Take a river, have it branch off in in multiple directions, and build a town around it back in the 12th century, and you have L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, our mid-point of today's ride. We were able to take in (observe from our bike seats) a bit of the market(s) (operating every Sunday since the 1500s) before they closed for the afternoon. There's a massive antique market, too-- something to put on our to-do list for a future time. That, and maybe play some boules with the local old guys, who were partly helpful, partly impatient, when Alaine stopped near them to see if the WC near their play park was open.
On the way to Cabrieres
We biked through the small village a bit before reaching our hosts' home... Et voila, another nod to the man--
In Cabrieres, we were welcomed by Wenzel and Florence and their younger son, Silvere. Actually, Wenzel met us at the old "laundry" of the village as we pondered if we were in the right place for their home-- he'd been out for a bike ride and knew who we were right off.
Such a dual national, multi-multi lingual family, with Wenzel originally from Hamburg but in France since his early teens, and Florence, France born, traveling all over the world in her younger days. We were charmed by the fact that she and Alaine were in London at the same time in 1986, and in other parts of Europe after, and that Florence and Wenzel too were celebrating their 25th anniversary together this year. Even more interesting, perhaps, was that Wenzel's father was the illustrator of a popular French edition of Jean Giono's The Man Who Planted Trees. So it goes in Provence! We're still on the look-out for the book. Politics and child raising and home repair and simple life challenges were the topic of the night. Good people.
They have such a cool place, with the kitchen a former horse stable. Cabrieres has been the home town of Florence's family for many many years.
enjoying the road less traveled,
ReplyDeleteHav