51. Provence - Meandering around the Vaucluse

It has been so hot!

Since leaving Paris we have had 19 consecutive days above 34°, including eight days over 36°.  Not being the most active people in the world, the heat has kept us fairly quiet especially given many hot, sleepless nights.  During the day the coolest place to be has been the car. 

So we have spent quite a bit of time just driving around and looking at this lovely area of the Vaucluse in Provence surrounding L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue.

Our car is a new Citroen C4 which we have leased from Citroen for 117 days at a cost of about $36 per day.  The shortest lease period is 21 days and the maximum is 6 months.  The same arrangements are also available from Renault and Peugeot.  This is our sixth French tourist lease and they have all been excellent.  We picked this car up in Lyon and we'll return it in Barcelona, at no additional cost.  It is a little larger than the sporty Citroen DS3 we had last time which was a bright yellow and a thief target because we couldn't get all the luggage in the boot.  This one is just plain old grey with a big boot, but lovely to drive.

You'll notice I've let Paul wear the gym shorts and Bali singlet.  It was 47° in the car before we got the air-con going.

Cherries, apricots and peaches have been available in the roadside stalls and we have had some lovely fruit especially the cherries - huge, black and juicy.

And rockmelons galore.  The perfume of melon in this roadside stall was incredible.

Most afternoons we took a snack and a drink and our books to the fig tree lined canal opposite our apartment and sat for a few hours.  Well - I sat, Paul paddled.

That is our apartment.  We are the middle level, our window is hidden by the tree.  The water wheel turns gently and the water is knee-deep and very cool. The water here was once rain (and possibly sleet and snow) that fell on Mont Ventoux, 1883 metres up, and drained into huge, underground aquifers that fell naturally to emerge as an eternal spring  at Fontaine-de-Vaucluse, forming the source of the river Sorgue.

Here is the river Sorgue flowing into the canals at L'Isle-sur-la-Sorge to form little islands that are all joined by little bridges.

There was a night market as we went to dinner.

The best little restaurant in L'Isles-sur-la-Sorgue by a long shot was L'Ecailler for fish and seafood.

Waiter Yann was extremely efficient and very personable as well.  What a business asset.

The oysters were sensational, marennes from the Ile d'Oléron in the Atlantic and bouzigues from the Etang de Thau, a string of lagoons on the Mediterranean stretching from the Rhone to the Pyrenees.

Paul had sole cooked in butter on this occasion.

And I had local trout from the Sorgue. The chef was a frenchman from Réunion island in the Indian Ocean, near Madagascar and he could really cook fish.  Second real business asset.  

Headed home through the interesting night market - all original, home produced items.

Next day, revisiting Chateauneuf-du-Pape.