Return to the Lavender

Sunset over the lavender fields near Valensole, France

It’s been hot in Montpellier! Not hot hot, as in triple digit days (more than 100°F/38°C); instead, more humid hot: 85°F and 80%RH.  Growing up in California’s Central Valley I can appreciate dry heat, but I have no use for humidity. We run the AC—lightly—so it’s bearable, but this is only the first month of summer. September seems a long ways away! 

But summer also means… It’s lavender time in Provence. Those gorgeous, extensive fields so justly famous for their scented purpleness are once more in bloom. 

Two years ago we passed near the lavender fields returning from our trip to Lucca and Florence. We spent a night to get the full experience. (Click here for that blog)  This year we created a more deliberate, focused trip, with only one goal in mind: lavender fields! And we took some friends this time: Kate, Debora, and Adrianne, all of them previous travel companions.

 

Kate, Debra, Adrianne, Paula, and Paul of the long arms in a field of lavender.

Our biggest concern was the heat. How will we hold up in the heat and humidity? Should we go for one night, or two? How much petal peeping would we want to do in the heat? 

Ready, aim, shoot!
(Thanks to Paula for this great shot!)

As it turned out, heat was not a problem; we had magnificent, cool sunny weather… after a couple of record cloudbursts, one on each day. Both times we were in the car, and absolutely had to pull over and wait for the buckets of water sluicing off the windshield to abate. At one point we even saw hailstones—and heard them, rattling on the roof.

A road into the fields.

 

We expected to see fields of sunflowers, and were almost disappointed, until this one showed up!
(A photo by Kate)

Kate was fortunate enough to catch this little guy exploring a sunflower!

Us, in the town of Manosque, on the edge of the lavender fields...
(Thanks to Adrianne for this one)

Then the downpour ceased, and we drove on. After the deluge on the second day, as we slowly made our way back to the highway, we had a good laugh when what came up on the playlist was Johnny Nash’s song from the 1970s  “I can see clearly now, the rain has gone…” 

And indeed, it was a bright sunny day for our visit to the Abbaye Notre Dame de Sénanque and the nearby town of Gordes.

Nice find, Kate!

We had been here before, too, in recent memory. In fact, we'd visited the area with Kate last year. For info on the Abbaye (today again a working monastery) you can check another of our previous blogs, "Our Ride to Roussillon".

The Abbaye Notre Dame de Senanque in 2022.

Click here for the classic "lavender in Provence" photo!

Paula, with Kate and Adrianne, at the Abbaye.

After buying a few things at the gift shop—the monks do make their living selling things—we explored the monastery grounds a bit, then moved on to the nearby town of Gordes. Dramatically cascading down the side of a cliff, Gordes is (yet another) medieval town, quite filled with tourists on the day we were there. After a fine and leisurely lunch we wandered a bit, admiring the art and architecture. But it had been a busy day... and we soon headed home.

Just off the main street of Gordes, visitors relax in the shade.

Dramatic views from the city streets.

         The Cigales of Provence

Thanks no doubt to the hot weather, the cigales have come out in full force. These are a variety of cicada, living underground as grubs to emerge every few years and fill the area with their buzzy buzz. It’s truly the sound of summer here! 

We were fortunate enough to see a few hanging out on a tree trunk. Here’s a short video, with sound…

If that link doesn't work, click here!

A cigale on a tree trunk--normally they're hidden in the leaves.

Next up:     We're off to Brittany! We'll be spending the entire month of July there (hoping to escape the heat—and have some adventures!). We may or may not get blogs out while there, but when we return, there will be tales to tell. 

The town of Gordes, seen from the highway (another one of Kate's great photos!).

Springtime... Again!

 

The lovely town of Romorantin-Lanthenay.

We finally took our new car on a road trip! The occasion was a family reunion with my daughter Nina, her husband Riki, and my brother-in-law Christian and his wife Christiane. They live in a region of France north of us known as La Sologne, in the Loire Valley. That puts it in central France, a bit south of Orléans. In former times it was heavily forested, and the hunting preserve of the king. While it is associated with the famous châteaux de la Loire, for me it is always connected to my early years in France. Much of the land has been cleared for farms, but there are still vast tracks of forest, mostly privately owned, and mostly still used for hunting.  

Our trip north went well. It required six hours of driving, which meant the whole journey lasted about eight hours, what with lunch and other stops. We arrived in the town of Romorantin-Lantheny—Romo for short—where Paula had booked us a very nice Airbnb house. It was a classic Romorantin house, perhaps 150 years old but wonderfully modernized: three stories, two bedrooms (and an enormous bath!), plus a very pleasant sitting area in back. Nina and Riki showed up soon after we did and we all relaxed and chatted for a bit before heading over to see my brother- and sister-in-law.

Where we stayed in Romo--classic 19th century.

It turns out that they were not at their house, about a 10 minute walk from us, but at la cabine, their cabin, a place out in the woods they’d bought decades ago. We've been there a number of times, and I sort of knew the way. It turned out it was only about a 10 minute drive from where we were staying; we drove along a simple open country road. 

Christian greets us from the terrace of la cabine.

Worst. Boule. Court. Ever. Hey, it's out in the woods, what do you want!

We had a fabulous time, visiting with not just Christian and Christiane, but also their daughter Carole, her husband Bastian, and their two boys, Oscar and Adam. After hiking through the woods, studying the near-by river, or playing boules in the rough grass near the cabin, we had long, leisurely evening meals on the terrace. This far north twilight is long and slow, encouraging the French habit of lingering over a multi-course meal.

Things get a little fuzzy as the wine bottles empty... (Nina's photo captures the moment).

On our first full day we explored the town of Romorantin. Like many towns in France, it is not particularly distinguished today, yet has a long and interesting history. At one time it was slated to be the capital of France.

The Chancellerie de Romorantin--where the royal seals were kept when the king was in residence back in the 15th century.

François I, the King of France, wanted to make this town his capital in the 16th century. He enlisted the aid of Leonardo da Vinci to help him design a magnificent city and a huge palace. The original plan was to bring together three rivers from the area to make a vast water works centered on Romorantin. But the plague and wars—and time—intervened and that plan never came about. (Leonardo da Vinci did spend the last years of his life at the court of François I in the city of Amboise, an hour west—by modern car, not horse-drawn carriage!)

The four of us, with the river Sauldre and Romorantin behind.

Today the remains of this early work are still visible in downtown Romo where the river Sauldre splits around an island in the middle of town. It’s a beautiful area and we enjoyed our time walking and admiring the old buildings, mute testimony to the long history of the town.

A canal running through town, part of the early water works.

A classic home in Romorantin; we were almost hoping those were for sale signs!
(But no, this homeowner is content to be here)

We had two more wonderful evenings at the cabin (love those long, slow sunsets!) before finally heading out Monday morning. We started with a pleasant half hour drive through the countryside with Nina and Riki to the train station in another small town. They were returning to Paris and ultimately Seville; we, however, got back on the highway and headed south, arriving home in Montpellier well before dark.

 

An enthusiastic selfie by long-armed Ricardo; that's Christiane at the far end.

        Spring

Yes, it’s happened! Spring is fully here. We’re in that delicious phase where the rigid cold (it gets down into the 40s here!) has passed, yet the dreaded summertime canicules (heat waves) have yet to start. The views from our apartment have greened up considerably, the birds in the trees behind us are going wild (Birds Gone Wild!) And we have become even more aware of the “pocket gardens” maintained by the city. These are little patches of land, odd corners stuck between a couple of streets, or in front of a wall or building, that have been nicely landscaped and kept up.

 

One of our favorite pocket parks: California desert plants!

Our view from the boules court: every few weeks new flowers appear.

The park where we play pétanque every Tuesday morning has several planter areas. It's satisfying that every few weeks the city comes by and replants them. One week we’re there and it’s a mound of dirt; the next week, new flowers! On a recent Tuesday there was a mound near the entrance. By the time we left (three hours, including our picnic lunch) it was full of flowers!

        Thanks, Montpellier!

When we arrived to play boules, this was a mound of dirt. These guys transformed it while we played!

 

What We’re Doing

What are we doing? Nothing much, enjoying the weather and planning our next excursions. We bought some gear for the beach, and we’ll be keeping the umbrella and the fold-up chairs in the back of the car. (Oddly, the excellent tram system here stops about a mile and a half from the sea!)

Of course, we are planning our next excursions. We’re hoping to get over to see the famed lavender fields of Provence (we visited them a couple of years back, read about it here). We also have plans to get back to Corsica in the fall, this time via ferry with our own car. And, we will be escaping the aforementioned canicules by spending the month of July in Brittany, part of it with Paula’s brother, Mark.

 

Stay tuned!