When I was 20 years old, in December 1969, I came to France for the first time. I had been learning French for seven years in high school and college, but I didn't really know much about France the country. I knew a little bit about French literature, grammar, and pronunciation. I certainly knew very little about Provence, where I spent the next six months, in Aix-en-Provence.
You'd think I and my fellow students would have traveled 25 or 30 miles north from Aix to see the hilltop villages of the Luberon. But we didn't. We went to cities like Arles, Avignon, Nîmes, Marseille, and even Cannes, but not to villages like Ménerbes, Bonnieux, Gordes, or Lourmarin. It was probably because none of us had a car. We took trains to the cities, but there were don't think there were trains to the villages just north of us. I really wonder what that part of Provence was like back then.
It wasn't until 1993, after the publication of Peter Mayle's book "A year in Provence" that Walt and I went and spent two weeks exploring the Luberon. We went back in 1995 and again in 2001. I wish I had memories of 1970 in the Luberon. The photos above are some I took in and around the village of Ménerbes in 2001.
If you had 10 days to explore, coming in from Barcelona - where would you go? I have been a cruise next May from Miami to Barcelona.
ReplyDeleteHave you been to the Dordogne? It's not too far from the Spanish border.
DeleteWe have not been farther south than Normandy/Brittany.
DeleteNow you've got wondering, too. It's too bad your professors didn't arrange trips for you, but they were probably busy on the weekends touring themselves.
ReplyDeleteWhen I went to Montpellier the summer of '61 we had families that came and got us on Sundays. One family had a rustic little house on the beach at Palavas- that of course is long gone. There was a large campground also. What I would like to see are my three grandparents that died before I was born.
There may have been organized bus tours through the study abroad program, but I didn't go on any of them. I stayed in Aix, did short trips to nearby cities, and spent our two-week spring break in Paris, by myself. I loved it. Everybody else wanted to go to Greece, Italy, or Spain.
DeleteI told Betsy that you said hi, and she said, “Oh! Wave back at him!” :)
ReplyDeleteNow, we’re talking about Aix!
Oops! That was me, Judy!
ReplyDeleteIn 1967, my parents and I visited Le Lavandou, just 20 minutes west of St. Tropez. It was a sleepy little beach resort and we spent 2 nights there. Later, in 1991, I was able to return with my family to Le Lavandou, again! It had a new fish market but little else had changed! That time I was able to speak with others who were so surprised to hear american english. They said in all their years of traveling to that village they had never run into any Americans! I bet Gordes, Roussillon and other hilltop villages would have been similar back in the 90's. My daughter and I did extensive traveling in the Luberon and Provence, Barcelona, Toulouse, Lourdes, Biarritz, Bilbao, Bordeaux, the Loire, Belgium and Netherlands during her winter recess from her Jr. Year abroad in 2001/2002. I joined her again in May 2002 and we made another whirlwind 30-day driving tour including Provence, the Luberon the Camargue, and Alsace-Lorraine. I had the same feeling as I did back in the 60's. We returned again to Provence in 2007 after she had spent a year teaching in Valenciennes. More supermarchés, more tourists but the sleepy villages were still there with their marchés on Saturdays and small restos with gorgeous skies and quiet rural countrysides.
ReplyDeleteThat was my last trip and I AM SO READY TO RETURN!!! It has been too long but my diabetic cat requires my care so I will just dream and continue my french classes, read and enjoy all the photos you and Walt share knowing that I WILL get back to FRANCE!
It sounds like you had a lot of good travels in France over the years. I hope you will be able to come back soon. I still wonder if I will ever get back to California or North Carolina.
DeleteKen this town looks wonderful. At that young age, I would have headed for he cities too like Nimes or Arles to see the Roman ruins.
ReplyDeleteI remember a photo aux volets bleus with blue shutters, but I think it was in Bonnieux.
ReplyDeleteThe blue shutters were probably in Lauris. That was a picture Walt took in 1993, I believe.
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