TRAVEL FEATURE - FRANCE
EMILIO SALVATORI & CRISTINA ZOLI TRANSLATED BY RACHELE VANUCCI
LAVENDER ROADS & PERFUMED LAND
The lavender fields not only fill the view , but also heart and lungs . Between the end of June and the beginning of August , once a year , they colour the center of the French Midi .
This journey through Provence can only begin in Avignon , the Popes ’ Capital . The city owes most of its beauty to the Avignon Papacy period in which , for the first and last time , the residence of the pope moved from Rome to this city between the years 1309 and 1377 .
Fontaine de Vaucluse is at roughly thirty kilometres to Avignon . Nestled in the ravine of Mount Ventoux , the place is magic . The emerald waters of the Sorgue come out from its womb , from a bottomless cave that humanity has yet to successfully explore . The Sorgue has an average total flow of 630 million cubic metres of water , making it the river with the greatest capacity in the world .
Eight kilometers from there we find Isle-sur-la-Sorgue . It ’ s a little village crossed by the river and known for its antiquities market , taking place every Sunday . The town is the best place to pitch the tent and to prepare for the discovery of Luberon . We take the D900 road , it follows the historical path of the Roman Domitia and runs beside the Calavon river , which is crossed by the two thousand year old roman bridge Julien . The road leads our research for the characteristic great beauties of the region , from the natural ones like the ocher land of Rustrel to the boroughs of Gordes , Bonnieux and Lacoste , eventually arriving at the lavender fields that absorb the magnificent Cistercian abbey of Senanque , undisputed symbol of these lands .
After Gordes , one of the most beautiful villages in France , we arrive from the winding road that runs around the mountain and the
TRAVERSE 117