Shades of Rouge: Rousillon

Wishing to stay longer till all the lavenders bloom, we unwillingly left Sault, but not without taking more pictures in the flower fields. 

Along the way we stopped by the town of Roussillon, which is known for its red, orange and yellow clay formations due to ochre deposits. The town is mainly a tourist stop as evident by the queues of tour buses around its peripheral.

It was a burning hot day and we spotted a long queue at the ice cream stall. The most popular flavour seems to be lavender by the tourists and we thought why not try out an unique flavour. Well the conclusion is that lavender is better off as a fragrance for the nose rather than a taste for the tongue. It was a strange experience for the taste buds. 

looks interesting but tastes a little strange

view from village centre

exploring the village

The main attraction in Roussillon is the Ochre path (Sentier des Ocres) which are 2 trails around the former ochre quarries beside the town center. You can choose to follow either a 30 or 60min path that leads you around the quarries.

Along the Ochre path, we saw an old man bringing his dog along (consistent with our earlier observations on dogs as travel buddies). It was a white westie and got its all four legs stained orange by the clay. It was a funny sight and probably not so fun bath time later for the dog.

the white dog with stained legs

The main street leading out of the village is lined with shops selling handicraft souvenirs and other take home items for tourists. Among which we stumbled upon a local grocer and couldn’t resist buying the olive spreads, truffles mustard amongst other things.

Best souvenir to bring home

Where to eat:
For dining in Rousillon, if weather permits, you should definitely get a table on the terrace – lovely view of Mont Ventoux and surrounding from the hilltop village. On the way back from the grocer we passed la Sirmonde. Typical of French restaurants, the lunch special of the day was written on a chalk board outside and provencal omelette caught my eyes. Being a fan of eggs and trying out local cuisines we decided to have lunch. The husband orders a pizza and the portions are very generous.
 

Had an filling heavy lunch before leaving

Nice view from the restaurant

My omelette provencal

Very filing lunch for the husband

Leaving the hilltop villages of Vaucluse, it was back to major civilization in the historic city of Avignon.

The layout of the city comprises of the old fortified historic town centre surrounded by medieval rampart, the suburbs surrounding the old town and an outer wider modern area that connects to the Avignon TGV station.

We went outlet mall shopping on the outskirts of Avignon and this is where yours truly had a very minor car accident in the parking lot because I didn’t know how to use European manual gear stick L.

Random observation #1:

Unlike most part of the world, most people in France drives manual instead of automatic cars. Also, small cars are preferred as they are easier to maneuver around the narrow hilltop villages around. Automatic cars are available for rental but they come with a significantly more expensive price tag.

I’m not sure why, but automatic cars also have a super huge “A” sign in red plastered on their front and back – as if it’s screaming “I’m a tourist and I can’t drive manual!”

Random #2:

In Asia, our manual cars have 5 gears, with the bottom right hand gear being reverse. All the Asian brand cars have the same gear system. However, European cars have a different gear design! They have 6 gears! And so you wonder how to reverse then? The reverse gear is apparently shared with gear 1 as an ‘add-on’, i.e. you go into gear 1 first, then you need to PULL THE GEARSTICK UP + further engage it to top left hand side in order to reverse. Very important lesson learnt.

From then on, I only rent Asian-brand manual cars.

See the next post for more about Avignon.

Drive map of the day: