Luberon

Provence, or more specifically the Luberon Valley. As it seems the quintessentially French experience for the English, and not really having visited the area in any great detail, we thought it was high time for a weekend away somewhere slighly more stylish than crashing on a friends floor in the Alps, or camping on North Yorkshire hilltops in bleak storms.
We checked out the Chambre D'Hote website, which is basically a list of upmarket B&B's and found quite a nice little place to stay in Lacoste, which is a little village, perched underneath the Chateau formerly owned by the Marquis De Sade, and now owned by Pierre Cardin.....(I think he makes boxer shorts)
A couple of days of touring round the Luberon Villages, Great rustique Provencal food, Wine tasting at Chateau De L'Isolette (Struck lucky there!) and a bit of a mission to find the Lavender fields of Valensole made for a Great weekend. One of the main missions of the trip was to hunt down the Lavender fields for some photos. Unfortunately we were a little early to catch them in full bloom, but still managed to fire off a couple of shots. As we are going to Corsica next week, we shall miss the Lavender blooms, but perhaps might make it to Grasse, which is much nearer, as they have some fields around there.
The trip back to Sospel took us through the Gorges Du Verdon which was some of the most stunning scenery I have seen in some while, despite being spoiled somewhat by what seemed like an endless trail of out of town French Camper-Vans (rapidly moving up the charts in my most detested)
Photos of the Gorges will appear in due course. But time is drawing in, and I have some tent business to deal with in the morning in the form of putting up Marquees in the Stadium in Monaco......don't ask!!!