So here we are under the Provincial sun and despite being Spring’s last gasp, it’s hot, hot, hot. The sun’s splitting the stones as the Irish would say. 33 degrees to be precise.
Menerbes is a delight, one of our Les Plus Beaux Villages, it’s mini Provence concentrated in one convenient location. Endless blue skies? Check. Terracotta tiled houses in every sun bleached shade? Check. Pencil pines in perfect formation? Check. Vineyards? Lavender? Gorgeous planters spilling over with flowers? Check, check and check. Charm itself.
Walking to the village is an olfactory delight – honeysuckle, jasmine, lavender scents waft through the air. There’s a laverie of course, this one fancier than most, featuring a system to heat water and a hanging rack. Very practical.
Whilst I marvel at everything, Himself is torn between going out for lunch or dinner. Lunch wins in the end – no points for guessing that one. A careful inspection of menus follows and we settle in a shaded terrace. It proves an excellent choice – I have a burrata and heirloom tomato salad (bliss) while Himself has a sausage and lentil dish that’s declared his best meal yet. High praise indeed.
As delightful as all these lunches (and cheese… did I mention French cheese?) are, I think I’m in dire need of a hamster wheel. I’m used to being much more active than travel calls for. Adding endless lunches to less activity is a dangerous mix.
The business of lunch over, it’s time to explore. Menerbes is set into the side and atop a Luberon mountain, inhabited since prehistoric times. Endless views on all sides. A meandering path takes us to the summit, site of the 16th century Eglise Saint Luc, unfortunately not open. Set alongside is an ancient cemetery.
We find another White Penitents chapel with an extraordinary carved wooden ceiling.
I coax Himself off the tourist path, back down the rough path through the last surviving fortified gate. Come on! You can pretend you’re a marauding knight… It does the trick – I do love a path less travelled. We get an excellent view of the original fortifications and cliffs.
Back in the village, Himself is done (too many steep climbs) leaving me to shop in peace. Yes boys and girls, there are shops. Lavender features heavily but there’s also a homewares store where I develop an intense longing for a beautiful copper preserving pan. It’s only an inability to bring it home that stops me. That and the sad fact that my induction stovetop won’t work with copper. *Sob* My treasured copper saucepans are now merely decorative.
Left to my own devices and energy to burn I lap the village again. It’s truly beautiful here. From on high I can see endless vineyards, lavender fields and olive trees. It’s everything you’d expect Provence to be. I eventually drag myself home.
I coax Himself out for a drink later. And having momentarily forgotten about the need for a hamster wheel, a marron glace, well because, why not?
It’s still warm into evening, the setting light mesmerising as birds tweet about their day. Over drinks and nibbles we meet fellow travellers from Austria. They live close to where I was born and have travelled extensively around Australia, through many of Himself’s outback adventures when I sensibly stayed home. It’s such a small world.
Miss Baci Travels 