Yesterday and today we took a relaxed approach and each day went for lunch and a wander in a small town. We were sorry this morning to leave our B&B in Avignon, our longest stay. It was a lovely setting, our hosts were super, and the accommodations met all our requirements!
ST. REMY DE PROVENCE
St. Remy is about a 30 minute drive from Avignon, and it made a nice outing. St. Remy is located at the foot of the Massif des Alpilles Natural Park with these low mountains as its backdrop. The town is noted as the birthplace of Nostradamus, an astrologer, physician, and seer. It’s also where Vincent Van Gogh lived for a year. In our later wandering, we stopped to read a few informational signs at spots Van Gogh painted.
Waze includes parking lots in its database, and you can always ask to be routed to a parking area near your destination. We parked the car (on a very narrow street as it turned out, not the designated lot) and then walked around a bit before lunch at Rose des Sables. This restaurant advertised Mediterranean cuisine which sounded like a welcome change from all the traditional French dishes. It was! We thoroughly enjoyed our chicken citron confit and my couscous dish with veggies and chicken and Merguez sausages. They were generous portions and were enough for this meal.
LOURMARIN
We were not familiar with Lourmarin, nor had we ever heard of it before. But looking at the recommended towns to visit, we decided that this would be a good stopping point between Avignon and our next B&B in Aix-en-Provence. It was a pretty drive through the countryside with a taste of the Luberon Hills on some of the, now familiar, narrow twisty roads. It took about an hour, and Waze got us to a parking lot.
On the edge of town, is an impressive castle which you can tour (we didn’t). In town, there are cafes here and there and some upscale shops. The feel of the town was pleasant, the air fragrant, and we finally got some bright sunlight and blue sky. Obviously, the tour buses stop here for the castle since we saw groups of people on the small streets. But it wasn’t overly crowded.
We opted for lunch at Le Café de L’Ormeau, thanks to France Just for You. It was an excellent lunch and made us think that more time in Provence on a future trip would be desirable. We ordered the menu formule which consisted of a green salad and a small pastry filled with walnut halves and blue cheese to start. Following was roast lamb with gravy and potatoes for the Chief Penguin and some panfried dorado for me with a lovely white wine sauce, ratatouille, and wedges of polenta.
The fish was so good, I could have eaten it all over again! Dessert was crème brulee. With that lunch, dinner will be munchies only or a local pizza.
TRAVEL TIPS
- One of the best purchases we made for this trip was two EPICKA universal travel adapters. This adapter can be used in multiple countries, is compact, and can accommodate cords for iPads, iPhones, and other electronic devices like Fitbit and Kindle. There are 4 slots for USB connectors and one for C. It is cube-shaped and comes in a little zipper case. You can buy it on Amazon. Thanks to our friend Bill for this great recommendation!
- Pack a nightlight if you’re likely to get up in the dark. Most B&Bs and many hotels don’t have nightlights in the room or the bathroom. Here we are using a little nightlight that plugs into a USB power connector, like the type you’d use to re-charge your iPhone. Amazon also has these.
- We’ve also found that Kleenex is not always supplied, so small travel packs of tissue can come in handy.
Note: All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)
