L'Isle Sur La Sorgue & Fontaine de Vaucluse- 6th July 2014

I had my doubts about taking a bus in France on a Sunday.  Previously about a month ago I found out what it was really like to arrive in France from Spain on a Sunday & in the middle of a train strike. Not great as you can imagine!  How pleasantly surprised I was to take three buses on a Sunday in the Luberon area of Provence to find they actually arrived & left pretty much on time!
There was only once chance to get to the famous Sunday market in

L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

!  How grateful I was to actually get there & spend nearly five hours wandering around this town that was one big market with stalls selling anything from antiques to fruit & vegetables.  Obviously I could not resist some of the clothing stalls & bought myself some bargains - a dress & top for 10 euros each! Not only was this market a unique experience with the whole town getting involved but the location bordered by the wonderful fresh water river La Sorgue was a delight - picture postcard perfect!
Then in the afternoon I caught the bus to

Fontaine-de-Vaucluse - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

.  A much smaller town but it was dominated by the most amazing mountains with imposing escarpments that literally seemed to soar out of nowhere plus, another free flowing river that was emerald in colour!  What a fantastic day!

Aigues Mortes - 2nd July 2014

This afternoon I joined a group tour to the ancient walled city of Aigues Mortes about a 35 minute drive from Montpellier.  How amazing to think that it's beginnings go back to the 13th century & was continually worked on until the 17th century!  After visiting the main tower which used to house prisoners I decided to leave the group & walk around the surrounding ramparts of the city.  The reason for my escape was the thought of spending another three hours with twenty five excitable
16 year old girls!  Just half an hour on the bus with them was enough!
The walk around the walls was wonderful with a bird's eye view of how the locals live.  From different vantage points you could see the countryside, canals or the salt marsh lake with it's pinkish coloured water.

After my walk I treated myself to a delicious ice-cream  sitting in the shade.  It suddenly occurred to me that I hadn't seen the group for a while so I walked to where I thought was the designated spot to meet the bus.  Obviously I was wrong either with my timing or meeting point.  What was I to do now? I walked across the street to an upmarket real estate agent & in my school girl French told them how I had lost my group & needed to catch either a bus or train back to Montpellier!  One of the agents escorted me around the corner & told me that there would be a bus shortly.  Miracles do happen & twenty minutes later I was on my way to Montpellier.
Motto of this story is - don't panic!  Things always have a way of working out!

Montpellier - 1st July 2014

I have been in Montpellier for just over two weeks trying to learn French at LSF language school.  It is only now that I am getting into the rhythm of things & tonight went out with some of my fellow students to a wonderful restaurant called www.lesenfantsrouges.fr

 for a tapis night.  When you think it couldn't get better than that, off we went for a three minute walk to a free jazz concert in front of the St. Anne church!  Hardly a tourist to be found & the spontaneity of the people listening was palpable with mother & young daughter dancing & a gorgeous couple jiving to the up tempo music!  I couldn't sit down either!