Last day in Provence

Thursday - the real Thanksgiving was our last day in Provence. Sarah and Trish left by train for Paris. Pete and Casey decided to have a day on their own. The rest of us drove to "the heart of Provence". Yes I know I had already been there this trip but it is my favorite area and it was fun to share it with the "newbies". Above left is Rousillon (the light was a lot better than last Sunday).

Above right is our "group photo". Not pictured is Matt Wagner who took the picture because we couldn't figure out how to set my camera's timer. Front row is Sarah Wernert, her friend Trish, Ellie Muscat, Maureen Muscat, her boyfriend Ken, Matthew Muscat. Back row is Kim (Grethen’s friend), Gretchen Wernert, her husband Derek, me, Beth Wagner, Casey Wernert, Pete Wernert, Kay & Tony Wernert.

On right is the view from Rousillon.

Above left are some houses in Rousillon - I love the various colors. Notice the tiny Santa hanging from the yellow house. Christmas is big here.

One of the houses in Gordes has tiny birdhouses built by the man who lives there. The "Cercle Republican" in Gordes is not named for our Republican party. It is about French patriots I think.

I loved this Rousillon cat which seemed to be a chameleon taking on the orange tones of the town.

We visited a archeological site just below Gordes where the indigenous people once lived. The buildings are made entirely of stones piled on each other. Nothing else holds them together. There are some of these buildings within Gordes proper. Interesting that very similar structures are found elsewhere in the world e.g., Ireland, Italy.

Here is pretty produce at a Gordes market and two very French big dogs waiting for their mistress who was shopping.

We had a very pleasant day. The weather was clear and crisp - making for good photos. In my car was Gretchen, Derek, Matt, and Beth. We had something very funny happen at our final Peage (toll road) ticket booth. I put in the ticket and the machine rejected it. I put it in again - again rejected. I put it in backwards, upside down and still no luck. At this point cars were beginning to get backed up behind me. I pushed the button for "help". A man's voice was heard politely saying something in French that was probably "Do you need help?" I answered "I don't speak French. My ticket doesn't work." The next communication from the invisible voice was louder by many decibles and higher in pitch. He was probably saying something in French like “Put your ticket in the machine with the arrow pointing in.” I tried to explain, “I don’t speak French. I put the ticket in properly. There is something wrong with the machine.” The voice now was screaming at me probably saying “You stupid person. What is wrong with you. Just put the ticket in the machine.” At this point Gretchen got out of the car and walked over to the office where several people were obviously working. There was another speaker box there. She told another unseen person that we needed help. She was able to communicate that we needed someone to talk to us in English. That worked – the voice out of the speaker box next to me said in English “Where did you come from?” My answer, “America”. Of course after I said it I realized that he meant where did you enter the Peage? At this the entire group in the car, including me, broke into hysterics and we weren’t able to answer his question as 1) we couldn’t remember, and 2) we were laughing too hard to talk. Somehow eventually we pulled it together enough to say “Cavallan” and he told us to pay 1.9 Euros. We pulled away and had to pull over to the side of the road to regain our composure. As we left we looked back to see that all the cars where now backed up at the ticket booth. The machine was obviously broken.