April 9, 2019: Encore le Marché - Beaumes-de-Venise

Hôtel de ville, Beaumes-de-Venise

One consequence of cooking meals is that we use up our food every day or two. Luckily for us, shopping for fresh food in the local markets is one of the attractions we look forward to. It is easy for us to find markets by using the internet and searching for "markets of Provence" which brings up a list of regional towns and the days of their markets.

Today we are headed to Beaume-de-Venise, a short 10 miles from here through the vineyards and wineries of the area.

Beaumes-de-Venise

Parking lot at Beaumes-de-Venise - that's Mont Ventoux in the background

Finding parking today is easy as there is a large lot with many open spaces just a short distance from the market square.
The market is small, but has all that we need as well as two wonderful, fun discoveries.

Here you put your produce in baskets, then give to the vendor for weighing and paying

The first is Lucques olives. The olive vendor here has our favorite olives. We talk a bit with him and he is, I think, impressed that we know Lucques as they come from Languedoc. So we explain how we learned about them living in Béziers in Languedoc.

Lucques olives!!!

He agrees that these are the best and how they are better than the Picholine olives readily available in the region. It's a fun exchange and we buy about a kilo (2 pounds) to add to our apéros for the next days.

You are always invited to taste the olives before buying

The second discovery is a lovely cheese maker who actually lives in Sarrians.

Our dapper, multi-lingual cheese maker. Janis taste-testing his cheeses

But he doesn't go to any of the Sarrians markets. He sells goat and sheep cheeses and speaks an amazing number of languages: Portuguese and Russian from his parents, French, English, Swedish (he lived there), German and maybe a few more. He travels one day each week 350 km (about 230 miles) to the Tarn valley where the sheep farm is. There he has 300 ewes and 757 lambs (he sells lamb, but we don't know where). There must be some number of goats too as he brings back the milk to craft the cheeses he sells at market. We buy several sheep and goat cheeses from him, including one wrapped in chestnut leaves (to keep the cheese soft and fresh).

We finished our marketing with a purchase of shrimp for tonight's dinner and, in less than an hour, were headed to the wine co-op in Beaume-de-Venise, arriving there about 11.

This co-op partners with the one we visited in Vacqueras, but has different wines. The wines from Beaume-de-Venise are all sweet, dessert wines. We did buy a wine we considered somewhat sweet, although it was listed as "sec" (dry).

The tasting room is FANCY!

Dan, Paulette and Clark discussing the wines

We also bought a brandy and several bottles of wine while Dan bought some wines to take back with him to Belgium.

We sent one car home with our market purchases and the other car went to Carpentras to stock up on the basics. With Dan and Paulette's help, this shopping trip took less than an hour. And for some reason, the wine aisles are always magnets for the men. Dan found two 5 Euro wines to add to our menu for tonight. Home again, we made sandwiches to eat on the patio, then prepared the shrimp for our dinner, leaving it to marinate in the refrigerator.

Dave had in mind a Michelin driving tour near us which we could start and stop when it was time to go home for apéros.

map of the Beaumes-de-Venise area - village on right edge, caves des vignerons on left and the blue marker is the chapel

Our first stop was Notre-Dame d'Aubune, a small chapel on an outcropping of rock part-way up the Dentelles de Montmirail near Beaume-de-Venise.

Notre-Dame d'Aubune

This chapel was built between 1125 and 1150 as thanks for the victory of Charles Martel's army over the Sarrasins one morning at dawn in 738 or 739. The site of the chapel was well known and inhabited since pre-history as there was a spring of fresh water that in Roman times provided water to Beaume-le-Venise.

water flows in front of Notre-Dame d'Aubune

This romanesque chapel has a bell-tower that is a classified historic monument and continues to be used for concerts on special occasions. Enlargements were added in the middle ages changing the entrance from the narthex to the side. It was not open when we were there, but an Internet site claims it is open from 10-noon on Tuesdays. This site, though in French, has some lovely photos of the chapel, including the interior. https://www.lieux-insolites.fr/vaucluse/aubune/aubune.htm

One tradition holds that the dedication to Our Lady came because of a rock located at the top of the Dentelle behind the chapel was being pushed by the devil (hence its name, pierre du diable) to crush the chapel below. But the intervention of Our Lady stopped the slide of the rock and it remains perched on top of the mountain above the chapel.

pierre du diable 

A medieval garden of the sort that one would find in monasteries or convents was installed next to the church a couple of years ago.

It shows how defined plantings of kitchen herbs, medicinal plants, vegetables, floral and aromatic were kept not only at religious institutions but also royal palaces, hospitals and leprosariums.

the medieval gardens behind the chapel

Janis and I found this comment on the garden explanation plaque very interesting: "Every good Christian considered it a sacred duty to rescue the wounded, care for the sick, assist women in childbirth, and offer hospitality to pilgrims."

Views from this terrace chapel show expanses of vineyards laid out below on the plain. This is how the countryside looks all along our drives in this direction.

vineyards fall away below the chapel

Next, we headed for a hilltop castle at Le Barroux, whose charming village spread down the hill below it. Its name in Provençal is Lou Barrous.

There was a parking area just below the castle which allowed me to drive my scooter to the foot of the castle walls.

the queen in her carriage

The original castle was built in the 12th century, remodeled in the Renaissance, and burnt by the Germans in WWII, and rebuilt after the war. We're thinking this will be a good place to bring Evie, who is in full princess mode these days.

Le Barroux from below

Castle entrance

Castle courtyard

Two princesses of the castle: Janis and Paulette

It offers spectacular view of the valleys below.

olive grove

steps going down to town

While the others toured this reconstructed castle, still in use today for weddings and meetings, I looked out over the valley, tile rooftops in a jumble below, giving a quintessential view of the Provençal countryside.

Paulette admiring the Provençal tiled roofs

Doesn't this look like Provence?

The sunny day was warm, but the wind that channeled up the street was chilly. As I sat, the view along the street below the castle framed Mont Ventoux.

Encore Mont Ventoux

Views of this mountain, still covered in snow, are inescapable in this region. The mountain watches over all the villages and plains below it. Driving along the roads one sees the Dentelles de Montmirail stretch  to Mont Ventoux and then down slowly to the valley at the end of the Mont.  These mountains frame our views beautifully. Our Tour de France inspiration for location doesn't disappoint.

This is apparently also a street going up to the base of the castle

I say street somewhat tongue in cheek, as it seemed to us to be just a pedestrian passage to the castle. That is, until a car drove to the top where I was sitting and made a Y-turn to back into a hidden drive into a garden. Who would have thought? A knight on horse, I could expect, but a car?

Once everyone had gone through the castle, which was pronounced cold - if you come for a function, bring a coat - we looked at watches and decided we had to abandon our tour as it was already 5 pm. That happens a lot to us. Michelin says a tour will take half a day and it takes us 3 days because we soak in all the details and try to absorb all that the site offers.




Home again, Paulette takes a few minutes to read in the late afternoon sun by the pool while apéros are prepared. Tonight we will have the "chestnut goat cheese" and a brebis from our cheese vendor along with some Luques olives and sausage.

encore les apéros

The weather is cooperating so that we can again have our aperos on the pool side of the house.

After a bit, we dig into our dinner of shrimp and pasta, salad, and of course some wonderful wines.

Once again, we are at table until Paulette notices that it is 9:45 and they must leave by 9 tomorrow morning. A quick clear up, run of the dishwasher and everyone heads for bed after another successful day's adventures in Provence.