Close to my first Provençal home last week, I decided to pay a visit to my old friends at the hotel Crillon le Brave, where I worked as a receptionist for two years. I had forgotten just how much I had fallen in love with the countryside here, at the foot of Mont Ventoux: tiny hilltop villages, views extending to the far reaches of the plains of the Rhône Valley, surrounded by a sea of vines with patches of olive groves and cherry orchards, and of course views of the other villages that dot the landscape. This is without a doubt my favourite little corner of Provence: a little corner I'd like to call home one day...
On this particular day, the skies were threatening their worst above Ventoux -- set just behind the village of Crillon -- while the village itself bathed in a few timid rays of sunlight...