holy crap. Gordes is awesome.

This morning, we dragged our sorry jet lagged carcasses out of bed in Nice, had a great breakfast at our hotel (Hotel Star - totally recommend it for the budget traveller). Then we wandered our way through vieux Nice to the car rental location. It was really nostalgic for us, as we were revisiting many of the places we saw and remembered from our honeymoon in 2006. Very cool.

It was a little hairy getting out of Nice as the roads are a bit of a maze, and our supposed GPS was not working at all (it would work long enough to 'reroute' us and then shut down...soooo not helpful). Anyway, through grit, determination, and no small amount of foul language, we managed to get ourselves on the A8 and en route to Gordes.

The trip to Gordes was relatively uneventful, but the arrival was fabulous. Brad has been basically counting down the arrival to Cinque Terre and had essentially dismissed the provencal portion of our trip.



Arriving in Gordes stopped him short, however. The spectacular vista over the Luberon, and the panoramic view of the Gordes' hilltop is enough to impress even the most blase traveller. It is so incredible to see homes built right into the hill top, and remparts and rows of houses clinging to a medieval fortress. Very cool. I'm going to try to upload one photo, but I have so many others that I can't wait to share.

Once we arrived to our hotel (the Domaine de L'Enclos), we checked in, wandered through the fabulous grounds (with the proprietaire pointing out fig, olive and almond trees on the way in). We then wandered to the old city, meandering through near-vertical cobblestone streets, and enjoying cliff top patio beers (including two daily memberships to the Cercle de la Republique) and enjoyed a phenomenal provencal feast at Le Clos de Gustave. I'm so full. And I'm feeling a food coma coming on.

Hope you enjoy the photo. Wish I could share more, because this is some of the most incredible scenery I've ever seen.

-Leslie