Rians, Barjoles, Cotignac

We are South of the Luberon now and we see wild rosemary and thyme, bright lime euphorbia, grape hyacinths and mallow. In gardens Iris and Wisteria, Japonica in full bloom.  No more cowslips and wild daffodils or violets that lined the hedgebanks of Northern France.

Village houses are tall and tightly packed in curving streets round the church.  A surprising number are vibrant and have shop doors thrown open abd tourists wandering the streets even in mid April.

Rians below was an exception, probably because there is a 24 hour Carrefour Contact just below the town and clusters of new houses around it.

Breakfast room L'Esplanafe, Rians

From Rians Church

View from Rians

At Barjols the landscape and the atmosphere changed.  Prosperous villas with pools, cyprus trees and umbrella pines along with the holm oaks. Hillsides are green not stony and scrubby as in Bouches de Rhone to the North Pertus to Rians.

Barjols Fountain circa 1900

Barjoles

Arriving Cotignac

Cotignac Troglodite dwellings

By the time we got to Cotigny we felt we had arrived in the prosperous South and at breakfast met a couple from Stockholm who, just that day were receiving the keys to a house they had bought there.  Just a few hours flight from Stockholm to Nice.

View from Cotignac South

Cotignac Bell Tower Cage found from Lauzir in Luberon through Rians and down to here in Southern Provence.