The first stop on our June cruise after departing Barcelona was Marseilles, in the south of France. After a night’s sleep on board we were eager to begin our first shore excursion. From the half dozen choices available, we had elected A Day in Provence, not so coincidentally the title of this post. As the name suggests, our excursion was a bus tour of the countryside and some smaller towns in this bucolic region. Provence is known for its natural beauty, perhaps the reason it was home to so many great French authors and artists who came to write about it or paint it. Frederic Mistral is to Provence what Robert Burns is to Scotland, an iconic national poet who wrote in the national language-in this case, Provencal. Paul Cezanne,one of the greatest of the Impressionists, was actually a native of Aix en Provence.
I have many pictures to share today, too many to write about each. My first is the featured shot for today and my favourite from Provence. I was walking along a street in the Town of Rousillon when I saw the subject for this photograph. It was a Sunday morning and many people were returning home from mass. This picture suggested to me that someone was sleeping in and hadn’t made it to the church that morning. Who knows? It appealed to me, so it’s in the blog.
Our excursion was a long one, lasting 8 hours. We covered a lot of ground and took the time to explore three very pretty towns, each very typical of the region; Lourmarin, Rousillon and Gordes. The following slideshow features these three towns with a few scenes from the countryside that we witnessed in our travels that day. Click on the right side of the images to advance; on the left to go back.
Provence was among my favourite stops on our holiday, a good way to get started. It certainly lived up to my expectations of the French countryside and life outside the country’s large cities. As a photographer, I was very pleased with the colour; the flowers, the greenery, the blue skies and in Rousillon, the brilliant red, orange and yellowish deposits of ochre. Definitely would like to return!
As always, beautiful photos Dad!