Sorry to be so long in getting Part II up. At the end of Part I, we were leaving Aix-en-Provence and heading for Isle-sur-la-Sorgue. We're still not quite in the rhythm of the place but we're over the jet lag, anyway....
From Aix, we drove to L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, a gorgeous little village that is basically surrounded by the Sorgue River. It’s really an amazing place, with an ancient cathedral and cafes that serve food and drinks on little bridges over the river. The old part of town has winding narrow streets with plenty of shops selling all kinds of food, wines, and knick knacks. The newer part of town is known for its many antique shops. The place is extremely touristy, but it’s so beautiful that it’s well worth spending time in. On Sunday morning, they have an open-air market that was absolutely packed with people during our visit in early April. Note that we were well ahead of the tourist season – I can’t imagine what this place would be like on a Sunday in July!
Our hotel in L’Isle, Les Terraces du Bassin, was probably my least favorite of the trip. The staff was very nice and it was right on the river so the location was excellent. But the room was small, the tiny bed gave me a backache, and our window opened out to the main road coming into town which was used by loud trucks at all hours of the night. It was very reasonably priced, though, so I didn’t complain. Much.
We had a couple of good meals in L’Isle, with the best at a family-run restaurant called L’Art de Vie. I ended up overeating considerably when it turned out that our order for bruschetta was misunderstood as an order for a brochette of pork (which wasn’t even on the menu) and we got both. Given that they had no plans to make such a dish, the brochette was excellent. The bruschetta had local ham and an intensely flavorful mozzarella that was like none other I’ve had (think “washed rind mozzarella”). The rest of the food was also excellent and the mother-daughter duo who served us were charming and friendly. Once again, we were a bit out of step but we enjoyed the meal immensely.
L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue made a great base for exploring the surrounding area. We took one day to drive out to the towns of Gordes and Rousillon (note that this Roussillon is not the same as the wine region of Roussillon). These are both beautiful old hill towns, with steep winding streets and colorful buildings. Gordes looks like it was carved out of the hill itself while Roussillon is known for the ochre that’s mined nearby and which is used to color the town’s buildings. (For what it’s worth, my daughter thought Gordes was the best place we visited over the entire trip.) On the food end of things, I had a delicious pizza carbonara at a place in Rousillon.
A few kilometers from Gordes is the Village des Bories. Bories are funky structures made of piled-up stones with no mortar. They can be quite large, with several rooms. They’re found all over the area and were apparently used as dwellings and storage buildings. The Village des Bories is a group of these that have been reconstructed as a museum. I can’t say that it was all that interesting to see them, but we did the 1.5 km walk up from a lower parking lot at a fairly brisk pace, so the hike felt good.
We stopped at our first winery on the road between Gordes and Roussillon. This was Domaine de Tara, which falls under the Cotes du Ventoux appellation. It’s a nice-looking facility with a tasting room that would fit right into Paso Robles or Amador. The winemaker poured us a couple of whites, a couple of reds, and a dessert wine. Both whites were blends of mostly grenache blanc and roussanne, with one seeing all stainless and the other getting oak aging. I liked the stainless version, finding the oak influence on the other to be too strong for my taste. The reds were a blend of primarily grenache noir and syrah and again, there was one with and one without new oak aging. I felt the red handled the oak treatment far better than the white and both reds were quite tasty. All of these wines were well-made and very fairly priced in the €12 – 20 range. A recommended stop if you’re ever in the area.
The next day, we went west rather than east, to check out Van Gogh’s old stomping ground in Arles. On our way there, we stopped at the excavated ruins of Glanum, a town that was inhabited by various groups, notably Romans, from around the 6th century BC until 260 AD or thereabouts. It’s a good-sized site, containing what’s left of a number of residences, baths, a market, a forum, a triumphal arch, and a very well-preserved mausoleum. The surrounding hills were beautiful as well and it was a great day to wander around outdoors at such a place. There’s a restaurant on the site that specializes in ancient Roman cuisine which, unfortunately, wasn’t open the day we were there. I had to console myself with the purchase of a bottle of Carenum, some sort of sweet, wine-based beverage. I have yet to uncork this but expect a tasting note when I do.
Once in Arles, we went straight for the old part of town, with its huge old Roman coliseum dominating the main square and a number of other spots straight out of Van Gogh paintings. One of these was the garden in the hospital he was committed to (or which he committed himself to). The garden has been restored to look almost exactly as it did when he painted it – there’s a plaque with a reproduction of his painting sitting next to the garden, and it does look nearly identical. We also stopped also the Café de Nuit, which ostensibly served as Van Gogh’s model for a painting of the same name and which looks remarkably similar. It’s another touristy spot, but it’s pretty irresistible to sit down and have a glass of wine or an aperitif there. (Heck, if nothing else, it was a great excuse to stop for a drink!)
On our way back from Arles, we stopped in St. Remy de Provence just to see what was there. It’s a picturesque town, but once again we were out of rhythm and just about all of the interesting shops were closed. We did have a very nice and well-priced meal there. I had a dish of rouget, a local fish, while my wife bravely ordered something that had a name we weren’t familiar with but which turned out to be some sort of large cuttlefish. Both were delicious. We also had our most expensive wine of the trip (€40 on the restaurant list!) which was a lovely red from the immediate environs. (Unfortunately, I didn’t get the name.)