Day 1
We arrived in Provence and it is exactly as we expected: a Mediterranean climate with rolling hills that are spotted with lavender fields. We're staying in Arles, which like many towns in Provence, is replete with sun washed, ochre buildings and faded blue shutters. Arles was a significant city during the Roman Empire. The Romans built two substantial buildings which are still in use today: The arena/or amphitheater is used for bullfights and perhaps other events. The Roman theater is used for concerts and plays. We visited these and several other monuments when we arrived, including the Church of St. Trophime and its adjoining cloister, the crypts under the old roman forum, as well as the old Roman bath house.
Arles is where Van Gogh descended deeper into madness. He cut off his ear and ultimately entered a nearby asylum a year or two after he arrived here. This isn't necessarily a point of emphasis in the town's promotional materials, which is however eager to point out that Van Gogh did some of his best work here.
We've noticed there are a lot of Americans here, and especially Californians! When queuing for tickets at various sites, the visitors in front or behind us announced they were from the Golden State.
We had dinner at the hotel, where there's a lovely outdoor seating area infront. The hotel is tucked away on a small quiet street that doesn't get much traffic. The night we were there a man on horseback came galloping by, licking an ice cream cone. What a way to end the evening!
Day 2
We visited Notre Dame du Senanque Abbey and based on what I learned there, I can say that living as a monk is hard. Their highly regimented schedule included more prayer sessions than meals (sometimes only one meal a day!). They slept fully clothed (belt included) so they could wake up at a moments notice and start praying. This included a prayer in the middle of the night. We also learned choir monks are different from lay monks and you'd rather be a choir monk. Lay monks spent a larger portion of their time tilling the fields and harvesting the lavender and managing the administrative affairs of the monastery. The choir monks spent more time in prayer and (as the name suggests) singing. In other words, they were (are?) the divas of the group.
Next we visited Gordes, which is a beautiful ancient hilltop village overlooking lavender fields and other agriculture. However, parking in Gordes was an issue. There was a long line at the ticket terminal when we arrived. Fortunately, we could bypass the terminal if we paid using their app. Unfortunately, the app was poorly designed and it took about 10 minutes to partially figure it out. I say partially because we ended up buying a month-long parking pass for 20 euros for our 1 hour visit.
After lunch, we went in search of Instagrammable lavender fields. This search took us along narrow and windy country roads that meandered through the hills. These roads often got so narrow that the French authorities dispensed with the central lane divider, in an acknowledgment that drivers would have to become more intimate with opposing traffic than they would otherwise deem reasonable and from time to time make themselves amenable to certain inconveniences, like driving into a ditch to avoid a truck.
Hannah could barely contain herself as we drove through the countryside. Each lavender field we passed evoked a sudden gasp of delight, which was unfortunately indistinguishable from the sudden gasp of terror she might make if we were about to collide with oncoming traffic. Her gasps, compounded with the aforementioned narrow roadways, made the driving somewhat stress inducing for me.
We stopped and photographed what I will call an "adequate" number of lavender fields (pictures below). Hannah is of the opinion that our number of stops was "entirely insufficient." Hannah was particularly frustrated that we passed up on what were - in her view - prime photo-taking spots. For my part, I was concerned that these were prime spots to get into an accident since the road lacked a shoulder to pull out on.
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