Vaisson La Romaine

After Avignon, we rented a car for a 4 days of touring in Provence. This map shows the start of this route, with a little half day loop.

Here is the nice little Fiat we rented--a Punto. Handled great and got good mileage--diesel. The model was extra!

First thing I noticed about this landscape was just a similar it is to the Texas Hill Country--with the exception of the ancient olive trees of course. White and red oaks, yaupon-like hollies, etc etc. The Garrigue is the local name for the shrub-scrub landscape that has resulted from milenia of human management.

Our first stop was at a very impressive 2000 year old very large Roman aqueduct. But the high point of that park was a large "landscape" park recreating the ancient landscape and lifeways. Lots of wonderful live exhibits like this olive orchard. Even full scale soil profiles on stella-like monuments. Another wonderful conversation with French guides about landscape management. A quick check of the dictionary for how to say "fire on purpose"--le feu expres. Definitely a part of landscape management for milenia but rarely used now.

Paris and just about every little French towns love their Plane trees (similar to the Sycamore). But they also love to butcher them. We were there at the height of the butchering/pruning season apparently. Similar to our fixation with pruning crepe myrtles, I guess.

Vaission is said to have one of the better market towns of Provence--probably true. I don't think my photos quite capture the vitality of this market. I described this market in an earlier post so won't add much here. Lots of tourists at this market--but it is not held for tourists by any stretch of the imagination. A few squares and many side streets feel up with everything from the sublime to the mundane.

Here is a local guy selling hams and sausages. He cures the meat as well as raises the pigs. He is from a village in the region and he visits several markets a week. A very pleasant fellow. Let me say here that we found the French to be a very warm and pleasant people. We have read and have been told by many how rude the French can be. Certainly we encountered a few idiots along the way, but most were quite charming. We did try our best at speaking French, so maybe that helped. We read that most people would be able to speak English--not really true, especially outside of Paris. We found more people that could speak a little spanish then english--but many that could only do French. Invariably, people were more than happy to struggle along with us in our very halting French. This fellow provided way more explanation about his operation than I could undersand--but he encouraged my questions.

This fellow's food is not cheap. But you are getting real quality. The people who are buying from him are not wealthy--probably on the average less income per capita than a similar sized texas town. But you are not just buying a ham here--you are buying into a way of life.

Food in general in France is not very cheap. We learned to save by buying hams and sausage from guys like this, some bread from a local boulangerie, some cheese and that would do for breakfast and even lunch, so that we could enjoy some splurges on great meals (and we had several of those!). McDonalds and Burger king are doing well in places like Paris and even Nimes. Nowhere else can you get a burger for 2-3 bucks. A homemade burger at a local joint will cost at least 7-8 bucks. You have to decide where you want efficiency or stable local economies--a decision that France and other members of the European Union are struggling with. So far they seem to be making better choices than we are.

We had to buy an extra basket to handle all the loot--mainly irresistable local food stuffs.


The view from our room in Vaisson on market day morning. Below are butchered plane trees and market stalls. Above is the old walled town and the castle or chateaux.