Some views from France, whence we have just returned. We stayed at La Louche, a house in the village of Caromb near Carpentras in the Vaucluse region of Provence. Its website is http://www.provencevillagehouse.com/. We highly recommend it.
Caromb alley
Before you head to the supermarket or patisserie to confuse the locals with your bastardised, one-year version of French a la Launceston High as you try to buy some strawberry jam, steer the Citroen to the local monastery. In the so-called library of the Abbey of Sainte Madeleine are all the wonders of the universe - books of Joseph Ratzinger's thoughts on just about everything, CDs and DVDs of the top 100 Gregorian chants, statuettes of the BVM (look it up) but also home-baked bread, bottled fruit, holy wine, soaps made to formulae ancienne and Cistercian peppermints. And they take Visa.
Abbey of Sainte Madeleine, Le Barroux
Le Barroux
Gordes
Abbey of Senanque, Gordes
Palais des Papes, Avignon
The old gate at Seguret
Seguret
Believe it or not one seldom tires of the hill villages and the less pristine they are, the more you like them. You tell yourself, "I think I could buy one of these places, do it up, live here nine months of the year". Then you go to the real estate agency and browse the ads in the window -- 350,000, 435,000, 720,000 -- and that's euros. Multiply by 1.6 and you have the price in Aus dollars.
La Louche
Caromb street
Caromb alley
Before you head to the supermarket or patisserie to confuse the locals with your bastardised, one-year version of French a la Launceston High as you try to buy some strawberry jam, steer the Citroen to the local monastery. In the so-called library of the Abbey of Sainte Madeleine are all the wonders of the universe - books of Joseph Ratzinger's thoughts on just about everything, CDs and DVDs of the top 100 Gregorian chants, statuettes of the BVM (look it up) but also home-baked bread, bottled fruit, holy wine, soaps made to formulae ancienne and Cistercian peppermints. And they take Visa.
Abbey of Sainte Madeleine, Le Barroux
Le Barroux
Gordes
Abbey of Senanque, Gordes
Palais des Papes, Avignon
The old gate at Seguret
Seguret
Believe it or not one seldom tires of the hill villages and the less pristine they are, the more you like them. You tell yourself, "I think I could buy one of these places, do it up, live here nine months of the year". Then you go to the real estate agency and browse the ads in the window -- 350,000, 435,000, 720,000 -- and that's euros. Multiply by 1.6 and you have the price in Aus dollars.
