St-Saturnin-lés-Apt

Yesterday at Les Baux they had an aerial video of ruins in the Provence region. We were pleased to see that we’d been to most everywhere they featured, but one that we hadn’t (although it was on our list) was St-Saturnin-lés-Apt. Having made no other plans for the morning, we set out to cross it off out list.

The chapel is all that is left of the ruins of a castle that covered another flat bit of hill with drop-offs on either side that this area seems to have so many of. The village nestles up to the base of the rock. I really enjoyed the church—it had a neat rostrum among other things. We walked through the town, past the castle ruins and up to the chapel (which is closed). The olives are ripening on the trees in the area, turning a lovely purple color on their way from green to black. On the way back down, we walked across the dam to the next little ridge and down to the old windmills. One was open so you could look up and see the gears and mechanics inside the building.

This dog really wanted to be friends - it looks like a tan French version of Kira!

Can you see the little black dog head peeking out of the foliage?

Mom had a few things she wanted to get in Apt, so we stopped there on our way home. Unfortunately it was noon, so shops were closing right and left, leaving the streets empty except for people hurrying home or sitting in cafes. The French take their two-hour lunch breaks seriously, and I am almost surprised that the waiters aren’t off at noon for their lunch as well! A city in the daylight with empty streets gives an odd feeling of emptiness, which is aided by the plane trees in town that have been trimmed for winter, leaving their bare knobby knuckles reaching for the sky. We left the city to its noontime rest and headed home for some lunch ourselves.