Provence - Part II

We left Aix early the next morning for Apt. Apt is a city that is mostly unremarkable except for 2 things. First, it is in the center of a region called the Luberon Mountains, which is absolutely beautiful. Second, it has hosted a market every Saturday for the past 500 years or so; a market which takes over the entire city. We left the car at the B&B (Les Mylanettes, also an unremarkable place, but with a very nice owner and more importantly, a room available the weekend of Easter) and walked down hill to market in Apt. The market was truly incredible, no matter which alley or street you turned down, someone was in the street selling something. Anticipating the stores being closed for Easter (and Easter Monday) we picked up some essentials for picnicking the next couple of days – a loaf of good bread, a bottle of local olive oil, a big piece of cheese. We also explored a little bit around the museum of the industrial adventure (or something like that) which describes the production of various regional products – notably the fruits confits (candied fruits).

We had been invited to lunch at the country home of one of my colleague’s parents (Benedicte). They plied us with more of the region’s specialties: olive tapenade, eggplant cavier, chevre covered in ash, potatoes cooked with garlic). After lunch, we joined Benedicte, Mark, and one of their daughters for a hike in St Saturnin de Apt. Ella demonstrated her hiking enthusiasm, keeping up with Mark and enjoying his explanations about the many flowers, herbs, and rocks that they found along the way. We climbed among the ruins of a castle, we went into a stone igloo (called a borie) that the shepherds of the region built to live in while in the fields, and we rested on a bench outside of an old, but still intact windmill. We ended up at a little café where we tasted various kinds of syrup mixed with water, including one based on figs and another on almonds (sirop de orgeat).

The next morning at the B&B the kids were delighted to find a bowl of chocolate eggs awaiting them at breakfast. The B & B host lent us a knife and plates for a picnic and a hiking map of the Luberon mountains. We set off for a hike to Sivergues. We left the car in a parking lot under a sign that literally said “the end of the road,” and headed up the wide path (3 km to the summit). At a certain point we reached a mountain auberge. Benedicte had advised us to stop there, since the trail became harder to follow after that point. But, we were heart set on picnicking at the summit, so we continued. As it turned out, we did lose the trail at one point not far from the summit, but we followed a more direct route through the bushes, nearly straight up the last 100 meters or so. Ella proved to be an amazing hiker (and Jonah was a trouper about riding on my back and Abe’s shoulders). We were well rewarded at the top by a magnificent view of the Luberon valley to the south and the Valcluse Mountains to the north. We picnicked among the wild rosmary, thyme, oregano, marjoram, and lavender plants – the contents of a sachet of herb de provence growing in the wild around us. We headed down the mountain the same way we had come, glad to recover the trail, and seriously craving lamb for dinner.

Having thoroughly enjoyed the natural environment of the region, we decided to do a little bit of traditional sightseeing in the afternoon. We drove through the city of Gordes, an upscale artist town perched on a hill, and visited the Abbey of Senanque. This Cistercian abbey was built in 1148, and has just recently begun housing monks again (6 live there currently, with a 7th preparing to take his vows). This sect of Catholicism is a very austere order, and the architecture is commensurately simple. The tour guide answered for us a question we have had in several of the middle ages buildings we have seen in France. Often in these buildings, there are letters carved into the stones of the walls. Apparently, these carvings were made by the masons who laid the stones. It was how they got paid. At the end of the work day, the boss would count the number of stones bearing an "A" for example, and Al would be paid for that many stones. The tour guide speculated that the stones bearing no letter were laid by the monks themselves who helped to build their own abbey.