Travel another way

Travel notes from Joan, San Jose, California.

“Today we began our day in Gordes (silent ‘es’) visiting an olive farm and mill (moulin). The owner/farmer/operator showed us his olive crop, and explained harvesting and pruning and overall care of his crop. He invited us into his mill and took the 8 of us through the process of making olive oil. While his mill is very small compared to huge commercial mills in Spain, it is typical for Provence. He mills not only his own oil but also for several other local olive growers. This was fascinating and interesting.

Joan and Andre, the olive mill owner

Our host Andre Horard spoke only French and Jackie interpreted. It is great that Jackie has arranged all of these intimate tours with private farmers and business people. Both Andre and Florent (from the winery) shared local and personal family history that really adds a lot to the tour. We get to see and learn things that the larger tours don’t get to. After learning the processing and grading of olive oil, Andre invited us to sample his variety of oils and tapenades. He even served some wine, which he doesn’t make, but it goes well with his olives!

The group acting silly!

After this we traveled 30 miles to the hilltop village of Roussillon. (Google it!) This tiny 18th century village is famous because it is a striking red color. There is a high quantity of ochre in the rock and soil and it makes the landscape red, gold, orange, terracotta and pink. And since the locals would build using whatever natural resource is available, the whole town is reddish. Beautiful.

Joan in the ochre canyon, in Roussillon.

After a hike and a few hours walking around the village we hopped back in the van and drove to St. Didier to attend a tour and demonstration of Nougat making. Nougat is a specialty confection of Provence. St. Didier is a quaint, non-touristy 18th century village where the Sylvain brothers Pierre and Philippe operate a farm where they grow their own almonds and keep bees for their honey and make a premier nougat. Trust me, I stood in their kitchen and ate it while it was still warm. Awesome! Some of that is coming home, too. With all this sampling, who can find room for dinner? Well, I managed.

Nougat tasting

Nougat making demo

Dinner time with our small group (no bigger than 10 including our guides) is always a fun social event filled with stories and joking and laughter and (amazingly) not a lot of wine. Jackie and Valerie tell us what we’re doing the next day and answer many questions we have about the menu, food, customs and history. They shared their stories from growing up in Belgium (Jackie) and Southwestern France (Valerie). The end of another great day in Provence.”

From Joan’s diary