Provence and beyond

After going to church for the last time (and feeling so loved by everyone) we climbed inside our "house car", as the girls called it, and hit the road. At Geoff's mom and sister's recommendation we took a little detour off the main freeway through a section of Provence and passed through a town called Gourdes. Just a few hours into our trip we knew there would be much more that we would like to see on this trip than our planned route. We wished we could have stayed and explored this very beautiful town uniformly made of white stone; sitting on a hill overlooking some of the most beautiful countryside I have every seen. Pictures can't even come close to capturing it.

To get back to the freeway we went down a back road and came across an old monastery down in a narrow valley. There was the potage (kitchen garden), and fields of lavender (not yet blooming). The monastery itself was gorgeous. Looking back, this was one of my favorite places. I wish I had more pictures, or could remember the name. We could only see it from the high road looking down into the valley.

We then passed through spectacular countryside (I'm going to have to use a thesaurus for additional word ideas to not be redundant when describing the countrysides on this trip) with fields of cherries, groves of olives, and vineyard after vineyard. We steered clear of Provincial countryside during the winter to avoid the minstrel winds, but we clearly are missing out on one of the most picturesque parts of France during these summer months.

Geoff grabbing some cherries on the side of the road

We came upon a very large herd of sheep with several sheep dogs keeping them off the small country road. We stopped to watch them, and listen to the clanking of their bells, and learned from the Shepherd that he has 1,300 sheep!

We continued North through the Rhone Valley with the most magnificent countryside made up of rolling hills and manicured fields, with small villages in the distance that certainly inspired Belle and Gaston's hometown. There were red poppy fields everywhere. No wonder Monet was so inspired!

I could have left France after this first day full and happy...but that was just the beginning...