Three Days in Provence

My wife and I leave from Busto Arsizio at 8, we take the highway toward Turin and then toward Briancon, then head south and after covering 440 km we arrive in Manosque at 1 pm, where we rent a room for two nights at the Ibis Hotel. In the afternoon, after eating a sandwich, we immediately start the tour visiting Ansouis, a small village with a castle, and then we make a stop at La Tour d'Aigues, where there are the remains of the walls of another castle.

Today we'll finally visit the lands of ochre. Having set the navigator, we set off toward Rustrel, the sun is shining and there's one thing you notice right away: driving in France is simply wonderful, the roads are deserted and everything around is green!. On arrival we park and following the marked trails on foot, we venture into this wild place called Colorado Provençal and Sahara, where the dominant color ranges from bright red to yellow to ochre and to the green of the vegetation. We're very fascinated by these colors! It reminds us of the landscape of the Wild Coyote cartoons and the photos are countless. You can visit it in a couple of hours and you only pay for parking!. We set off again and go to St. Saturnin les Apt, on arrival you see a rocky ridge where at the top there are the ruins of a castle.

We leave the car and venture onto a rocky path that, climbing, reaches a church and the remains of the stone walls, no more than two meters high, of what must have been a castle. From this height you can take in the view of the village and the valley below. We descend by another path that leads into the village, a brief tour of the narrow streets and we set off again, making a stop at Roussillon, a small village nestled on a cliff. This place too is the land of ochre and through the vegetation these reddish patches of the ground emerge. To visit the place you pay 5 euros per person but it's worth the visit. There are two trails: the short one takes 40m and with the variant 1h.Naturally we take the long one. Here too we're amazed and fascinated by the 'special effects' that nature has created.

From these lands since ancient times the ochre color is extracted, where it's exported all over the world (the Romans used it to dye their tunics). A tour of the village, we eat a sandwich and off to the next stop: Gordes. Nearby, after a curve in the road, it appears to us perched on a very picturesque rocky spur, illuminated by the afternoon sun. Here too its beautiful castle is not missing, the narrow streets with the stone walls of the houses and the usual little shops full of souvenirs, local crafts, and illustrated postcards, where from one of these, we discover that 4 km away is the village of Bories built entirely with local stones and dry stone walls,so we decide to visit it. The village, restored in the 1970s, dates back to the Ligurians, a population that settled a few centuries earlier in this region.

These are constructions that served as dwellings, granaries, pigsties, stables, storerooms, and silkworm nurseries. It's 5 pm, along the road back to the hotel we stop at Fontaine de Vaucluse. On foot we follow a path that leads under a vertical rock wall where there's a spring of the Sorgue, an underground watercourse that resurfaces before the village. In this small village the poet Petrarch lived for sixteen years. Here there's also a mill where paper is still made by hand and can be visited. Sunset arrives and we decide to return to the hotel, 80 km of road through the French countryside await us. Once there we go to dinner at the restaurant next to the hotel. Two plates of chicken with potatoes, a dessert, two coffees and half a bottle of water, total €. 32.00!. A bit tired but satisfied with the day, we go to sleep.

This morning too the sun is shining!. We head toward the small village of Moustiers Sainte Marie, on arrival we leave the car and notice a path that, climbing up the rocky side of the mountain, leads to a little church passing over two little stone bridges. We decide to go up and once there we notice that the interior of the little church is very dark, on the other hand outside there's a beautiful view. We return to the car and head in the direction of the Gorges du Verdon, a winding and deep canyon that stretches for 4 km where the river of the same name flows. The gorges start from Lac Sainte Croix, a lake of a stunning green-blue color! A road runs along the top of the canyon for its entire length, showing breathtaking views at certain points!.

Continuing along this road, after La Palud sur Verdon, you reach a point known as 'Le Point Sublime', where there's an extraordinary view over an abyss. Looking at the sky you can see about twenty birds of prey circling above a rocky peak! It's 4 pm and it's time to go home. I set the navigator to 'Home' and blindly follow the directions of the female voice. The driving goes smoothly and my wife falls asleep, at a certain point, since I haven't yet reached the highway, a doubt arises, I wake my wife and ask her to look at the road map to see where the hell we are: horror! the soothing voice of the navigator, instead of making me go a few km more and sending me toward the highway, made me take the shortest route, with the consequence that I find myself facing two alpine passes to tackle: the Col d'Allos and the Col du Var, both above 2000m.

From where I am now there's nothing left for me to do but continue on this road with a bit of agitation, because evening is falling. Curve after curve we start to climb, the landscape is beautiful, no traffic at all. Finally after the Col du Var we descend and arrive in Briancon and my agitation passes. All in all it was worth it. We take the A4 highway toward Milan and 'in no time at all' we arrive home. It's 10 pm. Additional notes: with the Kalos we covered 1230 km, consumed 110 liters of LPG equal to €. 85.00 and €.184.00 for two nights, including breakfasts at the Ibis Hotel, which is located just off the highway in Manosque.