Tags
autumn, Bagni di Lucca, comics and games fair, driving, L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, Lucca, Provence, river
Yesterday we left Bagni Di Lucca early in the morning, feeling like we could have stayed a couple more weeks and continued our explorations of the area, or simply spend some time lazing around the river. But we were due at L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue in Provence for the second last leg of our walkabout from London back to Sydney.
We have been on the road now since early September travelling around the UK, the last two weeks in Italy, and we finish up in Paris late November before flying back home.
We pass through Lucca yesterday morning as we head to the motorway, virtually travelling a circuit of its ancient city walls and meet a cast of characters dressed as their favorite superheroes amongst the crowds flocking into Lucca for the annual international Comics and Games fair.
It’s a long day’s drive from Bagni di Lucca to L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, although good motorways and quite picturesque for motorway driving. We pass by hillsides dotted with scattered pastel houses and small villages, shoot over the top of numerous rivers and bridges, small farming plots, deserted stone cottages, autumn bejeweled forests, terraced hillsides making thrifty use of the land, olive plantations, salmon pink churches perched on hilltops and rows and rows of abandoned hothouses near the Italian riviera. And we pass through a seemingly endless number of tunnels and toll booths.
Around 600km later we arrive in L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue late afternoon to be shown the apartment we will be staying in for the next three weeks. The drive is well worth it when we see the beautiful medieval town clustered around the river Sorgue lined with brightly colored autumn trees and mystical water wheels. The town is actually built on the islands of five branches of the Sorgue river, 7km downstream from its source at Fontaine-de-Vaucluse.
Our apartment too is enchanting – a ground floor large stylish loft conversion in a 16th century building, formerly a convent.
After settling in we go to a tiny bar where locals pop in an out and get caught up in a conversation about French politics. With my limited French I manage to participate but then it’s time for dinner and an early night so we are ready to explore our new base the next morning. More to follow in the upcoming posts.