Have seen it all now!

This morning we travelled to Lourmarin, a village north of Aix as it is their market day every Friday (all villages have their markets each week and a Google tells you on which day each is held) and various reviews rate this one.

The only downside is that the last 3 kms of driving is daredevil stuff firstly on a one way bridge then on a very narrow (when I say very narrow I mean very f’ing narrow) road - the bridge was “interesting” as when we were on it, and we had the right of way, a van came racing along from the other direction without a hint of slowing down and all we could do was stop dead as close to the side as possible in the hope that Lewis Hamilton had the skills to get his van passed us and leave us intact, which amazingly he achieved.

On the way we passed a few fields of sunflowers 🌻 in bloom

Nearing Lourmarin it became obvious from the amount of cars parked on the sides of the road, the footpath and the roundabout that this was a popular place to be and so it proved.

Lourmarin is an exceptionally nice village with the centre at the lowest point, a centre of numerous restaurants and cafes filled to the brim with patrons (France has a very strong coffee culture and they have no trouble drinking wine at any time during the day)

Through numerous side streets and in the square the traders had set up their stalls and the crowds were literally shoulder to shoulder Crowded as it was,it was still very enjoyable ambling through and stopping at various stalls to see what was on offer. 

Going back to today’s title as we walked through a person “seeking financial support” had a dog, like they all seem to, however this dog had a dummy in its mouth!! - I regret being unable to take a photo.

Another feature of the village is Chateau de Lourmarin which was across the fields from the marketAfter lunch we looked in some of the local shops - the ladies boutiques I am told are of high class - before moving on to another village, Cucuron, about 10 minutes drive away.

As it was now just before mid afternoon all of the shops other than cafes and restaurants or arty shops were closed (from 12.30 to 3.30) as if it was siesta time so the village was rather dead but we walked through the historic area nonetheless. The feature of Cucuron is the “bassin” 

which is lined on one side by cafes/restaurants all of which were full.

Luckily the trip home did not include traversing the one way bridge again!

Kms driven today: 95