On our Southern adventures we picked Roussillon as our base town to spend three nights. Roussillon is located right in the middle of Luberon National Park, the Levander center of France. That red marker shows where we were.
Roussillon is a typical charming provincial town. It's famous for its laid back atmosphere in the hills of the Luberon as well as magnificent red cliffs of ochre. Ochre is a natural dye that has been used since the prehistoric times. Until the 19th century, 17 different shades of ochre have bene quarried here in Roussillon and exported all over the world. The area has a nickname "Colorado Provancal".
It was almost surreal to be right in the center of this cozy village, then cross the street and see these cliffs.
This was on our first night in Roussillon. We ate at a recommended restaurant that evening, with a beautiful view and pretty good food. But of course, enjoying the view, we forgot to take pictures.
Here kind of a partial view of the central pedestrian street that leads to the popular town square.
And the view of the surrounding area and the red ochre from the 19th century church balcony in the evening.
Beautiful and relaxing! Except I am still always anxious one of the kids will fall off.
On our second night in Roussillon, we saw a lot of signs like that: "Service ends at 20:30". It was because France was playing Iceland in the Euro 2016 Quater-finals. It was a HUGE deal! On the side note, isn't it what you imagine a typical French cafe entrance to look like with flowers and a bike and all?
I don't remember exactly where we ate dinner, but we made sure that by 8:30 that night we were seated at the main square with dozens of other football fans to watch the match. We ordered some frites and enjoyed this warm evening.
Unfortunately, France was winning overwhelmingly (which was kind of expected:) and we were rooting for Iceland (very quietly). It was painful to watch all the French be so excited about each goal they scored, so we headed home after the first half of the match and watched the rest there.
Before I finish, here is a glimpse at what it was like in that square, and that is even before the game started. It was so fun to be part of it and feel of the exciting French atmosphere in the air!
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