The Tour of Sarrasine and The Dentelles of Montmirail

This post wraps up our short vacation in Southern France, mostly Gard and Vaucluse departments. This hike traveled in Gigondas, that is a French wine Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC) in Southern Rhône wine region, producing mainly red wine and little rosé. The name of the appellation is of Roman origin; Jocunditas means great pleasure and enjoyment in Latin, and the town was founded as a recreational site for the soldiers of the Roman empire (info from Wikipedia).

This hike passed by a couple of attractions, which we did not pay a closer visit to. The first one were the ruins of a medieval tower that used to be a guardhouse. We saw a couple of mountain bikers carrying their bikes up to the tower (our hiking trail was also a popular mountain biking route). The other attraction was the small chain of mountains (eight kilometers long), Les Dentelles de Montmirail, at the foothill of the Mont Ventoux, the highest peak in Provence (‘dentelles’ means lace in French).

Villeperdrix

Then it was time to go home. On our drive back we made two short pauses, first to visit the village of Villeperdrix and then to have lunch at a picnic area by the river Aigues. It is hard to deny that our vacation week was well chosen: it rained the week before, and it has rained most of the days this week, too. Except the days when we were driving, there really weren’t any clouds blocking the sun.