Vaucluse Field Trip

Our first class field trip was an excursion to the Vaucluse region, north of Provence, on 1 July. There we visited and discussed the medieval hill towns of Bonnieux, Lacoste, and Gordes, walked into a large borie, and closed up with a tour of the Cistercian abbey of Sénanque.

Bonnieux

• The entrance to the town.
• The road on our way in.
• Everyone walking on that road.
• A four-photo panorama looking down at most of Bonnieux.
• A close-up of the church down the hill, with which I became mildly obsessed.
• The rest of my group took pictures too.
• A nice-looking window.
• Another Bonnieux street.
• A really spiffy medieval wall.
• I finally got down to the beautiful little church.
• And inside it.
• The vicarage outside was quite pretty, too.
• Up the steps to the Vielle Église du Haut, the oldest building in town, where we stopped to discuss whether medieval cities are "art."
• We head down the hill to leave.

Lacoste

• Lacoste: where the medieval meets the modern.
• We make our way up the streets of the town.
• Joanne stands on a wall.
• The bell tower of the town church.
• An archway.
• An interesting old building.
• Some beautiful flowers sat in front of one residence.
• The view up from a certain alley.
• La boulangerie.
• I love this door!
• The pathway up to the knoll in front of the Château du Sade.
• The remnants of the château, ancestral home of the Marquis de Sade until the French Revolution.
• We partake of lunch in the shadow of the Château du Sade, overlooking the valley beneath Lacoste.
• Our Tennessee delegation.
• The aforementioned Southern belles, along with Gloria and Helen.
• An old door marked "Privée."
• The abandoned ruins.
• The not-so-abandoned ruins. Jason discovered an echo inside.
• A bed of rather pretty thistles.

Le Borie

The bories are enigmatic stone structures dotted around the south of France. Although they only date back to the 17th century, their design goes back as far as the Neolithic era, and their original use is presently unknown. They may have been dwellings or storehouses for hunters.

• If you've watched the movie "Gladiator," you'll get what Jason is doing here.
• A borie seen through the trees.
• Michelle and Tori enter the borie.
• A view up through the vent at the top.
• We tramp back through the woods.
• ...And wait for the bus.

Gordes

Gordes is a beautiful medieval hill town, which we stopped by on the way to Sénanque.

• A two-picture panorama of the city.
• A vertical view from the cliff overlooking the town.
• The valley below.
• Laura, Jana and Brooke.
• Jason and Sarah.

Sénanque

Sénanque is a Cistercian abbey, which meant that it was designed with purity and simplicity of form— which also made for unbelievably good acoustics. Singing was the one pleasure afforded the monks, who were otherwise bound to vows of silence. The abbey is also famous for its magnificent lavender fields.

• On our way into the valley, we had to make another tour bus back down the narrow road before we could pass.
• L'Abbaye Cistercienne de Notre Dame de Sénanque.
• A closer direct shot.
• A frontal 3/4 view of the abbey.
• Another closer view thereof.
• Lavender from an angle.
• Lavender straight on.
• The window in the main hall.
• Michelle walks through the chapel, which used to serve as the monks' dormitory. No mortar was used to build it, and the ceiling is all brick.
• A two-picture composite of the vaulted ceiling.
• A shaft of light from a window illuminates the hall.
• The one room where speech was allowed was mainly used for reprimands and abbey business.
• The only figurative sculpture is this one of Satan, meant to remind monks of the consequences of sin.
• The abbey's simple cloister.
• The courtyard surrounded by that cloister.
• Sitting in the corner is a very ancient form of punishment. Naughty monks had to go here.
• Upstairs, we found an exhibit about the Shroud of Turin.