Provence, Day 4

We had a leisurely start to the day, going for a walk after breakfast to see some more of Venasque. We went into the church, which is lovely. It had the most gracious words of welcome any of us had seen in any church that deals with tourists. They made us feel like they wanted us to see their church and learn the history. We then bought a ticket to visit the baptistery, the origins of which are pre-Christian. It was a very simple and quite moving building, where the parish's baptisms are still held. It is also one more tribute to the genius of the Romans in terms of plumbing and engineering! Here is a picture from the baptistery:
After our walk we went back to our B and B and then watched the Royal Wedding in real time! We started with the little TV in Wally and Eileen's room, or "Walleen," as we have come to call them. Then someone discovered that our hosts were watching on a big screen downstairs. They invited us to join them and we had a nice time conversing with them under the incessant French commentary on the television! We learned that Martine had been to London with her family on June 2, 1952 for Elizabeth II's coronation. She was 9 years old, and remembers it well.

After the wedding, we headed out to see some more of the landscape. We drove over a pass through our own local gorges, and dropped down into the town of Gordes where we had a little lunch. In Gordes we saw another "royal wedding" Provencal style.
We then headed out across the opposite valley. We were in the region made famous by Peter Mayle in A Year in Provence. (We learned from Blue Guide Provence that people in the area were so tired of seeing tourists walking about clutching a copy of the book that one local wrote his own book debunking Mayle's claims!)

We headed west a bit to find a couple examples of the local ancient hut, called a borie. These are dry-stone buildings unique to Provence that date back to 4000 BC! Here's a good example not too far southwest of Venasque, outside and in:
We drove back to Venasque through the neighboring village of St. Didier, where we had walked around a little bit the afternoon before. And we ended the day with another fabulous meal at Cafe Fontaine! Yum!