April 26, 2018
Day 31: Apt to Roussillon to Cavaillon
As always we had a quick look at the calmer early morning city before setting off. The pedestrian street was now mostly empty, and Dodie spotted a good golden Mary. She does this by looking up. A simple but effective trick.
Our first chore for the day was to be yet another mail back. We are still shedding warm clothes. Though it is still just April, the current weather and general impression from the plants and trees is of what we would identify as the beginning of Summer, back home. That is, Provence is almost two months more advanced than we are used to, in terms of warming weather. (One sure sign is that strawberries are ready here now).
To do the mail back we had hung around, waiting for the post office to open at 8:45. But when we got there we found that since this is Thursday (Thursday?) they would not open until 9:15. Go figure. But that was too long to wait, so we took off. The next town was Gargas, and there opening time was 9:30 - that meant 5 minutes still to wait - ok. As to why the national post service should set differing hours in adjacent towns - well it's just "French". But it's not just the varying hours from place to place, it's the complexity. Have a look:
On most days they open at 9. But then they have to quit, not at 12 (or how about 5?) but at 11:45. That is so they can get to the cafe by 12. Then it takes almost 2 hours to eat lunch, of course. And after such an exhausting day, it's time to go home, at 4. That is, unless it's Thursday. Then we can only open at 9:30 and of course get ready for lunch at 11:45. As for the afternoon, forget it!
Our main objective for the day, other than to end back at Cavaillon, was to pass by Roussillon. We had definitely planned to go to Roussillon when we set up our itinerary back home, but it got dropped when we rejigged things the other day. A suggestion not to miss it from Scott Anderson in the "Comments" here in the blog got Roussillon reinstated. That was a good call, because Roussillon was great.
What it is all about is ochre. This reddish mineral exists in dramatic red sand cliffs here in the Vaucluse area. Ochre is rare in France, but common just here. And Roussillon is a reddish village built atop one of the cliffs.
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Ochre is a pigment based on iron oxide, that comes in a variety of shades: yellow ochre, red ochre, purple ochre, sienna, and umber. It was of course used since prehistoric times for its colour, and production in the Vaucluse was big, peaking about 1880 with the arrival of the railway. Presumably we have ochre to thank for the rail trail we rode today. With the advent of other chemical colourants and maybe the depression, the industry tanked in 1929. From a peak of 16 production facilities near Roussillon, there remains only one today, at Gargas. (We assume they do not try to mail ochre anywhere, at least not on a Thursday!)
With the industry gone, Roussillon still thrives because of its beauty. In fact of the perched villages this could be the loveliest. We also liked it because it had a market going on today.
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The market, as always, was a big thrill. We are building our expectations for the big one in Arles on Saturday, but no matter, we love them all. This was the first one that is south enough to have paella. The paellas are generally made with seafood, and I am fond of saying that I won't eat one where is looks like the components are still trying to escape. I told this to the man at the market, and he assured me that he had personally shot each ingredient dead. What do you think - have a look:
The market had lots of other good stuff - here is a selection. The melons make us think of Peter Mayle's "melon millionaire" who got rich in melons but liked to help his son grade driveways.
Despite all the nougat we had scored in Montelimar, I had hoped to find more in Arles, where another year we had seen huge chunks of it on sale at the market. But here in Roussillon we found another seller. We were seduced by the free samples he was giving out and also by his enthusiastic explanation of each type. But the most fun was when I asked him how it came to be that the prices were even higher than the 40 euro per kilo standard we had seen in Montelimar.
This produced a very slightly indignant explanation that nougat had originated in Marseille and that the Montelimar folk had only "bought the brand". But more importantly, this nougat was made with rare, high quality almonds from Provence, while who knows what those triflers up north in Montelimar might be putting in.
When we got our bag home to the hotel, we saw that the nougat was made in Pertuis. That's near here, and about 100 km from Marseille. And yes, it's 200 km from those pretenders in Montelimar!
Just as we were about to leave Roussillon, a couple asked if they could have a photo of us. Actually, it was our Canadian flags that intrigued them, because they have a kid in Toronto. For a little bit we spoke to them in English, but it turned out they were more comfortable in French. They were, however, from Italy (Torino - by car only a day's ride away). Here with bikes on a camping car, they often came to France, and had for example in the past cycled the Loire a Velo. They of course were well aware of the Calavon cycle way that we would use heavily today. Everybody knows about it, of course.
As we descended from Roussillon it struck us again just how "well lighted" Provence seems to be. Maybe it is because of being Spring too, but everything was seeming so bright, clear, and clean. Also, as we seem to do in every region, we speculated on which places would be good to buy. There were a lot to choose from, which is not to say that anyone is selling or what the prices might be!
Lavender now was top of mind, because we were headed for Coustellet. That is where is found the Lavender Museum, and we - Dodie especially - have always loved lavender in all its forms. To get to Coustellet we needed only to follow the veloroute. This had the added advantage of taking us over the Pont Julien, which crosses the Calavon river. It's a former Roman bridge, rebuilt at some point. Just downstream there are several lovely pools that look good for swimming. The spot attracts a lot of cyclists, including families.
Two difficulties did actually pop up in getting to the lavender place. The first was a really strong head wind. Maybe it was the Mistral, or not, but it was not only tiring, it became dangerous. That was when, in Coustellet, the veloroute suddenly disappeared, we were on road with the wind pushing us toward traffic. I was glad of my extra heavy bike just then. The second difficulty was indeed the ending without notice of the Calavon route. We had to use the GPS to hop back to the Luberon loop. Without Dodie and the GPS, we'd still be out there!
The lavender place was only part museum. In truth it was a presentation and sales location for the Lincele family, that operates 80 hectares of lavender fields a little north east of here. The farm is called Le Chateau du Bois. The location makes a big difference, of course. It's not just a case of the controlled region name, but in fact the lavender only grows properly at altitudes above 800 meters. The lavender in question is "fine lavender", lavandula augustifolia. Lower altitudes are better for the "industrial" variety, lavandula hybrida, also called lavandine. The family farm seems to be just inside the fine lavender boundary. I should have asked, because looking at the map now, while the official "AOP" region seems clear, I am not sure what the other boundaries represent.
The museum part of the operation contained what must be an impressive collection of antique distillation equipment. No matter what the design the process is essentially the same: a whacking great volume and weight of lavender flowers are packed into a (often copper) vessel, and steam is channeled though. The steam is then condensed in a cooling coil back to what has become a mixture of water and lavender oil. The oil floats and is drawn off. Voila! The only thing, it takes 130 kg of flowers to make a litre of oil. So in a year, one hectare can produce 25 litres of oil.
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What I liked best was a film that could be viewed. This explained a lot about the harvesting and current distilling method. But the best was the great images of lavender and lavender fields. I will close today's account with some of those! (Snapshots from the movie screen.)
Today's ride: 57 km (35 miles)
Total: 1,974 km (1,226 miles)
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