One of our favorite sources when planning a trip is tripadvisor.com. There you can read reviews and suggestions on all sorts of places around the world, and often other travelers offer fabulous ideas for off-the-beaten-path options. It was there that I read about France’s “perched villages.” In Provence there are all sorts of these little medieval villages that sit compacted on the top of hills. As these villages are literally off the beaten path , they required us to rent a car.
Tom loving our rental: a Beamer! Who would have thought a BMW would be the vehicle provided when you asked for an automatic!
Tom was very nervous about driving in Europe. Europeans aren’t known for obeying rules, they are much more aggressive drivers, and we were in France where he doesn’t know the language at all. Luckily, as long as I was equipped with a good Michelin map and he was cautious in the hundreds of French roundabouts we did just fine. It is definitely the way to see southern France. I just loved driving through the countryside of vineyards, olive groves, and fields of lavender or sunflowers. Hopefully some of these pictures capture the beauty we witnessed and the serenity we felt. As this was one of the more picturesque parts of our trip, I’m including lots of pictures. So hang in there!
One of the many vined archways.
“And a grecian urn. . . trickle, trickle, trickle.” – Music Man
Tom in the chapel atop Poet-laval.
Our typical lunch fare: fresh bread, cheese- in this case Gruyere, and a piece of fruit. 
Poet-Laval was a protestant enclave during the religious wars. We visited a very old protestant temple here as well. The chateau/castle atop this hill was very well preserved and contained a keep encircled by this walled walkway which overlooks completely beauty! 
Interesting architecture and a handsome man.
Lots of window boxes filled with hanging geraniums. You can guess what will be filling my window boxes next summer!
Grignan
We arrived in Grignan later in the evening and enjoyed a tremendous sunset from the top of the hill. It was interesting to see how each of these perched villages had taken on its own character. Grignan was very upscale. It seemed closed off and cold, in comparison with the warm and colorful Vaison de la Romaine, and the just recently reviving Poet-laval. Mirimande was still practically a ghost town. 
We stayed overnight at this farm in Grignan. Rooms such as these are known as a chambre d’hote- but function basically like a bed and breakfast. It turned out to be quite the experience. I had made all the reservations via e-mail in french. We had printed out the directions, but realized only the day of that they only got us to the town of Grignan, not to that actual farm. Fortunately, the tourist office building was open, even though the office was closed. Tom bravely reached over the counter and grabbed their phone- much to the chagrin of a young attendant who was overseeing the exhibit upstairs- and we were able to call the farm. However, the woman spoke only french. For the first time in my life I held a conversation completely in French on the phone- without hand motions, facial expressions, or bits of English. It was a scary but invigorating experience. We found the farm and were enchanted by its ancient beauty. 
The room where we had breakfast.
Nyon
We came upon this Medieval festival by accident, but thoroughly enjoyed seeing the ancient buildings joined by historic costumes and dance.
After trying several cheeses, this is where we bought our Gruyere cheese. Yum!
Vaison de la Romaine
Roman ruins
You guess- Roman toilets.
Gorgeous little garden- these were everywhere here. This was definitely my favorite perched village. It was so very lived in and loved, and nearly every window donned a window box full of flowers. The shutters were all bright and colorful. Fountains ran decoratively everywhere adding the sound of shimmering water. 
Tom looking triumphant!
Dream house
Sporting the prego bust and belly amidst beauty-I loved these green shutters.
Look at that vine, and notice the clover window.
Visiting these villages was a great workout as all the streets run uphill and there are tons of stairs. Each also offers a gorgeous view of the surrounding valleys. Spending several days in communities of this age, really made me consider how silly it is to think my house is “old.” Cracked plaster and peeling brick adds character! It was why I had a little sick feeling when I covered up our art deco tile job in our master bathroom this weekend. Replacing it with more contemporary 18×18″ ceramic tiles. There is much more of a “fix up and make do” mentality in areas such as these. Age is valued and respected whether in buildings or people. The elderly play an important role in society here. There is also a great emphasis on gr
owing things. Few people have yards, but seemingly all have window boxes, or if they’re lucky little potted patio gardens where they make the most of their small space. Why do so many of us in America always want more? Bigger houses, bigger cars, bigger yards?
4 responses to “Perched Villages”
Beautiful! Keep em coming!
So, regarding aggressive European drivers, I recently read something that made sense. They drive so fast (and seemingly recklessly) because they see driving as an activity in and of itself. As Americans, we eat on the go, we talk on the go, sometimes we text on the go. Europeans don’t just view the drive as a way to get somewhere, and they don’t multi-task during driving nearly as much as Americans do, so they are better able to focus on the driving, which makes them safe drivers, albeit fast.
I am loving seeing pictures and reading about your trip! It looks like you saw some amazing things and got to do so much. If we ever get to Europe we will have to take you and Tom as our tour guides!
Janelle,
What a funny point. It totally makes sense though! Despite the seemingly lack of adherence to rules, I didn’t see any car crashes. Europeans definitely seem to focus more on doing and enjoying one thing at at time. One morning as Tom and I were rushing through the train stations scarfing down our croissants I noticed that no one else was eating anything, nor had I seen anyone eating in the train station before. How can you truly enjoy your croissant if your running through a dirty train station- forget it!