kevin and I had a pleasant snack of melted cheese (it's already in the recipe section!) and spent the rest of the evening reminiscing around the fire.

Thanks Kevin for all the wonderful photos!