ROUSSILLON

Our next stop was the Musee Moulin des Bouillons for a guided tour of an ancient olive mill. Our guide went into detail about the tools used to press olives by people up to 2000 years ago to today (far right). This site was actually used by romans. I bought some olive soaps that smelled phenomenal.

Free time this morning in L'Isle-sur-la-Sorge.
This 12th century town is known as the Venice of France for its beauty and canals. The Sorge river flows thru, splitting into many canals, very clear, and there are all these water wheels, bridges and fountains. I followed Rick's walking tour thru the town and visited the Notre Dame des Anges (church built in 1222), followed the chanels and saw several of the ancient water wheels.

We are lucky - we are visiting these Provencal towns just in time for their market days! I strolled through the market. I bought some local flare, then met up with a few buddies for lunch at an outdoor cafe where I had a glass of rose & a huge salad consisting of different lettuce, corn, asparagus, bananas, rasberries... it was delicious! We enjoyed our meals & wine with good conversation before meeting back up with the group to head to the next destination!

We walked through a flower & glass sculpture filled pathway to the Musee de L'Histoire du Verre et du Vitrail (glass museum). It was very unique and interesting. After the guide took us thru a visual history of glass, we had the pleasure of gazing at Frederique Duran's works of art. She is a French glass artist whose works are in the style of stained glass windows, but much more detailed. Very beautiful.

As we head to our next stop, the Provencal scenery is so beautiful. We keep seeing bursts of red patches in the fields, then we will see a whole field of poppies and the whole group simultaniously sighs in awe!

We stayed in the village of Roussillon for one night. As the bus approached we could see the red color from the ocre cliff the village sat atop (which provided the pigment used to paint all the buildings). As the sun hit the cliffs and homes, they seemed to glow.

We checked into our hotel Reves d'Ocres, then were off to explore the Ocre canyon and village.

Now, Rick's guidebook says you could waste several rolls of film in Roussillon and he couldn't be more right!! This is one of the most beautiful places. Every way you look is a kodak moment!

After stopping back at the hotel to wash the orange off my feet & stop in the courtyard for wine & apartifs courtesy of the owner (yum, yum) - Judy & I went out to explore the village. OMG is this place wonderful! After snapping about a million pictures and taking in the splendor of this beautiful place a group of us met for dinner at an Italian bistro.

After dinner & a stroll back to the hotel, Judy (my roommate for this stop) and I had a bottle of our rose after cleaning up. We sat outside & watched as the stars lit up the Provencal sky. It turned into "Starry Night" from VanGogh! So magical!! We sat up for hours just taking it all in before finally going to bed.

The ocre canyons were amazing. So many colors, orange, yellow, purple, gold, red, all blended into this masterpiece of nature. Word of caution - don't wear light colored shoes/socks - they will turn orange. I wasn't even wearing socks & had black sandals on - but my feet were dyed orange!! :)