Day Trips from Aix Part 7 - Le Sentier des Ocres and Les Bories

We ventured out on another epic day trip with our friends whose own big family trip itinerary overlapped with ours a few times, this time in Provence.  We decided to combine some scenic driving with a destination that would get us all out in nature. Heading into the Luberon valley provided just that.  There were picturesque mountain towns, ocher rocks, fields of brilliant red poppies and a village of ancient stone huts.  Pair that with another classic French picnic and it was a perfect day.

The Luberon is an area that has three mountain ranges and is known for the picturesque villages that perch and nestle into crooks and crannies and sides of mountains.  People have described leisurely long weekends or even a week driving through the Luberon, but we elected to use Aix as our base and simply visit in a day.  This meant that we didn't spend any time exploring the villages, but we did get a taste of the landscape and beauty of the area.  Driving the twisty roads we would come around a bend and catch a view in the distance of a cluster of stone buildings scattered against the mountainside and sky.  It was very alluring and picturesque.  We drove through a couple of the villages and were able to appreciate the stone walls, the old buildings and the scale of an ancient town.  We also took a slightly longer route so we could drive by the 12th century Senaque Abbey which is famous for its photogenic positioning at the end of a long field of lavender.  The lavender was not yet in bloom, but with a bit of imagination we could envision the beauty.  The Abbey was impressive from afar, but this was another stop that we breezed by, making the hard decision based on available time, and also the interest of the audience, to keep moving. 

A natural attraction that we were keen to explore were the ocher rocks near the village of Roussillon.  After fortifying ourselves with the requisite cheese and baguette picnic lunch (okay, there was more than just bread and cheese, but they are the stars) we ventured to the start of the walk, which was literally a few steps from the heart of the village.  The walk,  "Le Sentier des Ocres" takes you along paths that meander their way through swooping curves of red ocher rock that have been carved and smooth by erosion.  In the 19th and early 20th century the area was an open quarry and ocher extraction occurred on an industrial scale, reaching a peak of 40 000 tons in 1929.  I saw no hint of this industrial past as we walked among the red rock and through scrubby pine forests. The rock was a beautiful rainbow of reds, yellows and oranges that swooped and curved. The green of the trees and shrubs and the blue of the sky punctuated the earth tones to create a visually beautiful landscape.

Another classic V pic.  Sitting in the dirt, hands dirty, happy.
Literally grounded by the earth.

After our walk we were content and happy, as seems to always be the case after a walk in nature that gets the blood pumping and the senses satiated.  We loaded back up in the car and continued our tour.  One of the highlights of the road trip was passing fields of brilliant red.  Poppies were in bloom!  Photographs were taken.  Provence as a picturesque locale was yet again confirmed.

Our final stop was at the village des Bories outside of Gordes.  "Bories" is a provencal term for stone huts that were used in farming and in the countryside.  The original Latin root means "stable for oxen".  As described on a tourism website "The hut has always been an institution in Provence. First popping up in fields to house the peasants' tools, it became, as time passed, the little country house, done up, often in quite a rudimentary manner, to spend Sundays and holidays. The borie also permitted shepherds to shelter their flocks. To build them, our ancestors gathered the stones from the calcareous surroundings. They were just lying there for the taking." (Tourism site)

What is unique about the village is that it is a cluster of thirty huts that have been painstakingly restored.   You can walk among the huts and buildings, appreciating the skill with which the stones were dry stacked and placed together to create huts, sheds, buildings, and homes. Using the powers of imagination you could see people cooking, working, housing animals, or storing supplies inside the structures.   It was cool to see the village and fun to wander around.  At some point one dry stack of rocks began to look just like the other, and that was the time to load up and head home.  

Our trip through the Luberon with Le Sentier des Ocres and the Village des Bories as our two main destinations, was a very fruitful day.  It was fun to explore this part of Provence with friends, it was great to be out in nature, it was an excellent overview of the area, it let us see what people talk about when they talk about "the five most beautiful villages in France", and it definitely left more to explore on future trips.