Community Highlights Europe On to Provence

On to Provence

Published 4 Jun 2025 · France · Comments

09 May 2025

Back on the mainland, we knew we couldn't get into our Airbnb early so we drove up into the Provence countryside and the beautiful little village of Bonnieux. This was a return visit as we had visited back on 2012. Really cute and very French..really hadn't changed much. After enjoying a nice lunch, we went to Gordes..another "cute" French village but this one we had not visited before. It was packed with tourists and as hard as we tried we could find no parking so we drove on, making our way south.

For the next five days we would be staying in Venelles, a small village about 15 minutes north of Aix-en-Provence. We were met by our hosts, who it turned out lived right next door with their two daughters. The apartment had everything we needed. Great stop.

10 May 2025

As planned we made our way to Aix since it was "Market Day". We had fun wandering through the markets spread throughout the whole old city. There are at least four (or more) different "market" areas: Artist's, flowers, fresh fruit, veggies, meat, cheese, seafood and one area that was a combo of all different venders. Kiosks selling clothing (mostly from Italy), shoes, table clothes, etc, etc, etc occupied the whole length of Cours Mirabeau. Not the biggest market in France or even Provence but it did not disappoint.

We bought a few veggies (tomatoes, lettuce, lemon, garlic (the garlic here is amazing) and baby artichokes. I'm going to try my hand at roasting them. We also came home with chevre (goat cheese), a new shirt, seafood fritters and wine. The vibe is totally alive and buzzing.

We left as the crowds began to grow and grow, deciding to have lunch in Venelles. Little did we know that about 3km from our apartment there was also a small market, smack in the middle of Venelles, but we only caught the tail end. Saturday is definitely "Market Day"

11 May 2025

Sundays in France are really very quiet. Stores either are closed or close early. We decided to make this our chill day. Got some laundry done and for dinner we were surprised with two pizzas from our host. He owns a pizzeria. Pretty yummy!!

12 May 2025

Another beautiful day and we headed north towards the hill villages. Our first stop was Cadenet. I had done some research and discovered it was market day in this little village. Areas in the village date back to the mid 1500's. The market was really small but there was a woman selling some nice clothing. Generally, clothing in these markets are from Italy. I picked up a nice white shirt and green pants - time to expand my horizons.

From Cadenet, Cucuron was our next stop. We had been there before with our group in 2012 and this was a favorite stop. Being a fan of the movie, A Good Year, we discovered that some scenes where filmed there. Not a busy day and it was easy to find a place for lunch.

Deciding to give Gordes another try was not the best choice. We did find a parking space and walked a short ways into the village. Deciding that this was not our favorite village, we turned back to the car. It's not a bad village. It's cute but packed with tourists and we were not really sure why.

When we got close to Venelles, we decided we needed wine. This was a good learning experience. We stopped into a small wine store and picked out a few roses (I can't figure out how to switch my keyboard on my laptop - but you get the idea). As I was talking with the woman who worked in the shop, we discussed, in my broken French and her broken English, the difference between bottled vs boxed wines. Her opinion and others working in the shop was that in the past, yes, bottled was better. But, that is really not the case any longer. So we decided to give a "box" a try. It was actually very good.

13 May 2025

Our last day in Provence and our host had recommended the Carrieres des Lumieres in Les Baux de Provence. Les Baux is a bit different as cute little French towns go. It's located in the Alpilles mountains, on a rocky outcrop with a ruined castle overlooking the valley. It's a member of Les Plus Beaux Villages of France (The most beautiful villages of France).

What really brought us here was the Carriers. Images are projected on the limestone walls of the quarry. There is rotating shows and we got to see a Monet (one of my favorites) exhibit and a pre-show of Rousseau. The whole experience was really impressive. We have given it 5 star +++.