Vacation in Europe:
Arles and Les Baux, France
days 14 - 16
We left Avignon and continued south toward Arles. This was our first visit to Provence, the French countryside described so well in Peter Mayle's books. I found that Provence was alternately beautiful and unremarkable. Most of the farms were already ploughed under, so there wasn't much to look at, but once in a while there were fields of sunflowers that seemed to stretch forever, other times there were miles and miles of plane trees lining the road.
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Our next destination was Aix-en-Provence, but we were in no rush. We visited a tiny local market, stopped at an argenterie in the middle of nowhere, and ended up going to Les Baux on a whim. I wasn't really interested, but my husband insisted, and it turned out great. We went olive oil tasting (although the propriétaire obviously thought we were a couple of loonies), bought a baguette and some tiny jars of tapenade and pesto, and continued on our way.
The next stop was at an olive and grape farm, where we tasted and purchased the local rosé. The propriétaire loaned us some wine glasses and a corkscrew and invited us to picnic right there on the farm. We had a lovely view of Les Baux and the fields from our cozy lunch spot.
In the next tiny town we came to, we stopped for dessert (incredible profiteroles that the owner was only too happy to tell me were her own recipe) and then continued on to Aix.
Next stop: Aix-en-Provence Vacation Index
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