Hi everyone,
I need help trying to decide if I%26#39;ve lost my mind. My husband and I will have four and one-half days to cover Provence in early June. I want to spend Saturday in the Luberon. We are staying in St. Remy, so we will drive up to Carpentras for the morning market, then on to Abbeye de Senanque, Gordes, Rouissilon, and Apt. Vancluse is also on the list. Have I lost my mind thinking we can cover all this in a (long) day?
Thanks.
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Okay, so now that I%26#39;ve cleared my head a little, I see in my book that the area including these towns is called Vancluse, so forget that comment about also wanting to see Vancluse. Duh! Anyway, is this doable in one day? What about adding (yikes!) L%26quot;Isle Sur-la Sorgue?!?!
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Too much! When we were there (and we were staying in the Luberon), we went to the market at L%26#39;Isle sur la Sorgue Sunday morning; had a picnic along the side of the road looking up at Gordes; then visited Gordes. Another day, we visited Oppede le Vieux in the morning and then Rouissillon in the afternoon, having lunch there. We had long, full days. Don%26#39;t run through the Luberon. Take time to enjoy it. It is so beautiful.
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These itinerary questions are always hard to answer - it depends what sort of traveller you are, and what interests you.
For an indication of times, I%26#39;ve just checked my Michelin guide for Sénanque and it suggests allowing 1 hour for the tour of the abbey, and for Roussillon, it%26#39;s 3/4 hour for the walk round the quarries (we were there for longer). For Gordes, it just recommends a viewpoint on the approach road, but you would probably want to park and explore a bit. Add in some time for food and an occasional drink, plus the driving time between locations (viamichelin.com), plus finding a car park each time and walking to the attraction itself, and your day is whittled away.
I don%26#39;t know Apt, and only know l%26#39;Isle-sur-la-Sorgue as a very pretty town where we%26#39;ve stopped for a stroll and some photos.
It%26#39;s back to personal interests and whether you want to spend an hour in an abbey or just breeze round and out ... and personally again, you may want to spend the whole morning at the market, whereas I%26#39;m not a fan and would skip it completely, in favour of a long lunch somewhere ;-)
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Since you only have 4.5 days to %26quot;cover Provence%26quot; this June and therefore cannot have any wasted moments you need to know that the Carpentras Market is held on Friday, not Saturday.
If you want to %26quot;do%26quot; a Saturday Market and check out the Luberon you should probably start your day at the Market in Apt. It is a wonderful Market and will at least have you heading in the general direction of the other sites that yoiu have listed. It does seem to me that you are trying to stuff way too much into this one day. You might want to consider leaving the Market and visiting the Abbeye de Senanque after lunching in Roussillon (possibly overlooking the quarry) or in Gordes - I absolutely wouldn%26#39;t recommend that you try to do both since there%26#39;s too much to do and appreciate in the allocated time.
Whatever else you do, make sure to save Sunday AM for the Market in Isle-sur-la-Sorgue
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You can certainly cover that territory easily in one day, as the distances are not great. However, if you want to stop and look around, that is a lot to cover. Skip Carpentras market and catch the market in St-Remy before you leave. If you plan on going to L%26#39;isle-sur-la-Sorgue for the antiques market on Saturday, that will take several hours, so you may want to skip that. The Abbey will take at least an hour. You can do a drive by or drive through of Gordes. If you stop you have remote parking to deal with and walking time to the town center. Then take the back road to Rouissilon. Rouissilon is a must to stop and walk around. You can%26#39;t really get a feel for the town with a drive by. It%26#39;s a beautiful little town, so you really need to stop, have lunch or some lavendar ice cream. Apt is not very scenic so you really don%26#39;t need to go all the way there. Just outside of Apt is a great store that has all the candied fruits that Apt is famous for. They make great gifts to bring home. After that, turnaround and head back, with drive throughs of Bonnieux, La Coste and Menerbes on the road through the mountains (not the main road at the bottom of the valley). Stop for a beer at Opede-le-Vieux, and take a hike up to the church at the top of the ruined village.
We spent two weeks in Menerbes in 2004 and explored the area intensively. You will love it.
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Oops! Sorry the antique market in L%26#39;Isle-Sur-la-Sorgue is Sunday, not Saturday.
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triplog,
Thanks for the information. I felt we could do it in one day (we are failry aggressive travellers). If we go on Friday, as AlpillesGal suggests for the Carpentras market, we will do the market then head to the Abbeye, drive through Gordes, stop in Rousillion, then head to LaCoste and the others you mentioned on our way back to St. Remy. I think it%26#39;s doable since they are all so close together. Question - should we just skip the market altogether? We cannot make it to the Ile sur la Sorgue market on Sunday, so the only market we will see will be St. Remy on Wednesday. That is why I picked the Carpentras market - we love markets!
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Just FYI, the Carpentras Friday market is an exceptional market.
Don%26#39;t want to interrupt your traveling plans, but it really is a great market.
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Thanks toutou. That%26#39;s what I wanted tohear to help me know that going to that market will not be a waste of time. It%26#39;s now on the list %26quot;To Do%26quot; that Friday before heading to the other villages.
How long will the drive between St. Remy and Carpentras be?
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I would plan on 45 minutes to an hour. It really just depends on how many caravans you get behind to slow you down. June shouldn%26#39;t be too bad. You can probably do it in less, but traffic will be the issue.
Also, parking in Carpentras on market day can be tough. There is a large parking lot located off the main circle that runs around the city. It is one of the few lots that is not affected by the market itself. There are signs, but they can be easy to miss. The lot is down at the bottom of a hill and is quite large. If you miss it going around the circle, just go around again and keep looking to your right for the parking signs; then turn right when you see them.
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