A Week in Provence: St. Remy and Gourdes

On our first full day in Provence, we headed off to explore St. Remy. After fighting traffic in the nearby towns, we approached through rows of shady plane trees. I thought that I was in a Van Gogh painting. (Van Gogh lived here, spending most of his time in a nearby insane asylum.) I must admit that, upon arrival, the town was not so impressive. Maybe that's because our girls were not cooperating and our lunch place was expensive but so-so food. We did a brief drive-by of Les Antiques, some well-preserved Roman monuments near the town. But, again, not as impressive as we'd hoped. I still loved the plane trees.
Gordes is impressive just in how it is built. It is one of the famous hilltop towns of the region and it seems the villagers creatively found some way to build a structure on every square foot of the hill. The village rises above the lush green valley below with contrasting hues of honey gold.
Here we are enjoying some pizza in the town center. As it was windy, we searched for a restaurant indoors -- but none of them opened until 7pm. The lazy lifestyle of Provence is nice for childless couples, but not so great when you've got hungry children at 5pm.

I love the steep and narrow winding cobbled streets of Gordes. It makes me feel like I'm living back in the middle ages. Again, though, not so convenient with a stroller. :)

KaRynn and I are enjoying the view of the Provençal farms below. By the way, don't we look more like sisters than cousins. (Except I look much older!)

Right next to Gordes is the Village des Bories. KaRynn and I decided to go check it out. The road to it was a bit nerveracking, though. We were surrounded by stone wall on both sides, which sometimes only left half a foot between our car and the wall. Anyhow, it's an ancient community of little stone hovels built by the Celts or Ligurians or even dating back to the Iron Age.