Friday March 22, 2024

FRIDAY MARCH 22, 2024

Today we are off to Bonnieux. The drive is rich with farmland growing fruit trees, grape vines, olive trees and lavender. Bonnieux sits high on the mountain top overlooking Luberon Valley. 









Off in the distance is the town of La Coste.



This is the view of Bonnieux from La Coste

La Coste is a tiny village. The Marquis de Sade lived here in 1740-1814. He was a bad guy. He was imprisoned for 30 years for his favorite hobbies giving us the word sadism. His is the structure that is a ruin. Pierre Cardin bought it and renovated the castle. 


We’re hoping that there will be a  La Coste store in town. Well…not an alligator in sight! 

Our next stop is Cavaillon. It’s a much bigger village nestled below a rock formation. We drove around and stopped at the town square. Spring is here. The tulips are at their peak! 



We walked around and stopped for lunch at one of the oldest restaurants in town. 



Back to Avignon. When possible we drive to the towns where we are going to explore on local roads in order to get a feel for the countryside. On our way home we opt for the highway. Their highways and ours differ immensely. They are quicker and have 2 lanes in each direction. They also charge a toll. Steve dropped Susie and I off in town. We walked around and made a few reservations for dinner as the weekends tend to be busy. Steve and Jeff went back out for a Car Show about 10 minutes outside of town. Most were European cars made famous over the years by James Bond. Jeff saw his first car!


The cherry on top was finding the precursor to The Thing. It was called the Kublewagon. It was designed by Ferdinand Porsche as a German military car. It had bullet holes in the steering wheel. The owner Johan, was from Avignon and quite a historian about Avignon. 

We went back to one of our favorite restaurants tonight. L’Epecerie, translates to The Grocery, the waitress, Magdalena was so nice. She remembered us…a plus of having the last name of Pope in Avignon. Magdalena was who taught us about Google Lens for translating French to English. Dinner was delicious again. L’Epecerie is a long narrow space with room for 20-22. guests. In warm weather they have a huge outside area for seating. At one point, 5 women came in for dinner. We couldn’t help but hear that they were speaking English and were Americans. As we were leaving I asked, “Where are you ladies from?” They said California. We swapped stories about good restaurants in town, where to go. This was their 2nd time going to L’Epecerie as well. I consulted my blog in order to tell them places we had gone. They asked for the name of the blog and we exchanged cell#. They are all sisters and are on a walking tour. They are walking from town to town in Provence. Wow we have been on these roads and they are steep. The tour takes their luggage  and they walk! I think when I’ve had 12,000 steps for the day, it’s been a lot. They said they do 18 miles each day!  
Off to bed! 
Bonne Nuit!💤💤









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