Bronson Walkabout: Provence: Vacationing with the French

We left Monsemprom-Libos and took the southern route into Provence. When we hit the main road south of Toulouse that heads east towards the French Riveria and southern Provence, we hit the masses. Cars loaded with families and all their vacation paraphernalia like bikes, pillows, suitcases, pets, and more.

We had chosen a northern Provence destination (Orange) for this reason: We knew that we would be vacationing with the French. And the rest of the European Union that travels to the south of France for vacation.

The house we rented was on the hill above the old part of the city of Orange, a view towards Mount Ventoux. Our lovely host Marylene spoke no English and welcomed us with fresh ratatouille, local goat cheese, peaches, tomatoes, and a chilled bottle of Tavel rose, some Provencal specialties. After our long drive, we appreciated this generous welcome. We settled in.

The only downfall with Maison du Marylene was no wifi. That led us to L’Academie du Billards, owned by a lovely young woman named Jenny and her family. She had studied in Iowa and Seattle for two years and made us feel right at home. Jeff went to the cell phone store to recharge our pay as you go cellular chip and ran into Marylene who was purchasing a hotspot for us. Voila, we had wifi and a new English speaking friend.

Orange is in the Cotes du Rhone (note: should be hats above the “o”s there, can’t figure it out in blogspot!), an amazing wine growing area so we hired a wine guide to show us around and help us understand what made it so great. Simple: Terrior (Chip, it was like you were right there!). The soil is rocky, chalky or sandy all around the area, dry and perfect for stressing grapes. Mike from Wine Safari took us through vineyards in Chateaunuef du Pape and Gigondas showing us the different grapes, soils and growing methods. And then, of course, the wine tastings. Two family run wineries and both were fantastic. Mike was a great source of information and we understood why the wines were so dang good that we tasted.

Provence is littered with well-preserved Roman sites and Orange has an amazing 2000+ year-old roman theatre that we could look down into from the park across the street from our house. Marylene showed us how to watch a simulcast of the opera that was being preformed on Tuesday there so we saw the inside on the TV, listening to Italian opera (Othello) with French subtitles. They also have a great market on Wednesday morning and we stocked up with lots of local produce, cheese, oils and goodies. The Theater is the main draw to Orange so it was easy to avoid the vacationing masses.

We ventured off into the Luberon region and we got a taste for what our friend David referred to as the “heaving masses”. Bus loads of Japonese, French and other European tourists. Of course there’s a good reason why so many people come here: It’s a beautiful area with picturesque villages sprinkled among red rock hills. We went to Roussillon, along with hundreds of our closed friends. It was lovely, set among ochre and red hills above a verdant valley. I’d love to visit Provence on the off-season to explore more of this diverse region of France. Mike the wine guy said “We don’t see many Americans here in August”, and I thought that’s because the smart ones wait until September! You only travel to France in August once!

Leaving Orange, we again experienced the notorious French vacation traffic jams with heavy volumes going north. We entertained ourselves by watching license plates from other Euro-zone countries and guessing how much the next toll would be. Once we passed Lyon, left them masses and entered Burgundy, a sweet relief from the traffic.