Shortly after leaving Vaison la Romaine and branching off towards Sault, we discovered that traveling through the foothills surrounding the ever-present Ventoux did not mean a flat drive.
Our route took us through many ancient villages perched at the heights of everything around them. Entrechaux, shown above, was the first of these.
After winding further around the summit, we discovered Reilhanette, shown below. We came upon it just before we made our first stop at the Plus Beaux Village of Montbrun les Bains.
We had a nice stroll up to the chateau at the top of the village. This chateau is still a ruin, but is now under serious renovation. I’m guessing it’s to be a private residence, but time will tell.
This charming village, like many of those before it, had many photogenic alleys and corners. In one cobble-stoned lane, we noted a scooter sitting against the wall. This has got to be a tough place to learn to ride a scooter!
Following Montbrun, we continued on towards Sault and made a lunch stop at a roadside restaurant in Aurel. This might be the only restaurant in Aurel. A blue and white plastic tent for protection from the sun covered the restaurant.
Dawn had an amazing salad with chunks of terrine, tomatoes, grapes, olives, apples and lettuce. I had the 16 Euro three-course menu which started with a terrine salad, followed by pork tenderloin, petit epautre and risotto. We shared my apple tarte dessert much to the glee of the waitress who presented the dessert to Dawn and presented me with a spoon. The photo below shows the village of Aurel with our restaurant peaking out in the bottom left corner.
Our drive to Sault continued on the edge of a cliff that overlooked the valley east of Ventoux.
Sault came and went quickly and before we knew it we were zipping through the lavender fields towards Carpentras. This is a much better road, so we made pretty good time and quickly by-passed Carpentras, stopped in Sarrians for fuel and stopped again in Orange for some “looky” shopping. Having already shipped one box back I’m pretty sure we shouldn’t be adding to our load.
On the spur of the moment we headed out for dinner this evening to the Coteaux & Fourchette with Jim & Lynda Gardner. They were packed up and felt a last night out was in order, despite their 2:30 a.m. start tomorrow for Marseilles.
This was our second visit to this restaurant, our first being at lunch. They have a Coteaux and a Fourchette menu. That, by the way is a play on words en francais. It is not knives and forks, but rather hills and forks.
We all opted for the Coteaux menu. I started with a foie gras pate, while Jim & Dawn had a squash soup with scallops and Lynda had a rabbit starter. Mains were the same for all of us, lamb shoulder on risotto. Three of us had chocolate molten cakes with fruit innards, while Lynda had a grapefruit gratin. With a bottle of Seguret rose and a bottle of Domaine Alary Cairanne red, our bills were in the hundred bucks per couple range. Given the excellent service and pleasant ambience, I think everyone agreed that we had extremely good value for our money. And, needless to say, a good time was had by all!
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