Day 9

Saint Sixte Chapel, a tiny chapel near Eygalieres, that van Gogh often painted. 

 As we walked around the outside of the chapel, snapping lots of pictures, a pristine red 2CV Citroen pulled up, causing me to refocus my camera on it for a few shots.

The village of Eygalieres 

Just outside Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, the monastery of Saint Paul de Mausole where van Gogh spent a year under the care of the monks from 1889-1890.  During time van Gogh produced over 130 paintings, copies of which were placed throughout the grounds and buildings as part of an audio guided walking tour.  

The village and fortress of Les Baux.

Lunch in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence

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Today we explored some new areas in Provence.  We left our B&B around 10 AM after a delicious breakfast of OJ, a banana yogurt smoothie, scrambled eggs with truffle oil, pain au chocolat, and coffee.

Our first stop was Saint Sixte Chapel, a tiny chapel near Eygalieres, that van Gogh often painted. There was only one other couple when we arrived, so the serenity that this space brought to the painter was still present.  As we walked around the outside of the chapel, snapping lots of pictures a pristine red 2CV Citroen pulled up, causing me to refocus my camera on it for a few shots.

Leaving the chapel we drove to the nearby village of Eygalieres where we bought some postcards and newspapers, and then relaxed with another cup of coffee at Le Prestige Café.  This was a beautiful village with lots of galleries & cafés, definitely upscale as evidenced by the many expensive, rare, or vintage cars proudly being displayed by their owners on their weekly Sunday drive

Moving on, we arrived at the monastery of Saint Paul de Mausole where van Gogh spent a year under the care of the monks for a year from 1889-1890.  During this year van Gogh produced over 130 paintings, copies of which were placed throughout the grounds and buildings as part of an audio guided walking tour.  Other than art therapy, which was very progress for that era, many brutal techniques were employed such as locking the patients in a ice filled bath tub.  If Vincent wasn’t crazy when he arrived, we certainly was when he left!  Seriously though, Vincent actually enjoyed his time at this abbey according to letters he wrote to is brother Theo.

It was 2 pm by the time we left the monastery, so we decided we needed some lunch so we drove to the village of Les Baux which has a beautiful mountain top fortress that overlooks the surrounding countryside.  Unfortunately the crowds were terrible, and there was no reasonably close parking to the village and we anticipated the cafés would probably all be jammed so descended from this village, stopping only for a few quick photographs and then drove into St. Remy de Provence where we lunched at an outdoor café.  We pretty much stopped at the first decent place we came upon and after we placed our orders I checked its Trip Advisor’s rating which was #5 of 86.  We lucked out and the rating was well deserved.  We both ordered salads and they were outstanding. We ended the day with some ice cream and returned to Le Mas Perreal, arriving at 4:30 PM.

We’re taking a break and not dining out tonight.  Bread, nutella,  & pearches are on our menu for the evening.