Today we headed towards another one of the most beautiful villages in France. Gordes is considered a must see stop in Provence by most of the travel writers.
After an uneventful drive including a stop at a grocery store to replenish some critical items, and wine. We headed up to Gordes. As advertised it is quite striking, but has definitely been discovered by the rich and famous. A lot of the old farm houses have undergone renovation to make them appropriately comfortable for the well off. Ron was looking at a listing of homes for sale, and they were running 1.2 to 2.5 million Euro. As we walked into town we passed a beautiful 5 star hotel that we later checked and found out rooms could be had for around $500 per night.
Having said that I can see why people are willing to spend that kind of money for Gordes. It really is striking and the town has an old world feel that is pretty magical. We arrived just as the weekly market was packing up for the day. We really enjoyed poking around town, and the views were worth the walk. At the end we ducked into a coffee shop for a beer and a coffee and sat on a balcony about 100 feet above a gorge. We were really enjoying it until a couple of groups sat down next to us and about 5 people simultaneously lit up cigarettes. There is a lot I like about the culture here and one of them is the abundance of outside dining, unfortunately smoking is still allowed in the outside dining, so Ton and I normally find ourselves inside to avoid the smoke.
We walked back to François for the night and enjoyed our free aire. Tonight our neighbors are mostly British, and we had a nice conversation with a couple from Birmingham.
