Aix-en-Provence (6-7/12/2019)

Our last stop in the trip was Aix-en-Provence. We checked out from our Apt monastery accommodation relatively early and drove down all the way to Aix. We parked the car in a parking lot which was far the most expensive parking we had during the whole trip, we paid almost 50 Euros for two days. Well, we know it in advance, and decided to keep the car until the last moment, so that we can easily get to the airport.
The hotel in Aix was an OK hotel, but in an excellent location. Aix is a big city, or at least acts like it. It's also more expensive than other places we went in the Provence. But I'm not complaining, we had a very good time in Aix. We visited the Granet Museum, which is devoted to painting, sculpture and archeology. The Planque Collection resides in the museum, the legacy of the Swiss painter, dealer and art collector Jean Planque, a personal friend of Pablo Picasso. The rich collection has been donated to the city for an initial period of 15 years. The collection contains over 300 works of art, including paintings and drawings by Degas, Renoir. Gauguin, Monet, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Picasso, Pierre Bonnard, Paul Klee, Fernand Léger, Giacometti and Dubuffet. (wikipedia). You drifted out? I'm sorry. Here:

Christmas market:

Aix streets:

On our last full day in Aix we visited the Saturday market with mushrooms:

and with cheese:

We also visited the small studio of the famous artist Paul Cézanne, with his furniture, still life model & work tools.

As much as I love French food at the end we did suffer from some fatigue, so we decided to eat Japanese dinner both of our last evenings in the Provence.
On Sunday we just drove to the airport, dropped off the car and flew home.

The Luberon: Ansouis, Musée Extraordinaire, Château de Lourmarin(5/12/2019)

Yet another astonishing day in the Luberon.

In the morning we drove to Ansuis, a small town in the Vaucluse département. There we meandered around the town and visited the Extraordinary Museum.
But first things first... Pâtisserie Volpert literally jumped on us, blocked our way right at the parking lot leaving us no other choice than...

It resulted in the following:
Le Mont-Blanc (Pâte sucrée, crème d'amande, chantilly, vermicelles de marron, rhum vieux):

La Tentation (Crumble cacao, mousse chocolat Vietnam 73%, crème diplomate vanille, caramel mou, noisettes caramélisées)

Challenging, I admit but doable.

Then we visited the Musée Extraordinaire, which is really interesting. It's a magical place keeping alive forty years of passion for the sea. An artistic place based on the findings and work of the painter and diver Georges Mazoyer, who founded museum in 1975. Today his daughter is running the site.

After Ansouis we drove to the Château de Lourmarin. Originally a 12th-century fortress, which was transformed in the 15th century into a castle. As many other castles in France during the centuries it ran down, and was restored in the 20th century.

Home, sweet home:

Thursdays afternoons we linger in the music room.

Ansouis streets:

The Luberon: Ochre Hills, Roussillon, Saignon (4/12/2019)

It was a little hard to find the Ochre Hills, but this is just because we were not quite sure what we were supposed to be looking for. We drove to Roussillon, and just outside the town we finally found the national park. We paid a nominal entrance fee. We chose the longer footpath. We found a very interesting landscape of red earth everywhere and forest on it in places where soil can be formed.
Here are some highlights from the one hour walk:

 The town of Roussillon from the entrance of the national park:

Walk in Roussillon:

Most of the places were closed, but we found a nice restaurant packed with locals. We were somewhat hesitant about it, because it rated only three starts on google, but we didn't have too much choice so we walked in. We were very positively surprised.
Foie Gras:

 Tuna:

We drove then to Fort de Buoux, hoping we can still get it, but since sunset was early we didn't climbed to the fortress, we just took a photo of the rock on which it stands:

On the way back we stopped in Saignon:

Crêpe dinner back in Apt: