In the Shadow of Mont Ventoux

On Friday morning we took a long drive to visit a number of Provencal villages, most of them located in the valley below Mont Ventoux or otherwise having views of the mountain.  Mont Ventoux is the tallest mountain in Provence, and is part of the Tour de France.  We stopped at a lot of villages along the way, and rather than write about each one, I’ll principally post photos from each village, with occasional discussions.

First up was the village of Puymeras.

Our next stop was the nearby village of Faucon.

We then drove past Mollans-sur-Ouveze without stopping, since we had visited it the other day, and also skipped Saint-Leger-du-Ventoux because we couldn’t find a place to park in the village.  We then drove to the perched village of Brantes, which turned out to be spectacular and where we bought a couple of ceramic tiles at a faiencerie.

Brantes, With Mont Ventoux in the Background 

Chez Mathilde, Restaurant of the Faiencerie

Interior of Church in Brantes

After leaving Brantes we drove to the nearby village of Savoillans and stopped to take a walk around the town and pick up some bread at the small boulangerie in town.

Savoillans

We then drove towards Montbrun-les-Bains, which was spectacular from a distance. However, the village was fairly busy, and parking was a problem, so we continued on up higher on Mont Ventoux.  We eventually came to an extensive plateau that had lavender fields everywhere, but very few houses and even fewer people.

After we drove down the mountain, we came to the village of Aurel, which we knew nothing about. We stopped to take a stroll, and it turned out to be a charming village.

Aurel

We then headed back in the direction of Nyons, stopping in Buis-les-Barronies. It was a much larger town than we expected, and didn’t seem that attractive on the outskirts, but we parked just outside the old center and walked inside, and it turned out to be quite lovely.  We walked around the entire center, including the beautiful arcaded central square and the tree-lined road that circled the center.

     After leaving Buis-les-Barronies we drove back to Nyons for the evening.  Eventually, our friendly cat, who we had not seen for awhile, showed up to have aperitifs with us.