Vaison la Romaine is a cute little town in the northern part of the Provence. As the name indicates, Romans already lived here for quite a while. Their traces can be found back in a park-like museum and other digs near the town center. 

In the early Middle Ages, Vaison was...

Vaison la Romaine is a cute little town in the northern part of the Provence. As the name indicates, Romans already lived here for quite a while. Their traces can be found back in a park-like museum and other digs near the town center. 

In the early Middle Ages, Vaison was the capital of the lords of Provence who where also counts of Toulouse. As supporters of the Cathar version of Catholicism, they were chased off their properties during the crusades against those heretics. Toulouse came under the French crown, the Provence later became Rome's property after the row between the pope and the German emperor. The lord's castle is still prominently present on a rock above the city. It is worth a visit.

In summer (only?) there is the weekly, very colourful and aromatic market with local produce of all kind.

When you are there, climbing Mont Ventoux is very worthwhile, by car or bicycle. I preferred the first. Do it on a clear day and you can see for miles and miles and miles. In 1336, Petrarca did it on foot and wrote a nice introspective piece of prose on the subject. It is considered the turning point between the Dark Ages and Humanism and Renaissance.

This content is licenced under a creative commons Attribution-ShareAlike 1.0 licence and has been copied from World66.com.