Gordes, Tuesday Evening

    After dinner on the terrace, we walked over to Gordes to explore some of the back alleys.

    Another sunset picture of the town from the top of our lane.

 An overhead shot of one of the alleys we wanted to explore. This one, with steps cut into the middle is just wide enough for a vehicle. Someone had a golf cart parked along the alley but I couldn't believe it would be able to climb the steep pitch up to the village.

Betsy walking down the alley pictured above.

 Steps cut into the middle of the alley.

Details of the different patterns of stone.

An old Renault parked along side the base of the alley.

 A monumental garden wall built just below the village.

One of the turrets from the wall at the edge of the garden.

 A public laundry fed by springs at the base of the village.

Closeup of the covered spring fed laundry.

 Details from the alley at the base of the village.

 

     Triangular door at base of garden wall.

   Wall sculpture made from old hinges.

Sign at the base of the alley.

Tuesday, St. Remy en Provence

After the market this morning, we drove over to St. Remy, with our bikes in the back of the car. We followed the very informative plaques up from the town to the St. Paul Hospital where Van Gogh committed himself for most of the last year of his life. 

I'm reading one of the plaques describing Van Gogh's painting sites along the Avenue Marie Gasquet which leads from the town center to the St. Paul de Mausole where Van Gogh stayed.

Here is the map the tourist office supplies with the walking route up to the St. Paul Hospital.

 One of the plaques describing the places where Van Gogh painted once he was well enough to paint outdoors that have been placed along the walking route. Even though Van Gogh was only allowed to paint within a mile of the hospital, he found an amazing range of subjects.

 St. Remy is now a fashionable town filled with second homes and tourists and many of the homes like this one next to the asylum are much more manicured now than they would have been in Van Gogh's time.

But this is a farm two lots down from the asylum built in the vernacular architecture and shows what the buildings would have looked like in Van Gogh's time.

Here is one of the groves next to the asylum with the Alpilles just visible in the background.

    A view of the hospital painted from down in the surrounding fields and gardens.

The cloister and garden just beneath Van Gogh's ward.

The iron bed set up to show what Van Gogh's room in the hospital was like.

Chair in the corner with a leather haversack from the period.

Hospital equipment of the late 19th century set up to give the ward some context in Van Gogh's time.

 Looking back to Van Gogh's ward from the bottom of a field planted in lavender.

Part of the gardens Van Gogh would have seen next to the hospital. Many gardens have walls or windbreaks to shelter them from the mistral, the harsh wind that blows down from the north.

After visiting Van Gogh's hospital, we biked just around St. Remy to see the countryside using this map provided by the tourist office. Just outside of town, the landscape is mostly still agricultural with many farms growing fruit or vegetables for seeds. We followed the route on the top right but got directions from locals down some of the farm paths that run along the extensive irrigation system. The countryside is beautiful with slightly rolling hills and wonderful views of the sharp crests of the Alpilles just south of the city.

Here's what the landscape looked like from our bikes.

Tuesday Morning, Gordes Market

Since we are staying only ten minutes from the village by foot, we were able to walk over to the market just as the vendors were setting up. Here are a few pictures of the food and wares.

 Betsy is looking over the cloth wares in the middle of this picture.

            The delivery truck for the local grocery store is in the background.

This is the table cloth Betsy found at the market spread out on the table in the cottage.

Monday, Cavaillon and Apt

 This morning we went to the market in Cavaillon to get fruits, vegetables, and a rotisserie chicken. The market is known for its produce, and we found fresh lettuce, carrots, radishes, and cherries for a salad topped with chicken.

Here are some of the melons this city and the surrounding area are famous for, the focus of a festival each spring.

I was surprised at how many of the folks we saw wore traditional Muslim clothing. The whole area has a blend of cultures with northern Europeans mixing with all the cultures from the Mediterranean and a few visitors like us from other countries.

In the middle of the day we biked up to Apt to get bike chain oil and other gear for our bikes. We did most of the trip on the bike path that runs up the middle of the valley, passing through farm fields like these with the freshly cut hay.

The bike path crosses over the Pont Julien built by the Romans around 3 B.C. on a major route from Italy up to France. It has very delicate arches with carefully fitted stones. No mortar was used in the original construction which was in continuous use until 2005 when a wider bridge was built just upstream. Now it's just for bikes!

We walked into town in the early evening when the light is low. Here are some pictures taken around 6 p.m. I loved all the different shapes in this little alley.

This is the local market which has a great selection of fresh produce and lots of other great stuff.

Here is a  little tower at the head of our lane with a very cool outside staircase. I photographed it from two angles to show the staircase in detail.