If castles interest you, Drôme Provençal is just the place for you. There are many châteaux in Drôme Provençal. I can easily count 10 within a 10+km radius around us. Some of these châteaux are in ruins but others have been restored to their former glory. The current heatwave has unfortunately discouraged us from touring these landmarks. In the previous post, I mentioned that a heatwave was passing through this week. The breathable hours for any outdoor activities are generally before 11am and after 7pm.
Château de Grignan
Fortuitously, we managed to grab the last two tickets to Le barbier de Séville. It was a French musical which was performed at Château Grignan on our third evening. This castle, dated back to the 11th century, was just 11km away from us. The tickets gave us the strength to get out of our gîte and visit this Renaissance castle. It was built on a promontory overlooking the village of Grignan. The nearby café Louis-Provence had cleverly offered the service of preparing simple picnic baskets for those who appreciated a simple alfresco dinner before the musical.
We didn’t visit the Grignan village while we were there for the musical. However, we did a little sighting the following day as it was the weekly open air market day.
Château de Suze-la-Rousse
On the fifth day, we decided to be grab our breakfast at Suze-La-Rousse. It was another small village 6km south from us. At 9am on a summer Wednesday, there was not much movement in the village. Some cars drove through the city centre. No stores were opened except the bakery. Other than the 3 customers in the bakery and a trickle of people along the main road (La Grande Rue), Suze-la-Rousse seemed to have only just woken up. We bought 2 pain au chocolats and 2 cups of coffee and sat on a slab of stone at a park next to the village chateau. As the sun wouldn’t show its fangs for another one hour or so, we decided to take advantage of this breakfast outing to visit chateau de Suze-la-Rousse.
Having visited at least 2 chateaux in Drôme Provençal, I feel less guilty now for not being more of a ‘good’ tourist!
