A Journey Through Belle France
Day 4 - Roussillon
Roussillon
Today, we packed up
the bus and said au revoir to our beautiful little Aiguines. As sad as it
was to leave this town, we were all excited to see what lay on the road ahead.
We could not, however, have foreseen the amusing adventure that awaited us in
the next town. Before reaching Roussillon, we had to make a rest stop.
We entered the town, and it tool a while for Francois to find a place to
park. Once the bus was safely stowed we all frantically searched for a
bathroom, but none was to be found. Finally Linda, Elena, and I noticed
Jack and Judy at a little cafe and we went to see if they had any luck in
locating a bathroom. Hallelujah, there was one in the cafe.
However, since it would be rude to use the facilities without being a 
The couleurs de Provence
are witnessed in all their natural splendor in the little hill town of
Roussillon.
Roussillon, le village des ocres, was my most favorite town on the entire
tour. Every town we went to seemed to have beige and white buildings with
bursts of color from the window shutters and the plethora of flowers, but here, the buildings are the same colors as the
ochre.
An entire town of reds, oranges, and yellows, an unparalled palette of infinite
flamboyant colors, just like a perpetual sunset. Ooo, that's poetic! 
Do you see what this town does to me? Once we arrived in town, we settled into our hotel, Reves d'Ocres, which is a charming, rustic hotel. We unloaded the bus and then headed to Le Bistrot de Roussillon for a group lunch. I had a good feeling about this place as soon as I walked in because it was
customer, we all took turns in the bathroom and then went and purchased some ice cream as a thank you. It was, after all, the least we could do. Well I should mention, that the light in the ladies room did not work. All you had to work with was a faint glow from the men's room next door. In addition, and this in no reflection on the cafe as a whole, the bathroom was not very clean, so you had to be careful what you touched. As I said, most of us used the facilities first, but Judy could just not wait for the ice cream and bought hers right away. She was only about half done when it was her turn in the bathroom. She went and came back and still had her ice cream. We were all very perplexed by this. How did she do it?! Well, I asked her, and instead of trying to explain it, she demonstrated her multi-tasking technique for the camera.
Judy demonstrates her problem solving skills.
That morning, Sabine
had charged us with getting to know our assigned buddy for the buddy
introductions to be held later that day. So, after the bathroom fiasco,
I sat next to my buddy Steve on the remaining ride to Roussillon. Steve
is a really interesting guy, but it is hard to get information out of him
about himself, though he will gladly talk about his wife and his cat all you
want. Steve is a trained psychologist, so every time I would ask him a
question he would respond with a question. Or, once I answered one of
his questions, he would lead me with more questions. He even asked me
"how does that make you feel" once. I tease, but it was a
wonderful talk and so much fun to learn about a person I have so much in
common with. Steve is also an avid book reader and photographer.
On to Roussillon! 
Our hotel - Hotel Reves d'Ocres
Le Bistrot de Roussillon
almost bursting at the seams with people. It looked like a can full of very happy and well fed sardines. I have to say that the food did not disappoint. We had a
wonderful salad, followed by stuffed chicken that was tres divin! We ended the meal with a chocolate dessert that can only be described as orgasmique. I still shudder when I think about how scrumptious that dessert (and the rest of the meal for that matter) was. When you take the spectacular food and add in the spectacular view of the hills below (see picture above), we had one unforgettable culinary experience.
After we recovered
from lunch, Sabine took us on a walk on the Ochre Trail through the pigment
quarry adjacent to the town. I have never see anything quite like
it. It was so colorful and had some great 
Elena (looking for leftovers?) in front of Le Bistrot de Provence.
rock formations that once again reminded me of the Grand Canyon. There was also a steady breeze the entire time (which became a story in and of itself) that caused an orange haze to hover around us throughout the open, unforested areas of the quarry. I guess I was not thinking clearly before we left the hotel because I was wearing a white shirt. By the time we finished our walk, everything on me was orange, including my skin. I should have taken a clue from Sabine's rust colored top that I was going to bring home some of that beautifully colored soil on my clothes. No problem, just one more souvenir and it matches my hair. Of course, everyone in the quarry was covered in orange dirt, particularly the children that we saw running everywhere. They were all orange from head to toe. I sure didn't envy their moms one bit. I cannot imagine trying to clean up a child that has spilled their sippy cup down the front of their clothes and then did a belly slide down a hill of orange dirt.
Sabine shows us the quarry.
The beautiful colors of Provence.
After we exited the quarry, Elena, Linda, and I decided to explore the town before we headed back to the hotel for buddy introductions. This town is so exceptionally beautiful, its hard to describe how enjoyable it was to explore. Everywhere you look you see a perfect picture just waiting to be taken. This town just
Une porte décorée
inspires you. While exploring, we found lots of beautiful doors and windows (a person favorite of mine) as well as the amazingly beautiful garage door shown in the far right picture. A garage door? Really? I know, I had trouble believing it as well, but I was there and stood right in front of it. Imagine what your neighborhood would look like if people were that conscientious of how their garage doors looked.
Leaving no path unexplored.
done at least 500 sit-ups. Not only did my abs get a great workout, but I developed quite an appetite as well. As the group split up for dinner, Donna, Laura, Linda and I decided to go to this great little crepe restaurant. Well, let me rephrase that, the restaurant was
Donna says Oui to crepes.
little, but the crepes were huge. I had a scrumptious trois fromage crepe that I could barely finish, and I never say no to cheese. When the waitress came out to see if we wanted dessert, we were nervous that the dessert crepes would be as large as the dinner crepes, which covered the entire plate. The waitress spoke little English, so we tried our best to communicate in French. Once she understood our question she laughed and assured us that the dessert crepes were petit, so we all decided we could find the strength to polish off some dessert as well. Lucky for us, the waitress was telling the truth, and the dessert crepes turned out to be about half the size of the dinner crepes. Otherwise, we would have had to roll ourselves back to the hotel.
While we waited for our dinners to settle, the four of us sat at our table and talked. It wasn't until the waitress came to tell us that they were closing that we realized how late it was and how long
After lots and lots and lots of photos (and a little shopping, of course) we headed back to the hotel to wash up and regain our natural skin tones before we met the group for buddy introductions. I always enjoy buddy introductions, because you find out lots of fun facts about your travel companions, and there is always at least one person that just makes you laugh until your stomach hurts. Once Jack and Sy finished swooning over one another, I felt like I had
The inspirational beauty of Roussillon.
we had been sitting there. It had turned cold out and there was absolute darkness all around. We thanked the waitress for the wonderful meal, said au revoir and headed back to the hotel . A glorious day, but one day was definitely not enough in this little rust colored town tucked in the hills.