Took a different route on today's ride. Got to see a hot air balloon landing over a field as the farmers was driving by on his tractor. Really cool.
Trust me, there's a hot air ballon and a farmer on a tractor in this picure.
After today's breakfast at our B&B of fresh grapefruit juice, watermelon cubes with yogurt, pain au chocolat, and a goat cheese quiche, we headed to the market in Vaison la Romaine, a town filled with Roman ruins, which is about 65 km to the northeast of here. The drive over the Monts de Vaucluse plateau was a slow one with probably 100 hairpins, but around every corner there was a beautiful sight. Below is a view of Mont Ventoux, just outside the village of Bedoin.
We arrived in Vaison around 11, leaving only two hours to browse the market since it closes at 1 pm. This is Joni's favorite market, so she went into high gear, so we separated immediately and agreed to meet at 1 pm. I browsed up and down all the stalls, buying nothing other than a newspaper which I read at a cafe. These are shots of the ruins in Vaison and the surrounding mountains.
At 1 pm we regrouped and went to lunch at a nearby cafe that Joni had researched, of course. We shared a 1/2 bottle of rose (hey, it's only lunch time), and both ordered a beef brochette with a pepper sauce. We skipped dessert, knowing that we'd stop for ice cream on the way back to the B&B. As we walked back to our car we did a little more shopping; by the time we got to the car Joni's bag was full!
Stopping for ice cream at a spot not too far out of town, at the Chocolaterie du Cresset. Wonderful ice cream and an engaging conversation with the clerk, who teaches English. She helped us with our pronunciations of such words as myrtille (blueberries).
Got back to our B&B around 5 pm after our GPS took us into some heavy traffic and closed roads in the busy town of Carpentras. Our first real GPS problem...which was silly since we know this area. No big deal. Rested, and re-organized some of our things since we'll be heading home on Thursday. To make room for all our souvenirs, we've purchased a French Post Office box that allows you to put as much weight as you can into a box the size of two large shoe boxes. Very important to place just the right items in this mailer since we were close to being over the weight limit on our flight over here.
Tuesday night dinner was at the L'Auberge Fiacre officially in the town of Goult, but it's really in the middle of nowhere along the D900 which is the main two lane road that runs along the center of the Luberon valley. It's truly an auberge, a roadside tavern for travellers.
The chef told us he has only been cooking for 3 months, but he cooks like a master. For starters Joni had an artichoke dish and I had a raw fish and vegetable tartar.
We had the same dish, steak with an onion chantilly...magnique.
For desert Joni had a chocolate dome and I enjoyed an apricot tarte.
Coffee came with two additional little seats that the chef personally made...most places just give you a cellophane wrapped cookie. Our wine tonight was red...from a local vineyard. It was so good forgot to take pictures of our cookies.
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