Waking early this morning for our drive to La Gaude, we finished our packing, ate some hard boiled eggs and cheese and set off for the Europecar office.  Our plan was to use a GPS brought from home to guide us, but alas it was nowhere to be found; fortunately Europecar had a car with GPS, so we paid the fee, and headed out of town.  Our car is a gold Renault Scenic with a 6 speed Diesel engine.  I haven’t driven a standard in a while, so there are a few near stalls until I get the hang of it.  Having seen the French roads and drivers I opted to buy the full insurance on the car.

La Gaude is a small town outside Nice where we’ve rented a home for the upcoming week.  The drive is about two and a half hours from Avignon, but our early start would allow us to visit some hilltop villages along the way.  Our first stop is the village of Gordes sitting atop its rocky perch.  These small hilltop villages were isolated for centuries and that isolation meant little modern development. Roads are still cobbles, driving near impossible, and views spectacular.  After strolling around Gordes for a couple of hours we found a shaded spot for lunch; too hot for anything else we all had delicious salads (except Matt who ordered the charcuterie plate).  The cold water was especially welcomed.

Next brief stop, and near Gordes, was the Abbeye de Senanque, a 12th century Cisturcian monastery whose livelihood is lavender and honey.  The monastery is surrounded by lavender fields, all in full bloom on our visit.

Our final mountain village was the town of Rousillon, called the red city for the ochre cliffs and the color of the buildings.  Ochre was used as a pigment in the textile industry, and there are old mines outside town, now abandoned.  The author Samuel Becket hid from the Germans in Rousillon during World War II.  After our brief stop in Rousillon we resumed our drive toward La Gaude, still over two hours away.

Once we hit the superhighway the kilometers flew by, but we were shocked by a highway toll of €14.50 for about a 90 mile drive. Finally we arrived in La Gaude.  Unfortunately, GPS proved almost worthless in finding our house – directing us to several wrong locations until we stumbled upon the house almost by accident.  The GPS indicated we were in the middle of terra incognita, but there was our house, and our host Dominique to greet us.  Looking out over the terrace the Mediterranean shimmered on the horizon.