On our way back from Arles, we took the ‘blue roads’ in a northeasterly arc through St. Remy, Menerbes, Lacoste, Bonnieux and Lourmarin to Aix-en-Provence, before getting back on the freeway. The weather went from sunny to blustery rain and back to sunny within the time frame of this drive. We also noticed that this part of Provence shows more Fall colors than the area around Grimaud and the Maures mountains, which is primarily oak, cork oak and pine tree habitat – all evergreens.

The road out of St Remy lined with Plane trees. This is the start of our day’s trip

The view from the ‘perched’ town of Menerbes. We drove the car right to the top of the old town and had lunch inside our car as a rain squall hit while we were

The town of Lacoste. The chateau once belonged to the Marquis de Sade. We took pics under cloud cover, then waited 15 minutes for the dark clouds of the

Lacoste

View across the valley from Lacoste to Bonnieux.