Saint-Pantaléon
I have been living in Provence for 3 years. There is so many places where we haven't visited yet,
beautiful villages, nature and all. We drove with our friends G and N about 1 hour away from home, fist stop Saint-Pantaléon. We visited here actually once, when our friends got married few years ago.
G's mom use to be a touristic guide, so she gave us a map she had made and tips where to go and how to obtain key to this church. It's a secret.
You know what these are?
Well, now you know.
After a short visit to the church, we drove to Ménerbes.
Ménerbes, a village with very provençal look but only for tourists. Very touristic village, many foreigners lives there (mainly artists) and can only hear english everywhere. Lunch and sigh-tseeing was enough.
Grapes...
After lunch and visiting Ménerbes, we headed to Lacoste as we wanted to see the village and specially the de Sade's castle. Nowadays the castle is owned by Pierre Cardin. When we arrived to the top of the hill,
the entrance to the castle was 10€. Bit too much for visiting the ruines of the castle, so we didn't enter. I do understand it costs a lot to restore the castle, but hey, it's Pierre Cardin who is the owner. I could have entered if it would be less than 5€.
Château de Marquis de Sade
Yes, this is THE guy from who's name the word "sadism" and "sadist" are derived.
When we got home, I was interested to read about de Sade more, if he was just writing sadistic stories or was he actually doing it. Yes he was. He spent half of his lifetime in jail for that.
All in all, visiting provence is always interesting - it's good to see other places than Avignon.
I am ready to move on, from Avignon city center. I hope we can move next year, then.
Even there was wind in Avignon when we left, all these villages just one hour drive away were sunny, no wind and actually I could feel the sun burning again. It was perfect sunday.
Saturday was spent inside, the Mistral wind was blowing around 90km/h (25m/s and 56mph)
it's enough to stay inside, all day.
The rest of the week, I will have a lot of work and then I'm leaving to Netherlands for work.
See you after!
I was disappointed by Menerbes. I didn't understand what the big deal was when I was there. It just seemed like a normal village. Sure it's pretty, but so are so many other villages around here.
ReplyDeleteHave you been to Gordes, Goult, or Roussillon yet? Gordes is packed with tourists, but I think they are all worth the visit.
And yeah... €10 entrance into the castle is too much! €5 would be ok, but not €10. Have you been to Les Baux? They charge €6 to park the car!!!
Ooh I LOVE that key! It would go beautifully in my collection! :)
ReplyDeleteI love the "La Vie est Belle" photo! You should print and frame it as a constant reminder that life really is beautiful!
ReplyDeleteYou take great pictures! These are all really good! My list of places to see outside of Paris is growing thanks to all of these fantastic blog posts. What would I do without the blogosphere!?
...and thank you for the birthday wishes. : )
Your photographs are so lovely. The colours are beautiful. We will be in provence (Drome) at the middle of October for a week. I hope we will have such beautiful skies :-). I want to ride my bike up mont ventoux. A Mistral tail wind would be good :-)
ReplyDeleteJ'aime votre blog! J'ai il trouvé aujourd'hui et je suis en amour! Vos photos sont trés belle and que village est trés mignon!
ReplyDeleteFollow me:
http://lego-house.blogspot.com
Sara Louise, I was disappointed somehow too as it is just so touristic. Like many of the villages here.. I have been in Roussillon, Gordes and Les Baux,it's just crazy expencive and too many tourists.
ReplyDeleteAnd hey all, I don't dislike tourists even I complain about them during the festival time ;) Just need some peace and quiet too.
Annie, I need to find you one ;)
I'll keep you posted if I get my hands to this kind of keys that are for sale.
Mademoiselle Coquine, Thank you! It's so nice to "meet" other people and see new places via internet. And if I'm not mistaken, we will meet soon!
Thank you Lisa as well, you will love the provence for sure. It will be a hard day to bike up to Mont Ventoux, bon courage! :) And have a great holidays.
Carrie, Merci beaucoup! C'est très gentil. J'y vais voir également votre blog, à bientôt!
I love these photos!!!!
ReplyDeletehow lucky to live there! you are so blessed.
ReplyDeletexo
stop by for a visit,
lydia from vintage2vogue
http://vintagetwovogue.blogspot.com