Villages of Vaucluse and the Sweet Scent of Lavender. Friday 4th September 2009.

I had a 10.30 interview and photo shoot booked with Distillerie Bleu Provence to watch one of the final distillings of lavender for the season. We were given access to the entire distillery and Clement, who was looking after us, was a wealth of knowledge and pretty easy on the eye too. We watched the entire process of how to extract the oil from lavendin, the farmer arrived with his truck laden with long, flower tipped stalks which were forked into the vases ready for steam to be forced through them alowing their precious oil to be extracted. It was a great visit and I learned so much. The things we are seeing behind the scenes of this year are amazing and I am so thankful.

I would recommend anyone visiting Provence to spend an afternoon discovering the secrets of Vaison la Romaine, It is a delightful town with a village like atmosphere, and there is something for everyone. We chose not to visit the Roman ruins; we refer to them now as ‘ABR’, another bloody ruin which makes us all laugh. If this is your thing you will be well satisfied in Vaison la Romaine.

We walked around without a map and discovered whatever we passed. The Roman Bridge was great to see, it is the link from the new town to the old medieval town and is just gorgeous. From the bridge you ascend the hill to the ramparts of the old city; this is the spot for exploring. The upper town is full of enchanting Provencal squares with pretty fountains. We came across a local couple doing handcrafts and selling home grown Muscat grapes of which we bought a bunch and ate while wandering. At the height of the hill there is an old feudal castle which offers an incredible panoramic view of the town. We were relaxed and unhurried today and it was nice to explore this way and to have time to breathe.

A few kilometres up the road is Seguret, again perched hillside and pretty as a picture with fountains and small chapel. There are beautiful views over the plains from the village square, it is a nice place to contemplate Provence.

Another short distance along is Sablet, cute and cobbled it is, but nothing out of the ordinary, if you can call hill side Provencal villages ordinary. I don’t know why, but Sablet pales into insignificance compared to the others. We had a few interesting encounters here though. I heard a woman saying ‘no worries’ as she helped a passerby with a question. She was an Aussie, her daughter lived in the village with her family and she lived with them for half of the year. A little later, AJ and I got talking to another Aussie couple who had been staying in the village and were leaving tomorrow, they, like me, had fallen in love with Provence.

We had packed a picnic to take today and had planned to enjoy it for dinner. As Sablet didn’t enchant us, we decided to drive home and enjoy the picnic on our terrace. It sounded great in theory but when we arrived home the Mistral wind had arrived with us, forcing us indoors to the dining table where we enjoyed our first ever kitchen picnic.