Monday, February 2, 2009

Travel Radar: Fontaine de Vaucluse

Bonjour Everyone!

I cannot believe I have spent a whole week away from the happiness of typing up our blog! You people are my greatest joy! You're the bright red cherry on the sundae of life, the chocolate morsels in the giant cookie of events, and the rainbow sprinkles of every frosted conversation.

In short, if you did not read the blog, there would be no point in writing the blog. Savvy?

That being said, I highly recommend our latest jaunt to anyone who happens to find themselves in our current neck of the woods. Fontaine de Vaucluse was a beautiful place to visit, not only in its physical loveliness, but in all the normal touristy ways. There were several small shops selling the best that Provence had to offer (which primarily means lavender, lavender, lavender), and for all of you less inclined to the brisk walk, the hike was very easy and could be taken at a leisurely pace. Mix in a dashing young fellow to share the experience with, and I really was quite at my ease.

We slowly made our way up, stopping to take in the scenery, snap photos, and coax the local wild life up the rocky banks (although I'm sure I have no earthly idea what I'd do with a duck if I ever caught one).

But just what is Fontaine de Vaucluse? Here's the gist:

This place sports beautiful rapids (you can rent kayaks), and a huge rocky waterfall under the shadows of impressive mountains and elegant castle ruins. Water, water everywhere if you get my. . . drift. But! The source is unknown. We arrived at the top to see clean pools of calm water seeping from under the mountains. It almost looked nice enough to swim in, if it hadn't been for the water suddenly rushing down the ravine at break neck speed. That alone made you realize the quantities of water this mountain is pumping out.

And so my fellow blog readers, what is the secret of the fountain?

A secret, that's what.

"But!" you cry. "We cannot allow this mystery to go undiscovered! Call out the spelunkers, the police, the intellectuals, for heaven's sake call out the philosophers. There must and will be an answer!"

Not this time my friends. We can only ask:

Oh man! Did all the dwarves drown down there? Gimli?

And....

Isn't it hilarious that all those intellectual smart-alecks can't figure this out?

And on a more serious note:

What other secrets do the depths of the world carry?

Do I really want to know? Isn't it more fun to know that there's no explanation?


Perhaps the secret of the fountain is simply not knowing, but trusting.


Up to our necks in liquid reflections,



"To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible." - Thomas Aquinas


P.S. Of course there are pictures!



One happy couple....


I love these castle ruins! It was my favorite sight!



The rocky fall!


Stuart in front of the source. The water is coming out from under these rocks. See how calm it is?

2 comments:

  1. This was fun to read about, even though I already knew some about the mysterious fountain! I LOVE that first picture of you and Stuart - you look so happy and adventurous. Also, that's one spiffy looking backpack Stuart's wearing in that last picture. He's got great taste! *grins*

    Tell me, did you guys scamper about the ruinous castle? We did that in Scotland, I think we went to about 3 castles, all in ruins, and they were magnificently romantic and full of history... Ah, I love Europe. The age of everything is so striking... While America wasn't even populated by our ancestors, Europe was in its thousand year history!

    As always, what a pleasure to read!!!

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  2. Laaaaa!! I love it! We went to an ancient Roman bath in Xanten, Germany and you could walk through all the old canals that the water flowed through 1,000 years ago! Hannah and I pretended that their were dragons lying in wait in the deepest caverns and we explored every cranny of the place. Ruins are the best. So much is left to the imagination!

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