24 Hours: L’Isle sur la Sorgue (Provence)— Dieulefit (Drôme region) (Terri and Finn’s European Adventure Day 4)

After spending the night in L’Isle sur la Sorgue at the scorpion hotel described in 24 Hours: La Palud sur Verdon — L’Isle sur la Sorgue (Terri and Finn’s European Adventure Day 3), and going to the Sunday market in town, it was time to head north to stay with our friends Sophie and Sandy in Dieulefit after lunch in Carpentras.

On our way to lunch in Carpentras, we drove by Sophie and Sandy’s prior house in Monteux. Sophie grew up in the house and after their two daughters had gone off to college, they sold their place and moved to a charming and very old place in Dieulefit.

We had the pleasure of doing a home exchange with them and staying at their Monteux home in 2015 while they stayed at our home in Redwood City. We are huge fans of home exchanges! We’ve continued to stay in touch and, in fact, Sophie stayed at our house last week when she was visiting California for a tomato conference (she’s in the tomato industry).

We went to lunch at Chez Serge hoping to say hello to Serge himself. If you are in or near Carpentras, this is a fantastic spot for lunch. The food is fresh, creative, and they are known for their truffles.

When we were in Monteux in 2015, we first went to Chez Serge and not only had a lovely meal (Zeke did the truffle menu), but we had a conversation with Serge and met his (ex?) wife Anemone (now living in Berlin) and their daughter Pearl who was the same age as Finn. They have a few sons, one who was about the same age as Adam.

It all started with me saying, “Je suis désolé. Je parle un peu français. Si vous parlez lentement, je peux comprendre.” That lead to a broader conversation and an invitation to dinner at their house. It was a full blown Provencal pizza party and to this day we are grateful for that very local experience and we still wonder why we were included.

Patricia Wells, American ex-pat food writer and chef (she has cooking classes in Paris and Provence) was there with her husband and friend from Seattle. A French TV star was there with his daughter. And one of the other guests was part of a family that owned an old-school circus that we went to a few days later and not only did he comp our tickets, but we were able to pet elephants.

Fast forward seven years and Finn and I were able to enjoy Serge’s restaurant’s incredible food starting with some octopus carpaccio. Since I was driving I had to take it easy on the wine. Big sad.

I was surprised that after all these years, I knew exactly where to park and where the restaurant was in Carpentras. Carpentras is a lovely town and worth visiting. They have a weekly market, which I think is on Fridays, but they had their own brocante (flea market) near where we parked and it was Sunday.

We drove north in the Vaucluse department of the region to visit Chateau du Barroux where I parallel parked in the smallest parking spot ever, only to walk down the hill and see a newly built parking lot with plenty of parking.

This is a beautiful chateau with very few visitors. They’ve done quite a bit of renovating in what appears to be a desire to attract more visitors.

The views were spectacular.

While it was a warm day, there was a nice breeze, perfect for viewing the surrounding countryside.

We couldn’t get enough of the views.

I sent a picture of this small house near the vineyards to my husband to see if he wanted me to see if it was for sale. I think he ignored my text.

Instead of a gift shop at the end of the (self guided) tour, we found ourselves in a tea room that also served ice cream, beer, and wine. We rested there with some ice cream (Finn bought some tea) before walking down the hill to the parking lot and back up the hill to our car. I think it took me a while to unpark the car.

We continued to Dieulefit, a commune in Drôme. This a picture from Sophie and Sandy’s terrace (one of them). Dieulefit is an international traveler destination known for its pottery and local artists.

We met up with Sophie and Sandy at a local festival for kids that Sophie was working at. She was volunteering at the food/beverage booth with proceeds supporting the local garden society of which she is president.

On our walk up to their house, we stopped in at a pottery exhibition which, while all the descriptions and audio were in French, was fascinating with beautiful work.

One of their neighbors has taken his art to the next level.

We enjoyed the champagne we’d purchased in L’Isle sur las Sorgue. Finn helped Sophie prepare dinner and Sandy and I got know each other as we watched the England versus Germany women’s teams play in the Commonwealth Games (England won). While we’d met Sophie several times, we’d never met Sandy although it felt like I’d known him for years because of Facebook.

After a fresh, home cooked meal with lots of vegetables, we got a good night’s sleep.

Finn was in one of the girls’ rooms and we loved the wallpaper, tile, and color throughout the house.

Their home is on both the old High street and the higher new High Street since the building is 5 stories tall.

I can’t remember when it was built but Sophie and Sandy have been restoring it since they moved in a few years ago.

The next morning, with the help of Sandy and Sophie, we mapped out the most scenic route to Valance where we planned to return the car and take the train Paris.

Sophie was asked to share something positive about home exchanges so we took a few pictures for her to include in her comments. It was another gorgeous day and we were sad to leave. They are gracious hosts and there was more to explore in the village. I will be taking Zeke back to visit.

Before we left Dieulefit, we got a tour of the garden where they have a plot to plant fruit, vegetables, herbs, and flowers. Some of the veggies at dinner the night before were from Sophie’s garden. There are 20 plots, each 20m by 20m, allocated to different households. We loved the communal nature of the garden.

We also loved their super-sized insect house. We have a small one on our fence that our friend Eric made for us so I was fascinated by its size. Imagine the insects this attracts!

After visiting Dieulefit and the Drôme region, I understand why they moved here.

We drove through Bourdeaux, Soau, Crest, and Valine on our way to the train station in Valance.

We tried to return the car to the wrong train station Hertz location but fortunately we had enough time to get to the right place, drop the keys, and grab a quick bite. We were still wearing masks indoors and on public transportation, only taking them off to eat.

Check out my new market bag…I picked it up in L’Isle sur la Sorgue and I smile whenever I take it into my local market. Zeke looks pretty cute carrying it too.

Next up: day 5: a very hot and non-air conditioned train ride to Paris, meeting up with Finn’s friend Somerset, and our first night in Paris. Until tomorrow…

Terri Hanson Mead is the multi-award winning author of Piloting Your Life, Managing Partner of Solutions2Projects, LLC, and an advocate for women through all of her platforms including YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and this blog. Terri is the mother of two college aged kids, is based in Redwood City, CA and in her spare time, loves to travel, cook, play tennis, and fly helicopters around the San Francisco Bay Area, especially under the Golden Gate Bridge.