LAST DAYS in PROVENCE ( Gordes, Senanques, Avignon)

El bailarín de Florida
y la percanta más bella,
bailan al son de la vida
por la Provence y Marsella.

"que todas las noches sean noches de bodas,
que todas las lunas sean lunas de miel" (JS)

Our last day in Provence was a perfect sunny spring day. Louise-Anne and Emmanuel decided to give us the the last ride through the countryside provancal and visit one of those famous village perché: GORDES.
The juicy grass with yellow spring flowers were a tempation to wallow in. Behind- a tipical provancal house- la bastille.
The nature was singing the spring song; only lavenda fields were not yet blooming ( come back in July one day is a must).
But yes, the cherry trees. Perfectly blue skies, white crowns of the trees and yellow-green carpet is a real joy for eyes.
Et voilà, le village de GORDES seen from above!
You can 't stop taking thousands of photos. Thanks God , the camera was in the reasonable hands of Louise-Anne!
Here are the best visual results of the excursion.
...with the models in front.
We ventured to explore the village, before the season and the tourist invasion.
We were all fit enough to walk up and down the roads.Kids were running and chasing each other.
The vineyards were still leavless, but picturesque.
This image gave us an idea for the lunch with views. Immediately we went to the car to fetch food provisions and had an idyllic lunch with magnificent views:
tortilla espanola, baguettes with all the different cheeses Louise-Anne bought to accompany our PERFECT FRENCH lunch on the green.


AND A BOTTLE OF RED WINE. All with Luberon landscape below....
Our next destination was the cistertian abbey of Senanques. Again, before the tourist invasion. Also before the lavenda flourishing.

WE had a guided tour of the monastery' s interior and a inside yard. Still 100 monks live, work and prey on the premises of this abbey.

I loved to listen to the beautiful well spoken French of the young guide.We made our our little tour around the gardens of the abbey complex. We discovered an old oak tree parted in two by the thunder. Pictoresque. And 6 of us could comfortably fit in. Just in case, since the rain storm was a clear warning...
Modern part of monastery, where the monks live with the vegetable gardens.

The medieval abbey is a pearl of architecture: surrounded by Luberon montains and carpeted by lavenda fields ( come back in July for the foto!)


The last glimps on the abbey and the lavenda fields and we drove away to L'isle sur la Sorgue, known as Venice of Provence. Emmanuel and Louise-Anna, who live in Provence for the last couple of years share with us the spirit of explorers ( ' they want to know all the ways/roads of their country' as they say in Corsica ' je connais tous le chemains dans mon pais⁾
The day was completed by a perfect sunset up above the house of our hosts, in Luyne.
I got nostalgic, obviously. Have to retain as much of Provence as possible to endure till our next year' s visit.
The last dinner: escargots, alhouette ( specialite provansale) avec sauce colombo and the choice of French cheeses with red wine! DELICIOUS, thank you very much Louise-Anne & Emmanuel ( the cook)!
BUT THE LAST of the LAST days in Provence was actually Sunday whene Louise-Anne and Emmanuel the braves took us by car to Avignon to say good bye.
The famous bridge in Avigon ( known in all the languages for the little song:
Sur le pont d'Avignon,
On y danse, on y danse,
Sur le pont d'Avignon,
On y danse tous en rond)

The bridge, actually only half a bridge can be much better appreciated from above ( the photo taken by Louise-Anne), as the walk on this historical bridge is a rip off! Thanks God we are not tourists and we have always had the advice and guidance of the locals, so we never fall in tourist traps!
The view on the bridge was my last wish as our Eurolines bus was to take us from Avignon to Lausanne, Switzerland. Was to, but the divine plans were contrary to our human plans.
The bus NEVER CAME.
The islandic volcano stopped all the air traffic, thus no place.
The strikes blooked all the railways in France for the last 10 days.
And Switzerland was waiting for us.....