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France - Romans and roads
north
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Still in scorching hot weather we drove
around the area known as the Dentelles de Montmirail a small range of
white sharp peaked mountains (but Dentelles refers to lace-like not teeth
despite their appearance) stopping at an attractive table d'orientation at
Suzette to look at the view across the vineyards to the distant hills then
across the hills to Beaumes-de-Venise and Gigondas.
 
Table d'Orientation Suzette
There we took the road
marked to the Col de Cayron in the Michelin guide but as the road became
little more than a track we decided to return and continued around passing
the hilltop village of Sablet and up to Segurat where we parked in parking
P2 (free). this is a pleasant preserved hillside village with narrow shady
lanes, artist studios, craft shops and restaurants.
Segurat
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Dentelles de Montmirail
Dentelles - view from Segurat
Segurat fountain
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After lunch we drove
on busier main roads to Vaison-la-Romaine where we found a new motorhome parking
aire just north of the ring road and a short walk from the roman
amphitheatre and town centre. Vaison is a lively town with impressive
Roman ruins, pavement cafes and an interesting old town across the river
that is worth s exploration. There is a huge street market on
Tuesdays. In the evening there was a Jazz and Blues concert in the
amphitheatre but as we hadn't heard of any of the artistes and at €30 a ticket
we decided to stroll around the centre for the evening watching a
beautiful pink sunset over Mont Ventoux.
The next morning after visiting the old town
we drove to a supermarket and Total Garage to fill up the LPG tank,
then through more vineyards passing the village of Pierrelongue
with a chapel on top of a rock and on to Buis-les-Baronnies where we stopped for
a while along the huge terrace under the shady plane trees. In the heat of
the
afternoon we had had enough driving so stopped at Camping Le Gautiere in
the country. Not our sort of site with a pool, not much shade from the few
olive trees and a bar terrace where I sat in the evening as the lone
British camper watching England get knocked out of the World Cup - not
one of our better days!
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Vaison old town
Pierrelongue chapel on a rock
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The next morning after calling in at the small aire at
Mirabel-les-Baronnies to use the service point we decided to head north to Nyon
where there was a huge Sunday "Bio-naturelle" market with stalls
in every
street but nowhere to park within a couple of miles so we headed for Grignan a more peaceful
hilltop town with a huge chateau and more lavender fields. There was a
huge rotunda wash-house near to where we parked on the southern edge of
the town. Grignan's claim to
fame was Madame de Sévigné and her daughter who were noted for their letter writing
for twenty years from 1669, and the town was decorated
for its annual festival of correspondence the following week.
Mme de
Sévigné statue at Grignan
Nearby was a
fascinating indoor model Provençal village with detailed tableaus of
village life using hundreds of traditional Santons - figures about 30cm
inches tall; some of the English descriptions had lost a bit in the
translations but worth a visit.
From Grignan we headed north following the "Bis Lyon" route
signs, a good back road bypassing Crest and Romans-s-Isère, the home of
luxury shoes according to the large roadside placards, arriving at
Hauterives to re-visit the Palais Ideal de facteur Cheval which we had
first discovered in
1998.
There was a new well signposted motorhome aire in the carpark behind the
chateau. The Palais is a remarkable place to see, now with a much improved
visitor centre. As it was late afternoon we saved our tour until the next
morning.
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Grignan chateau
Grignan wash-house
Santons model Provencal village
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Hauterives roundabout
This year we had more time so visited the Palais as well as his family
tomb in the local cemetery which was about a mile out of the village. He worked on this from 1912 until his death in 1928.
Cheval family tomb
Also there is now a museum of Naïve art and an exhibition
gallery in the town as well as restaurants and an ice cream parlour.
Palais interior detail
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Palais Ideal side view
Palais Ideal side view
Palais Ideal figures
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For our original Palais Ideal page follow
this link Palais
Ideal
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