Provence

This morning I washed my hands using the same soap I used on my last vacation in Provence, several years ago (by the way it was not the actual same soap tablet!), and I remembered all the places and smells I experienced then.

Even if you travel to Provence in August, as I did, and the lavender has already been picked, it doesn’t really matter that much as the scent keeps staying in the air.

Another amazing thing of Provence is that every now and then you will find a church or a cave  Mary Magdalene visited.

It seems she landed in Provence during her escape from Jerusalem. There, she lived in the countryside, where she died and was later buried.
They claim her skull is still preserved in Saint Maximin: la Sainte.

Anyways, car rides through the villages of Provence are of an unmatched charme.

Perched villages are everywhere, some of them are famous, other not so much, but all of them have their own unique charm.

Many movies had their set in the area, out of which one is amongst my favourites ever: “A good year”, which was shot in Gordes and Bonnieux.

For the kinds like me who are crazy about food (and wine especially), Provence is the land of the rosé, which little has to do with the one which is becoming more and more fashionable here in Italy: the former is sweet and delicate, perfect for an aperitif or even for dinner.

While traveling around the lavender fields it’s easy to find wonderful cellars to stop by, taste and buy wine.

Me and my husband stopped by various Chateaux and purchased loads of bottles – we always went home tipsy by the “binge” tasting!

What about cheeses?!
Ahh the goat cheese from Provence! Fantastic eaten with a hot baguette while sipping a glass of rosé sitting in a small square under the sun.

And olives, big and nice, green and black. So excellent!

Provencal cuisine is very similar to ours in Italy: it has olive oil and it is pretty much mediterranean and very different from the typical butter based food of other areas of France.

But croissants are as wonderful as they are up north and I guess I can make an exception in this case – 125 gr of butter spread on the croissant and the mood of the day starts towards perfection.

But enough with the food! During our journey we stumbled upon Roman remains, such as the aqueduct of the Pont du Gard and went canoeing at the Verdon Gorges – now I am terribly scared of bathing in a lake as it is way more dangerous than the sea, but hey, in a canoe it is all a different thing!

I could spend hours and hours talking and remembering about Provence, the things that can be done, the sea of the Cote d’Azur nearby, the excursions, churches and abbeys telling stories of knights and crusades.

But what matters most is that those things are still with me and I am happy to know that when I sip a glass of good rosé I feel I am in Provence even from the garden of my italian house.