Luberon Hill Towns to the Camargue

From Vaisson we cruised some Luberon hill towns. This landscape shows the "garrigue" of the hills. This road is way steeper than it looks. Like the Texas hill country--just steeper!

This is Gordes, a typical hill town. As explained earlier, hill towns were built as fortified refuges after the fall of Rome. The towns on the plains built walls and were thus fortified as well, but there was a real difference in terms of public space between this hill towns and the towns of the plains. Vaisson also had an older hill town adjacent to it. My understanding is that is was basically abandoned until fairly recently. I think Gordes is mainly occupied by second home folks, hotels, and those who serve them. I don't know if all the hill towns of the Luberon are like this, but this seems to be the case for Gordes and a few others we saw.




Hill towns like Gordes are full of fun little nooks and crannies. But not sure just a liveable such a place really is. These kinds of towns appear to have been abandoned as soon as things stabilized.




From the hills we drove to Marseille for the adventure already described. After the night in Arles, we went to the Camargue, supposedly the largest complex of wetlands in France, on the delta of the Rhone. It is a reserve and there is a visitor center, but not much considering the importance of this region. There is a whole lifeway centered in the Camargue wetlands--a kind of southern france wetland Cowboy-torero culture, mixed in with rice cultivation. The cowboys have their own unique style and rituals.





The Camargue wetlands are pretty wet--as you might expect. There are a whole range of wetland types that we were able to observe on our drive through the Camargue. This area feels very much like the Texas coastal prairie--and I have seen the Camarge referred as the French Texas.





We ran across this major reed harvesting operation.




Tourist images of the Camargue show white horses running through the water. Didn't catch a glimpse of that--but did see the horses. There are specialty hotels in the are that provide rides etc.



Les Stes Maries de la Mer is a very interesting little town on the ocean edge of the Camargue. Great little squares and parks and perfect pedestrian scale. This was on a late Wednesday afternoon in the main square--a leisurely game that appears to be a cross between bowling, croquet, and marbles. Both men and women were playing, and of various ages. I believe this game is played in other parts of France as well but I don't know the name. A venue for real social capital to develop!