The Lovely Town of Apt, in Provence

From our hill-top village of Saignon we enjoyed walking down to the town (Apt) on a centuries-old path, through old olive groves with ancient stone walls. The walk back up was not quite so enjoyable, especially not with a load of groceries!

Apt has a population of about 11,000. The old section is a lovely maze of narrow streets, with many stores.

A boulangerie (bakery), which was as beautiful on the outside as it was on the inside.

The wonderful chicken below was made out of twigs. I am pleased to say that I can read the sign, which asks us not to touch it as it is fragile. I am (now) so glad that I had to take French in school. It sure made it easier to be in France, especially when not that many people there speak English.

Provence is famous for it textile patterns and colours.

Unless you walked into the very back of the store below, you wouldn't know what a beautiful experience was to be had there!! I tried many times to capture the beauty of the coloured liquid in these huge jars, but the fact that they were backlit made them difficult to capture with a photograph, but it was that very light which made them so beautiful to see in person.

The jars above contain shower gel, in many different fragrances. Below is liqueur, which really looked a lot better than this pic shows. The jars are about 20 litres (4-5 gallons). This was our favourite store in Apt.

The last trip to France I regretted not getting a pic of a lady carrying a baguette. It is difficult to get a good shot as the person carrying them is often in a hurry. This lady had stopped to chat with a friend. I have a feeling she knew I was taking her picture. Can you see my reflection of the glass? She must have been puzzled....

One thing I try to remember to do is to look up. There are so many interesting features on buildings. If you enlarge the picture below can you see why I took this shot?