Touring the French countryside: Gordes (pronounced "Gord")

Some of our time was spent touring the French countryside around Greoux and beyond.  We would pile into two cars (because we didn't fit in just one) and head for a village or site recommended by M & M's friends in France.  Because we were there in February/March, we encountered only a few tourists.  

On a Tuesday, we headed northwest to the village of Gordes, a fascinating place built tight into the sides of a hill with a castle (first built in 1031) at the top.  I can imagine that the castle would provide a great lookout to see any marauders from the surrounding valleys.  We followed the winding roads to the top of the hill and began our tour in the main square in front of the castle.  

This is a borie, a dry stone shelter common in this area.  We had a picnic lunch on a large stone slab next to one like this.

The Francom family sitting at the Gordes village fountain.

Preparing to tour the cobblestone streets of Gordes

These are very old cobblestones and hard to walk on.

Heading down the street.

This means "closed to the public site" but Wayne was there anyway!

"A" taking refuge next to a very old building.

The rich have begun to come in and buy up some of the old buildings.  We called this the "carport."

The water for the village comes from springs.  The kids sitting in front of one of them.

Another building bought by someone rich.  If you look closely you can see 4 levels of gardens behind brick walls.

Here are some of the battlements and broken down parts of the village.

Two tourists blocking the view of the area surrounding Gordes.

Battlements

This looked like an old theater so the kids began to put on a good act.

E seizing the day!

Every village has its own market day, and Tuesday was market day for Gordes. Our favorite vendors were the fromage (cheese) sellers.  Wayne asked if he could take a picture of them and they smiled and said "Cheese!" in English!  

"Cheese!" - and yes, we bought some.

There was a French watercolorist there selling lithographs of his paintings.  Wayne asked if he spoke English.  The answer was "No" but he pointed to his wife and indicated that she did.  Then Wayne asked him if he spoke Spanish, and he did!  It turns out that he is French, but his wife is from Peru so he speaks Spanish.  They were delightful and we ended up buying a postcard size picture of Gordes and a 9 x 12 lithograph of his painting of one of the streets in Gordes.

Lithographs