Butler Adventures in Provence: November 2007

We Americans--proud of our Rocky, Smoky and Sierra Nevada Mountain ranges--pay little attention to the great mountains of Europe. Who among you can name any mountains in France, for example? Well, let the humbled and astonished Butlers add the Luberon Mountains to your list of places to visit on your next Continental jaunt. Visit Provence with its sunny villages and cheery lifestyle, but add in the Luberon for sheer cliffs, ancient roads, prehistoric forts, villages perches, s and that serene feeling of space and solitude that if you don't need you should stay on your beltway with your Starbucks coffee mug clenched in one hand and your cell phone in the other.

In late October, as the following photos will testify, we arrived at the estate of Bernard and Mathilde Roussel where we breathed fresh mountain air, hosted our Canadian friends the Sustronks from Toronto and the Dupuys from Aix, savored local vin rouge, cheeses and daube (imagine a beef stew prepared and pampered over several days), and walked along roads built and traveled on by Roman legions. There was Halloween of course, with a campfire, painted faces, and a night sky with the appropriate moon for ghost stories. There were horses, puppies and hangovers, and a deep sense of gratitude for a country, its people and its history.