(From Jach): LAND CRUISE IN SOUTHERN FRANCE #8 Thursday, October 16: We visited two villages today. The first was a small and very quaint village known for its antique shops. We only explored only a few shops. Mostly I was fascinated by the rivers that flowed through this village. There was a favor of Venice here, but the streams had a significant current and the water, oh my the water was amazingly clear. We walked the streets, had a wonderful two hour lunch, and then walked some more. We capped off our visit here with an ice cream dessert. Our Avignon friend knew the owner of the ice cream/sorbet shop that had 100 favors of ice cream. Yeah, 100 favors. I remained with my standard: chocolate — Chocolate Noir — and Dulce de Leche. There were so many other choices but that those were for others to make. [s] Finishing our ice creams, we drove to another little village where there is a mysterious cave formation. The village is surrounded in sheer cliffs again. It’s amazing to me that we can be in one village that is totally flat with countless mountain streams flowing through it, and five minutes later be in another village surrounded with incredibly high cliffs. In the second village, we walked up a gentle slope for about 15 minutes to come to what seemed a huge hole in the rock. The water level was very low this October. Usually it is about 30 feet higher and usually the pool overflows forming a river that runs through the village. Many years ago, Jacque Cousteau came to this village with all his sophisticated diving gear attempting to find the source of the water in this pool that is more like a well. With his mini-sub he went down 120 or 140 meters (can’t remember which) and reached the bottom, but he could not identify the source of the water. It remains a mystery. In this village there is also a paper mill with a century old water wheel. We walked through the mill . . . the wheel turns and it moves the pistons that pound the material into a pulp. The pulp is mixed with water and then screened into a rectangular shape form. The water drains through the screen and what’s left is pressed with cloth to set to dry. Finally it is hung to fully dry and to be paper. The end result: Handmade paper. I don’t remember the names of these two tiny villages. There are countless such villages in this area. Avignon is sort of the hub and in almost any direction you can find a village, many villages, and each is unique, picturesque, and enchanting. It was a full day. A fuller day than I expected. I need to rest soon. I need to assimilate all that this last week has shone me. It has been utterly amazing. It has been much more than a river cruise might have been. There is more to come, but for now, I need to rest. We have another trip planned for tomorrow but we will return to the chateau early in the afternoon. Saturday morning Enrique and I say goodbye to our friends — the two who invited us and the three new friends we met during this week. We will take a train back to Toulouse. Monday we fly to Madrid. I’ve never been there. We arrive Monday in the early afternoon and a whole new adventure begins. Photos: Thats me. The second is a river in the small village with the paper mill. Yes, its that green. Its because of the vivid moss in the river. Beautiful.
Posted on: Sun, 19 Oct 2014 15:41:11 +0000
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