Holiday – Day 17 Olives, olives and more olives

Today we decided to explore Nyons, which is about 10 miles from our cottage. It is reputedly the centre for olive growing in the region. We had no great hopes as it is outside the area of our Provencal guidebooks. It was only a short drive and relatively easy to park. Once again there was no payment for parking relatively close to the town centre, English towns take note.

As we had no guide we headed straight for the modern tourist office where a helpful lady explained the layout of the town. (Note to the English Tourist Board, even the smallest town has a wonderfully equipped and informative tourist information centre). We were quickly in a square that had an arcade on all four sides out of which sprouted shops and cafes. It was a smaller version of the piazzas/plazas that we had found in Italy and Spain. We had a swift reviving coffee, before heading up into the medieval town. This was a maze of small streets, no they were more like alleys that climbed to a religious shrine and a Calvary. From the top there was a wonderful view over the whole town and valley. It was great as there were very few people, and the contrast with the modern town against which this part sat was incredible.

The shops in Nyons are of course full of all things olive, oil, soap, tapenade etc. There is even a building that claims to be the World Centre for Olive Research. I expect that there is even an Olive Professor. A lovely town to which we might return.

We drove out past the Roman bridge spanning the river valley, still passable by cars so I expect that it has been modified somewhat since Roman times. Today we had made our own picnic and were fortunate to find a quiet spot by a fast flowing river to eat it.

We then drove through spectacular scenery, first onto an upland plateau that was rich in agriculture, and then as we climbed the pass we could look down on it as if it was a bowl. Then as we crested the pass we had the most wonderful view of Mount Ventoux framed by the surrounding hills. It was then back to the cottage for a cooling and reviving swim. Then we spent the evening eating and drinking in the square of the village. We walked home admiring the golden sunset over the Rhone valley. A lovely day.