St Remy and Gordes

Gordes: a classic hilltop village
Well, we wanted to see what all the fuss was about! Gordes on Market day was alive with food, drink, jewellery, every sort of trinket and bauble AND and a great Eritean cappuchino! Tony rated it amongst his 5 best ever.
In some ways these places have not changed for hundreds of years- but then you see a satellite dish or an internet cafe....
Debbie is shown here being consoled by Rhonda because she wasn't allowed to buy a white top, or a white backpack (I think)
St Remy en Provence was our next destination. Brigitte (or was that Bridget?) our GPS lady from South Africa proved up to the task of a very complicated run through the countryside. Funny, it didn't look so tricky on the map! She had a bad habit of telling us to turn at a roundabout when she actually meant to go straight through! There were some terse words spoken, on both sides.
There was a market day in the town (how surprising) and we bought cheese (see below), nougat, fruit (one of the better Cameroonian pineapples I've had!) and a white top (sorry Deb, that was a joke). We met a lovely lady from Madagscar, and the sauciest frenchman in the district. (see the picture at the top- I still can't figure out this blogsite!

Finally we went to the sanatorium at StRemy to book Tony in.. oops I mean to check out the site of Vincent Van Gogh's last frenetic period in his life, he produced over 150 paintings and 100 drawings in 13 months. They used a lot of different therapies here on the poor inmates, including the 'surprise bath' and the spinning chair. I bet their staff meetings were a real giggle! But, and this where it gets interesting, they used 'Art Therapy". MEC take note! Griff could be onto something. Amazingly, VVG sold only one painting in his life, and that was a still life of his left ear. (Mace told me that, so it may not be true)
This pic shows 3 delicate and sensitive artists: I leave it to you to work out which is the crazy one!

Random thoughts on Provence: 1. A sort of 'up yours' mentality, especially towards Parisians, the English and Americans. Not a bad thing, really!
2. Everyone speaks English 'just a little'. Some REALLY have just a little!
3. The secret to life; good food, good wine, great cars/bikes, and tourists flock in their thousands to hand over their money. It started with the Gauls: just consider Caesar as a Roman tourist who liked the country so much he bought it.
4. Did you know the Romans never built walls around their cities? The big wall in Britain (Hadrian's) was a sign of defeat. They couldn't quell the Picts. A bit like the St Kilda half-back line.

Next: we climb a mountain!