Our next destination on the cruise itinerary was Marseille, France. We opted to take an excursion that went to 3 small villages in the Luberon Provence region of France as well as touring a lavender essential oil factory.
Even though this meant quite a bit of bus time, it was well worth it. These villages are beyond charming and it felt like being on a movie set! Each one was more delightful than the next. To get an idea of how lovely these 17 villages are throughout the Luberon region of Provence, check out this brief overview of each village: https://www.theluberon.com/journal/the-best-villages-of-the-luberon.
These villages provided a great cultural experience. We found most of the shop owners and residents friendly to and accommdating of the influx of touists to their quaint and idyllic villages.
None of these villages were constructed to have tour buses descending upon them. In fact, there were quite a few hair-raising moments navigating the impossibly narrow streets of these cliff dwelling villages. One woman instictively screamed in fear nearly scaring our bus driver, Frederick, to death while he seemingly did the improbable manuevering of our bus. Frederick, deservedly received applause from us numerous times for his expertise and quite possibly magic he was performing behind the wheel.
In between the villages, we were able to experience the beautiful French countryside with its abundance of poppy fields – It was all so picturesque everywhere you looked.
Our last stop of the day was to Le Chateau Du Bois, which is a fine lavender farm and factory making essential oil and various products from the fine lavender that only grows in this region of the world. (https://www.lechateaudubois.fr/en).
The presentation and tour were both very interesting. In the presentation, our guide shared how healing this fine lavender is so when we had a chance to peruse the gift shop, I bought several souvenirs containing the essential oil, as well as a small bottle of the essential oil itself. I can attest it actually cleared up something on my skin within a day or two that wasn’t responding to a medicinal cream – I highly recommend their products – the scent and the quality of the essential oil properties are outstanding.
The bus ride to and from Marseille and the Luberon region was under 2 hours each way which makes for an all day excursion.
The opportunity to see these charming quintessential French villages and to learn about the fine lavender, unique only to this area, made for an incredible day.
We agreed we were two for two on picking excellent excursions with Royal Caribbean thus far – We were having the cultural experience we were hoping to have all while being immersed in scenic beauty.
Our next day would bring us to Italy – pretty much everyone in our group’s favorite country – Ciao for now!
Thoughtful Travels 