Jonathan Gregoire: Deux Villages Perches

Literally, Two Perched Villages. On day 2 of being in France we took a trip to two different perched villages: St. Paul de Vence and Le Village Medieval. Both of these villages date back to 14th and 15th centuries. They are built into and atop these hills as a means of protection - hence perched. Sitting up so high the "enemy" as it were would be marching up hill, thus proving easy targets, and from inside the fortified city as like most cities in France, the streets are very narrow, meaning invaders could only march two to four across, and sitting atop the hill it made it easier to pick them off as the tried to invade.

The first perched village: St. Paul de Vence:

Yes, indeed. Beautiful. History like I never have known. I'm speechless still looking at these pictures and realizing how long these places have been in existence, and how beautiful they still are today. I'm thankful that the villages have been kept up nicely but it does come at a cost. This village in particular. It has become a rather large tourist trap. Many boutiques, art galleries, restaurants, etc. There was even a wedding later that day in the chapel! People can even live in these villages. It was actually quite something. When I was leaving, there was a car pulling out of the village. No, not just a car, but a extremely lovely black Ferrari convertible! Yes, I would imagine if you have the funds to live in such a village, you have the funds to drive Ferrari. Either that, or there has to be some rule set by the village that you have to drive a nice car to live there. Either way, the commercialization of the village does not diminish the beauty which is this city.

As you walk in, if you turn around at the main entrance, you will see the statue below. Yup, a little tiny statue of St. Paul who as protected the city dwellers for the past 5 centuries. And, although I didn't get a picture of it, right next to the entrance was a little, bubbling water fountain. This was their only source of water. What? Yes, this tiny little spout of water was what the inhabitants of the day used for drinking, cooking, bathing, whatever they used water for, that was their supply. As I am trying to fully immerse myself in French culture by not showering every day and having a difficult time with it at that, I cannot fathom how infrequently they showered with this tiny spout of water. But it wasn't like it was just this group of people. In fact, frequent bathing is a relatively recent thing. One that the present day people of French still have not figured out. I only dwell on it because it was even more realistic seeing this single source of water.

Now, enough about hygiene and onto another topic which the French need no education about: WINE! There is a tiny little vineyard right at the foot of the city. I'm sure this more recent than it is old, but I do love wineries, and wine, so I had to take a picture. Landscape like this is something so new to me, having grown up in the Midwest, so I find even more beauty in it.

This is a picture of the church tower. If you look at the first picture of the village from a distance, this is the tall bell tower that you can see. Yes, religion has long been a center of French culture. Have I mentioned that we won't have school on November 1st? All Saints Day? Yes, welcome to France. Labor Day? What's that? Second tier religious holidays like All Saints Day, no one will be working. And we'll be returning from Paris that weekend. I'm hopeful the trains will still run...

And here we are inside the church. See the flowers? While they make lovely decorations, they are for the wedding happening two hours later. The best part was the handwritten sign on the flowers telling you not to touch them. And yes, it was in french, and yes, I understood it!

Here we have a picture of the tiny "streets" in this village. I suppose they didn't have to worry about cars back in the day, but you can barely pass someone on these streets. And, if you have two people taking there sweet time walking in front of you, well, you might as well just sit and enjoy the beauty of the architecture that is around you because you can forget about passing them. That, and the French don't like being told to move along or that they're moving too slowly. Both of which are implied should you try and pass them... Not first hand knowledge of this, and hopefully I won't have any horror stories of being yelled at in french to share.

And a final picture of this city. One of the other perks to having it be a now commercialized city is there were some great pieces of art work "hanging" around the village. This was my favorite:

We now move to the smaller village: Village Medieval.

Incredible, no? I cannot even imagine what building these cities must have been like! I can't imagine what a nightmare it'd be with today's progress in engineering. Then subtract that and 500 years, and they still build a city that looks like that? Brilliant.

This had more opportunities for photo shots with me in the picture due in part to traveling this city with others, rather than exploring it on my own like the first city. This first shot is from the city looking out. Yes, good luck to any invader who thought they might actually invade this city. That's a bridge you see in the background. And, if you can't tell, I was gripping that bar for dear life as it was a straight drop down over that edge! Look at the picture above again to better understand.

This second one is of a very picturesque door in the village. Some one's front door, to be exact. Thankfully they didn't come out while Maddy was taking the picture. Though, we did receive some strange looks from others who happened to be walking by at that moment. It's a great door, and other than looking a little like a senior picture (well, they both do) is a great shot. I thank Maddy entirely for this one!