Provence is dotted with many very picturesque villages. L’abbaye de Sénanque is a popular photo spot as it is surrounded by lavender fields.
Although the most popular quaint villages are also very touristy and have big, crowded not-so-quaint pay-carparks.
The weather in provence was just brilliant! It was dry, warm and breezy. I think it only rained once (and only briefly) over the 10 days we were in the south of France.
There's a rating system for beautiful villages in France. This is the view from Gordes, a 'plus beaux village' (the loveliest of beautiful villages)
A grave overgrown with lavendar at a cemetery in Gordes.
Looking at Gordes from the nearby hill down the road.
Having experienced the Pont du Gard the previous day, all I wanted to do was find more swimming spots! Joe found this village - Fontaine-de-Vaucluse, which has a gushing source of spring water.
The water was just so incredibly clear! The beautiful emerald colour is the reeds growing in the riverbed. All I wanted to do was jump in!
When we finally got to test out the water we realised why there was no one swimming, and why the water was so incredibly clear and algae-free - it was freezing! I could not keep my foot in the water for more than a few seconds.
Walking upstream, there is a still looking pool of water which is the source of the gushing river. This pool is incredibly deep - in 1985 a small robot submarine went down 315 m into the pool, and found no bottom (source).
The next few days we trawled through a few more quaint villages...
Also stopped to see some Roman ruins at Glanum.
and arrived at Aix-en-provence, a most pleasant artsy town where Van Gogh used to hang out.
This seemingly uninteresting courtyard...
was actually the subject of a Van Gogh painting.
We explored a lot of alleyways...
and we took a LOT of photos of cool looking doors...
With my swimming urges still unsatisfied.. we searched far and wide for a nice creek or lake... and arrived at this pebbly lake Plantain at Peyrolles-en-provence which used to be a quarry redeveloped into a recreation park.
Despite the busy road nearby and the unsightly power lines in the background, it was a very peaceful spot.
This was about 8pm as we were leaving the lake... isn't the sky just beautiful!
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