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Solar Tour 2008 – Day 11: Yesterday when we left Roussillon we tried to reach Camping La Coutelière close to Fontaine-de-Vaucluse along the river Sorgue in time, but when we arrived the reception was already closed. The owners of the camp ground where still there but were not at all helpful. Instead of letting us in and doing the paper work in the morning, they just sent us away. Unfortunately our ASCI camping guide doesn’t provide opening times of receptions, so this was the second time on this trip that we found ourselves in front of closed doors.
A bit further on in Fontaine-de-Vaucluse we were lucky to get a free spot on a large and almost full camper park. Not exactly what we had been looking for but good enough for one night.

Originally we didn’t plan to visit Fontaine-de-Vaucluse, which has to reputation of being a popular tourist spot with well over a million visitors a year, but since we were there we gave it a try early in the morning.
A short walk from the ancient riverside village the river Sorgue is gushing out of the ground deep below a massive cliff. Depending on the amount of rainfall on the Plateau de Vaucluse this is sometimes one of the most powerful natural springs in the world. Back in the village the tourist shops had all opened up and it was time for us to move on after buying fresh bread and taking care of the waste water.

[singlepic=39,200,,,right]Solar Tour 2008 – Day 10: From Buoux it is just a small drive north-west to Roussillon, one of the Plus Beaux Villages de France and known for its ochre mines. We first visited Ôkhra, the Conservatoire des ocres et pigments appliqués just outside of Roussillon. Here one can learn about the processing and use of the red ochre. They also have a shop with a great selection of art and design books as well as nice souvenirs.

Next we parked on the large paid parking just around the corner of the conservatory (motor homes are not allowed any further) and walked into town. Just besides the village we visited the former ochre quarry. The walk through the jagged cliffs of ochre was an otherworldly experience. Be prepared to get dirty!

Most of the old houses in the village are also painted in red ochre. A walk through the narrow medieval streets of the small center doesn’t take very long. Here one can find a lot of restaurants and souvenir shops offering pottery. Be aware that there is only one ATM in town. You can find it on the main road going up into the old center.

While it is allowed for motor homes to stay overnight on the paid parking, we didn’t feel like doing so. Large car parkings in touristic towns are not among those places where we feel comfortable and secure.

Solar Tour 2008 – Day 10: Leaving Montfuron and its old mill behind us, we were soon on the D900 again, going west towards Apt. While Apt is certainly worth being visited, we didn’t feel like doing a city tour and instead visited the ruins of Fort de Buoux, 10 km south of Apt.
Fort de Buoux was built on the edge of the canyon of the Aigue Brun valley in the 12th century. Next to the ruins of the fort, there are also remains of an older abandoned hilltop village and one has a great view of the canyon, which is very popular with climbers.

Solar Tour 2008 – Day 10: Soon after Manosque on the route to Apt, we saw an old mill on a hill and since it was time for lunch, we decided to stop there. The Moulin de Montfuron was built under Louis XIV about 350 years ago and is the only windmill in the region, which still functions today.

From up there one has a great panoramic view over the surrounding countryside.

[singlepic=35,200,,,right]Solar  Tour 2008 – Day 10: We had about 5 days left on this tour, which meant that we could spend up to 3 more days in the Provence. We knew that we wanted to visit Nyons before returning to Holland. On the way there we wanted to visit the Luberon area, which we never visited before. In Manosque and were lucky to see a natural food store called Le Blé en Herbe. They had a great selection of organic food and we were able to get all we needed. The store belongs to biocoop, a chain of natural food stores with 311 branches all over France. On the biocoop site a list with all addresses is available, which is handy to have for traveling vegans like us.

Solar Tour 2008 –Day 9: 8 years ago in May 2000 we have been camping in Les Salles-sur-Verdon. Back then in a small tent and our dog Jill was only 2 years old. Les Salles-sur-Verdon is a brand new town, which was created after the original historic village (mentioned in 1038) was destroyed when the Lac de Sainte-Croix was flooded with water. We returned to get some of the most delicious bread we have ever had. In 2008, each morning Chris went to the bakery and got fresh olive rolls, which were like small ciabata breads, filled with black olives. Since then we have tried to find and make breads like those olive rolls from Les Salles-sur-Verdon. We were looking forward to get the originals again. The campground Camping “La Source” was still there and it was nice to be back at a familiar place, but we were not able to get those olive rolls in town. Obviously in 8 years some things have changed.