Day 17- The Little Things

We woke up early for an excursion with our class. We traveled to the same region as the first excursion. It is supposedly the most beautiful and diverse area of France, I wouldn’t argue. We started out with a quick stop in Lourmarin. The first time we traveled here, there was a giant market on the streets, and hundreds of people. Today, the town was calm, small cafes open, the only people out side were two blonde boys on the playground while their parents sat on the bench watching. I thought to my self “do you people ever work?” it was nice to see the city at its busiest and at its’ calmest. It helped give me a full feel for the town, a complete picture. We only stopped for a few minutes, mostly a pee break, and then jumped back on the bus.

This trip is also much nicer then the first trip to this area because there was about 1/3 of the amount of people. We could walk around more freely, and go into little areas that a larger group wouldn’t fit in.

Our next stop was Bonnieux. Most of the towns in this area were adorable little towns that occupied just a single mountain. They would have a church on top, and the villiage would spill down from the church. If you squinted your eyes and blurred out the features of the houses it still looked just like the mountain its self with the same natural slope and shape. We sat about a kilometer out sie of town on an adjacent hill top and took in the external sights before making our way into the town.

Bonnieux from afar

 The trip consisted of many students who were studying art, it was really cool to get inside of their heads for a few moments and hear how they felt about the town from afar. Their minds were so clear and beautiful, I felt honored to e with them. Bonnieux was a quaint little town. There weren’t tourists all over the place as you would see on a Saturday in Aix. There were just the towns’ people doing their everyday routine. I felt already the difference between this excursion and the first. the first was full of grand sights a lots of moving to see the best tourist attraction all together, this trip was about seeing the little things and experiencing true southern France.

Beautiful flowers on the side of the road

After grabbing a sandwich from a little boulangerie, and fruit from a small convenience store, we headed to LaCoste for a pic-nic lunch. We traveled down into the valley on a small path then off of the path into and over grown field. There were wild flowers and greens everywhere. We sat in a little circle and enjoyed our pic-nic listening to our “tour-guide” John tell us stories and jokes. He was a gem on the trip, giving us all a new perspective on the area.

The trees that remind me of home

The "field" we ate in

After finishing lunch we trekked back to the bus and headed to the area we were going to hike

We were not told the name of the town in which we hiked, but if you placed me here and said guess where you are, I have a strong feeling I would have said New Jersey, south Jersey of course. Everything was so green. It wasn’t just the greenery and pine trees that reminded me of Jersey, it was the definite crunch beneath my feet, the pricker bushes we had to avoid, and the birds, it always comes back to the birds. It was the first time I had heard a bird chirp the same way they do in the U.S. it was oddly, very oddly, comforting.

The Highligh of our hike was a small boire (boor-ee). It is a small hut made entirely of stones stacked  one upon another with nothing but gravity and good planning holding it together. No one knows how old it is or who made it, or what it was even used for. Not knowing the details made it even more interesting. To think someone made this small hide out centuries ago, and could be famous for it, but they aren’t, and they probably never cared to be if they didn’t put anything on the hut to signify that they were there. One of the first unsung heros of our world I’d presume.

The hall in the Boire

Outside the Boire

Our last stop was at the Monastery. It is still functioning today but we were able to tour the 12^th century area including the temple and cloister. It was so much different that thecurches we have visited in our time in France. It was very simple. Not statues, color, detail, the stained glass just looked like old yellow glass. It seemed empty as if someone had come in and robbed it of all its riches. But on the other hand it was simply beautiful, thinking about how there was need to be superfluous whenen worshiping.

Monastery (lavender is starting to budd too!)

Gourdes ( 30 second stop on the way home)

The day felt like two with the amount we had accomplished and learned, thanks to John our “tour-guide”. But more than just seeing beautiful things I have a feeiling of real southern france, the spots that no other tourist gets to see, and many people that live here don’t take the time to see.