PROVENCE - La Fontaine de Vaucluse

Of all the places we visited in Provence, La Fontaine de Vaucluse was by far and away my favourite, and I’ll be back there like a shot if and when the opportunity presents itself!



The village sits on the banks of the river, with a weir and a mill. The river was one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. The colours were simply amazing – bright vibrant greens that seem almost unnatural.



The colour comes from the reeds under the water which I suspect are as a result of the weir which helps to channel the water to power the paper mill.



The mill itself is open to the public with free entry. They still make paper here in the traditional way and it was great to not only see that for myself, but also to see the group of kids who were allowed to join in. Each one made their own sheet of paper by sieving the mixture from the vat, and then made their handprint that they could take away when it had all dried out. What a great experience!



The upper part is predominantly calm and flat, so it’s no surprise to find the banks sprinkled with bars and restaurants where people were just chilling out. The lower part couldn’t have been more of a contrast and we were treated to a couple of adrenaline junkies in a canoe!





It wasn’t long before they realised we were there, and put on a bit of a show for us. The photos were amazing and looked almost like I’d been in the middle of the river, so I was well chuffed!



There is a promenade style path leading up from the village to the source pool approximately 20 minutes away. The path is lined on one side by the bars and restaurants on the riverbank, and on the other by an interesting collection of tourist shops.



I was seriously freaked out by the ‘Santons’ in one of the shops. According to Wikipedia, Santons (little saints) are small hand-painted figurines. In a traditional Provençal scene, there are 55 figures representing various characters from Provençal village life such as the scissor grinder, the fishwife, the blind man, and the chestnut seller.



Unfortunately, all I could think of was Chucky, the doll from the horror film ‘Child’s Play’. I was convinced that they were staring me out, so we backed out of the shop (literally – I wasn’t turning my back on them!), and continued on up.



The river seemed to get ever more interesting, and it was almost a disappointment to finally reach the source pool. This spring comes from deep underground and in the 1950s, Jacques Cousteau explored the depths with a submersible but could not find the bottom. Since then a probe has made it to a sandy bed at a depth of 308 metres but the spring itself comes from somewhere even deeper



With so many restaurants, it was difficult to chose, but we’d both been tempted by the reasonable prices and nice setting of ‘La Merinda’. There was only a handful of tables, but the service was friendly and quick.



We made a token effort on the diet front and chose salads, but sadly that was ruined when I ‘decorated’ mine with bacon bits and goats cheese. Not exactly low fat, but absolutely delicious!



So reluctantly we started our slow walk back to the car, and I could feel my feet dragging. We’d explored the other side of the river which is criss-crossed with walking paths and a museum, so last on the list was the church.

I was so busy taking photos of the outside, I forgot to look inside – what a wally!!