Fontaine de Vaucluse

On all of our trips to France, we try to visit at least a couple of France's "most beautiful villages".  We visited Vezelay last week and agree that it is an exquisite village.  And today we set off for a picnic at Fontaine-de-Vaucluse and Gordes, one of the beautiful villages, where we thought we might have afternoon coffee.

We packed a picnic lunch, stopped at the boulangerie down the road on the way out for bread and a beautiful little cake, and headed off on lots of narrow winding roads to Fontaine-de Vaucluse. The sky was blue, there were very few tourists and the crystal clear water in the river was flowing rapidly. The setting under huge, centuries-old plane trees, in a deep, deep gorge, with the remains of a 13th century castle overhead was simply breath-taking.  We think it is probably the most beautiful village we've seen - and it's not included in the official list!


The village is built around the biggest spring in Europe - the source of the River Sorgue.  We had coffee at a cafe right on the river - lots of ducks swimming around in the shallows (where there is a bright green "forest" growing under the water) and then walked up a long path to the end of the canyon where there is an enormous gaping hole in the gorge wall - a vertical funnel that is 308 metres deep - from where the main springs flow. The river has been used to power waterwheels used by paper-making mills since the 16th century - only one of which is still in operation.

We had our picnic on the banks of the river near where our car was parked, and then went back to the centre of the village for a bit of shopping (bought some table linen) and to visit the paper mill and then a museum for the French Resistance of the 1939-45 war. Nothing really prepared us for this quite small museum.  We were given English audio handsets and ended up staying there for about 2 hours. We were both completely spellbound and very moved by the stories portrayed in the outstanding exhibits.

Then back to the car along even narrower roads for the very high hilltop town of Gordes.  It is a beautiful village - with fabulous views of the surrounding countryside.  We walked all around the village and stopped for drinks just as the bells rang for 6 o'clock.  

And then off again, on even narrower roads (the sign said 2.1 metres wide) built between high dry-stone walls (I assumed that it was a one-way road and was shocked to find that we drove out on the same road) and then through bush that reminded me of Kakadu (don't ask me why - it just did) to find the ancient village called Village des Bories - where the houses are made of dry-stone and are shaped like beehives.  They are said to have been used as houses from "neolithic" times right up until the 1960's.  We spotted a couple of them in some olive groves on the way to the village and when we finally arrived, found that the village is hidden behind dry-stone walls that are over 2 metres high and that the gate was shut!

We finally arrived home at about 8pm when the sky was still a beautiful pink on the horizon.  What a day we've had - exhausting but fantastic!