April 18, 2019 Driving tour number 2 - Venasque

Another sunny day, warm but hazy. Judy is recovering from jet lag, so an easy day is in order. There's part of a second Green Guide driving tour that would make an easy day. So off we head toward Venasque, a "Plus Beau Village" (most beautiful village).

Passing by Pernes-les-Fontaines (our 40 fountain town) our first stop is a small town called St. Didier. We stopped in a parking lot with a view of the church for a photo and discovered a charming quiet village with a church, a fountain and a chateau.

Church of St. Didier entrance is the blue door on the right. The bell tower is built into the city walls over the gate that leads to the château.

The town and the chapel were named for St. Didier, a martyr who was taken as patron saint by the 6th century Christian inhabitants of the town. The chapel became attached to the château as a dependency and was enlarged over the years. A bell tower was added on top of the town fortifications and the main entrance to the old town. The château is today a private medical facility.

Just beside the church, inside the city walls, is an original fountain of 1685, built when a spring was discovered near the town. It was the main source of water for the town for hundreds of years. It is an Historic Monument, never changed since its construction. Today it is covered in moss, but still running.

The original fountain

Moss growing on the fountain

Another tree-lined street. The lords of the château had this road lined with plane trees. It leads directly to the gate to enter the château.

On the road again, we drove to Venasque.

This "perched village" clings to a rocky outcropping of the Vaucluse mountains, not far from Mont Ventoux.

Not our photo - but this shows the perched village on its rock outcropping. See the road winding along below? That's how we got to the village.

This medieval village can thank Gail Kubik, an American composer who lived in Venasque from 1963-1983, for the economic revival of their town as a tourist attraction. Kubik bought and refurbished several run down houses and rented them out as vacation homes. The town is now filled with vacation rental options and enjoys a healthy tourism trade.

panorama of the "back" entrance to the town. See the roads in the middle? That's our route up.

Venasque, a town of 1300 in habitants, now sports cafés, shops, and a tourist map of the medieval village with explanations in English (and lots of other languages).

There's really only one road in the town and a few "impasses" (dead end alleys ) You can see how the town clings to a precipice.

Our GPS sent us up precariously narrow roads with switchbacks, entering along the lower elevation of the back side of the village. With no way to go but up a very narrow street (alley is more like it), we found both the Tourist Office and a parking place right across from it. Quelle merveille!

Map in hand, we headed first down the street, back the way we came, to the Esplanade with its incredibly beautiful, if somewhat hazy views of the Monts de Vaucluse and Mont Ventoux. A long way below us stretched the farms in the valley.

The Venasque region is known for its fine cherries. We later passed orchard after orchard of these trees, just now losing their flowers. We're hopeful for cherries before we leave France. Of course, there are vineyards as well which create the wines of the Ventoux region.

Sign outside town to remind us that their cherries are famous.

We were so lucky to find a parking space in the middle of town - only room for 5 cars here. This is a good reason to travel out of season.

Continuing down the road, we found the Baptistry, an ancient religious site that was likely first a pagan temple, then Roman, and re-used as a Christian church by the 4th or early 5th century.

This is a panorama. The left and right apses were at 90 degrees from the apse Janis is standing in.  The modern baptismal font is on the left (see Clark's photo below), the main altar in center and a side chapel (with window) for prayer.

Legend has it that both the church, Notre Dame de Venasque, and the Baptistry were built by St. Siffrein (remember him from Carpentras?) in the 6th century when he was bishop of Venasque.

St. Siffrein 

Baptistries had to be large because baptisms were only celebrated twice a year. Only the bishop (or later his delegate) could baptize converts. Baptism was by immersion and at the center of the baptistry. These buildings were very important parts of churches at that time. Unfortunately, no evidence of what the font looked like has been found.

The current baptismal font is believed to have been an olive press. The lit octagon in font is the location of the original baptismal font, of which no remains have been found. Pipes under the floor would have filled the font.

This table, no altar, is believed to have been in the pagan temple and reused by the Romans and Christians.

We went around to the church where a "famous" painting now hangs in one of the side chapels.

This painting, done in 1498 has an amusing history (but probably not to the people of Venasque). It was completed by three painters of the Avignon School at the request of the Knight of Thézan after his marriage to Siffrein, the last descendant of the Venasque family, or, another story goes, by a request of the priest of the time from Pope Innocent III. The monk is the Thézan Knight. Mary Magdeline at the feet of Christ is historically inaccurate, upstaging Jesus' mother (in dark behind) but Mary Magdelene was the patron saint of Provence, so it's likely paying hommage to this regionalism.

In any case, after a couple hundred years, the painting was considered old-fashioned and was taken down and stored in the gallery of the church with other unwanted items. Re-discovered in 1932 by the uncle of the current curé, who knew its value ("worth more than all the church" he told his nephew), the painting was sent to the Louvre for restoration. The Louvre "forgot" to send it back and exhibited it in 1937. The people of Venasque requested it back, but got no where. It was then that they gathered 700 signatures and presented them to the deputy mayor of Avignon, who was up for re-election. They told this candidate that they would vote for whichever candidate could get their painting returned before the election. The precious artwork was returned within a very short time and now hangs where we saw it, in a side chapel of the church. Some things never change.

After taking a few photos of the church,

The tabernacle on the high altar where the communion cup is stored

For Janis - Saint Fiacre, patron saint of gardeners, a hermit who lived in Meaux (northeast of Paris) and always had good harvests. He obviously had a green thumb as well as a spade.

We returned to the Esplanade to eat our lunch on a bench facing out toward the valley below and the mountains.

Our lunch spot

view from the Esplanade

Panorama view from the Esplanade

We noted that the snow is now gone from Mont Ventoux as we munched our sandwiches and enjoyed the trickle of the fountain behind us.

We've had hazy days now that the Mistral winds have stopped. Hard to see Mont Ventoux, even with a telephoto lens.)

Fountain at the Esplanade

The fountain pipe. Head of ????

Lunch finished, we moseyed up the street,

Looking back toward the Esplanade where we had lunch.

returning the backpack to the car on the way and stopping to explore an impasse (dead end) whose name suggested there was a mill (at least at one time). No mill, but a good photo op.

Impasse (Dead end) of the old mill

Impasse du Vieux Moulin

Judy and Janis returning up the impasse

We arrived at the main square of the town with another large fountain. Dave says I've ignored putting the faces with their water spouts in my posts, so I'm rectifying that now.

fountain on main square of town

this pixie spits water into the fountain

Looking back down the main street of town

Continuing the last bit to the highest part of town, we find not only the ramparts, but outside them a large area for parking. This is probably the way we were supposed to enter the town. Oh, well. Our way was prettier we think.

the ramparts

One last plunge down the town's only side street brings us out at the Tourist Office and our car.

looking out between houses on the edge of the rocky outcropping

To finish the driving tour, we are supposed to visit Mazan, another charming village with old streets and houses. We followed the route through Montmoiron but were too tired to check out its streets. We followed parking signs through the village and arrived at a very large (100 places) parking lot outside of the village center. We took a photo and left.

Montmoiron

In Mazon, we parked next to the church for a quick view of the top of the hill in this town.

church in Mazon

bell tower of Mazon church

stained glass windows in church - the darkest church we've ever been in

rose window in the church

Michelin recommends we visit the Allée des Sarcophages - a cemetery where sarcophogi of the 6th and 7th century line the stone enclosure walls. But we weren't quite sure where they were and a quick drive around town didn't enlighten us, so we headed home - it's time for aperos and our table in the sun.

Good night Evie. Good night Penny. Good night moon.
Love you, Grandma and PopPop