April 13, 2019: Janis' birthday and Pernes-les-Fontaines

Today is Janis' birthday, so our first order of business is to pick up her birthday cake at the bakery. Besides our normal croissants, we ordered a new type of baguette (for us) called "1900" presumably because it's a traditional style according to information provided by our clerk.

Janis at breakfast

Breakfast today is fried eggs, bacon, Carpentras strawberries, along with the usual croissants, jams, and coffee.

Today's adventure is to explore Pernes-les-Fontaines. Janis has found this town in the Michelin Green Guide and it promises 40 fountains. It is on the driving tour we started (barely) the other day and besides, it has a market where the cheese vendor we saw at Beaumes-la-Venise and we want more of his sheep and goat cheeses. We're particularly fond of the Banon, the soft, gooey one wrapped in chestnut leaves. It is pricey but oh, so good.

This town is only a 20 minute drive, but as expected, parking in the town center is impossible since this is market day. So Dave dropped Nancy, Janis and I at the top of the market square and he and Clark went further afield to find parking.

Janis and I decided that we like this market best so far. It has multiple fruit and veggie vendors, and several cheese, olive, and sausage vendors. And at least one olive vendor sells Lucques olives. Of course there are multiple stalls selling clothing and table linens, a few specialty vendors of soaps, scents, honey, and oils.

Dave and Clark met us half-way through the market with my chariot and we set our plan for circling the city. First, however, we left the produce in the car which was near the starting point of our planned old town circumnavigation.

We began our tour at the church, Notre-Dame de Nazareth, an 11th century Romanesque building. In addition, Clark spots (and photographs, of course) 4 other bells within the bell tower. This church sits outside the old city which would have had walls and gates to keep it safe.

Notre Dame de Nazareth in Pernes-les-Fontaines

I can't resist photos with the redbud trees in them. All too soon, they will leaf out.

Next to the church is the Porte Notre-Dame, the first of several entry gates to the city. A small bridge with a chapel (now an artist's exposition space) crosses the Nesque River, which to us, seemed like just a small stream running in a ditch.

The Porte Notre-Dame

Janis and Clark on the bridge that crosses the Nesque River (with hardly any water running in it - it could barely be described as a stream at this time of year.)

From this point, there is a view of the Tour d'Horloge - a remaining tower of a former castle of the counts of Toulouse. It has a typically Provençal wrought-iron bell cage on top and a 15th century clock.

the clock tower with its wrought-iron bell cage

Once inside, we are greeted by our first fountain, la fontaine du Cormoran. This fountain was one of 4 "monumental" fountains built to supply the town with water. The discovery of the St. Roch spring meant that water could be piped to all parts of town and the town would never have to worry about drought.

The Cormorant fountain

The cormorant on top of the fountain

view from inside the covered market looking toward the Cormorant fountain

Across from this fountain is the 16th century covered market hall. Here, besides buying necessary foodstuffs, residents could also check to be sure the weights of items sold were true using a calibrated scale available to all. I can imagine the arguments over the "miscalculations" of vendors.

Typically Provençal in its character, this town has twisty, windy streets with 2-3 story flat-faced houses lining both sides. Just wide enough for one modern small car, it is at times difficult for us pedestrians to get out of the way of an oncoming vehicle. Nevertheless, there is something I find charming about the differently colored plain stucco buildings  with their pops of color on their wooden shutters.

houses have different colored plaster and different colored shutters as they line the narrow, curvy "road"

Aren't these shutters a pretty color?

walls surround parts of the old town

The clock tower can only be visited by arranging with the tourist office (which we neglected to try to find on first arriving - it closes at 12:30 pm on Saturdays, which we find amusing.) However, halfway up, Dave finds good overlooks of the city and surrounding countryside.

view over the rooftops of the old town

view looking down on the Notre-Dame gate where we entered. The river is invisible from here.

Back on the trail, we are now looking for a place for lunch and discovered this small park on the site of a former oil press. The cage was a most unusual place for a table, but made for lots of one-line jokes as we ate our lunch.

our lunch location - a small park inside the city walls

lunch in the cage and out

The afternoon continued with further explorations of fountains, town houses, and gates. A very pleasant meander for an hour or two.

city gate. That's not a tree in the front, but a fountain covered in algae. Definitely the strangest fountain we saw.

fountain at the Hôtel de Ville

fountain with fish scales outside the musée de résistance (the WWII resistance museum)

flowering tree at our lunch park

sign over a shop

painted decorations on the butcher shop

Near the end, we stumbled on a wedding party moving into the Hôtel de Ville. There was a receiving line and each of the guests gave the bride 3 bises (kisses), so this must be a 3-kiss region, not a 2-kiss region. Important cultural information to know, although unlikely we'd have to use it.

the wedding receiving line - the bride wore a short dress with a full tulle skirt and green shoes. The bridesmaids wore green as did the children of the bridal party. This is the courtyard of the Hôtel de Ville.

the wedding car

Besides the wedding car, Clark found a car to his liking.

Clark and "his" car

Is a caption needed?

Finishing our tour back at the church, Dave proposes that we make a stop in another small town on the way home to complete this leg of the Green Guide tour. The girls all objected unless a bathroom is found. Hoping for one at the Tourist Office, it is then that we discovered that the office wasn't open on Saturday afternoons. There was a horrible bathroom available next to the parking lot. One of those with 2 raised foot prints in the middle of a shallow pan for flushing. Desperate times call for desperate measures, so we hold our noses, kleenex in hand, and use the toilet.

Refreshed (haha), we continue to Monteux to look around that town which has a couple of gates and a tower in the center. Also lots of art on the walls and a beautiful trompe l'oeil (fool the eye) painting on the side of a building.

one of the city gates

The best view of the tower is from this corner where a beautiful trompe-l'oeil covers a bare side wall (left_ of a building. Even the roof tiles are painted. There is no logia. We find these paingings remarkable and they are everywhere. France is committed to street art of all sorts and it's a joy to discover.

More street art

While the old city was twisty, windy, narrow streets as expected, the tower was disappointing. Monteux seems to be missing a tourist opportunity by not sign-posting the way to the tower and by allowing the space around the tower to be a parking lot. We may have to visit their tourist office to let them know what they are missing.

painting in the café at Monteux. The owner was most proud.

However, the town was worth a brief visit. And Clark and Dave did find a café owner who wanted them to admire the mural painted in his bar/café. How many Jimmy Hendrix likenesses are you likely to find in a small village in France?

While it was the medieval gates and tower that drew us to this village, it is the artwork we'll remember. So you never know what discoveries you'll find on an adventure. They're not always what you might expect!

Home again for aperos with a bottle of Muscatine (bubbly) to celebrate Janis' birthday, followed by dinner of ratatouille, duck breast, and duck-fat fingerling potatoes, along with a fabulous Vacqueyras red wine. Janis conducted the Happy Birthday song, which was later reprised by her grandchildren and Jamie. Facetime with Ben and Emily and lots of online birthday wishes, added joy to this birthday celebration in France.

Janis and her birthday dinner

We capped the night with Janis' birthday cake, a chocolate mousse cake with a raspberry glaze. Delicious. And of course there must be wine, in this case, a dessert wine from the coop at Vacqueyras.

Cake, flowers, and wine from Vacqueyras. Yum!

Only one small problem, the bakery misunderstood my spelling of Janis and wrote "Ganis" So happy birthday Ganis! May the day have been memorable.

Tomorrow, we will have to plan a trip that allows us to stop at Vacqueyras to restock. As Janis said, "It was a very wine-y day."  But no complaints.