The Trail's Our Thing

We had a really enjoyable evening together-- lots of conversation and of course lots of travel stories. Doug is originally from Scotland, and Carol is originally from England, but they have both been in Canada for a long time.

"Really nice people," I told Charley as we drove home late that night. Although we hadn't made any specific plans, we definitely wanted to get together with them again.

Earlier in the week we had seen a poster at Henri Tomas' patisserie about a fête in the next village of Lacoste. On Saturday afternoon there would be wheelbarrow races and on Sunday there would be donkey races. Each night there was also a dinner and music. On Saturday when we got home from our dinner with Doug and Carol, we could hear the music coming from Lacoste-- a live band-- until at least midnight.

Charley was pretty excited about the possibility of seeing the donkeys races, as he enjoyed the scenes of the goat races in the BBC miniseries A Year in Provence". He and Kelly have watched this series many, many times and pretty much know it by heart. (It was filmed right here in the Luberon.) We decided to skip the wheelbarrow races, but we really wanted to see the donkeys.

Sunday was a lazy day for us. The temperatures were pleasant and there was a bit of Mistral wind. We slept later than usual, and Charley went to the village to bring back Henri's croissants and the sacristan he prefers. He also stopped at the presse to get our Sunday treat-- a copy of the London Sunday Times. Somehow this has become our tradition when we are here in Provence-- a lot of interesting reading for the price paid and a taste of the British life we enjoy. I read up at the pool for a long time, and then Kelly came and swam.

We talked about walking to Lacoste for the donkey races. It's just a 30 minute walk, though the last part heading from the vineyards up to the village is steep. But then when the time came, Kelly and I weren't ready to leave the pool, and it seemed just too hot to walk. So we drove instead... less than 10 minutes on the curvy country roads.

We like Lacoste a lot. It's much smaller than Bonnieux... less than 500 residents. About 40% of the old village is owned by the Savannah School of Art and Design, and their students come here for a study abroad. Pierre Cardin now owns the Marquis de Sade's castle and some other properties in the village. Lacoste is mainly residential and despite SCAD and Pierre Cardin, it has a very ancient feel. There's a tiny boulangerie, a few artist galleries, two cafes, and one restaurant called the Loofoc. (We've never eaten there, but the menu looks great.)

The small main square of Lacoste was set up like a mini-carnival... lights, a stage, two kiddie game stands, and a big beer tent. Most of the people were around the side of the church playing petanque. We went around and found a place to sit, watching the petanque players. A man with a bullhorn was riding a donkey, his feet almost touching the ground. He and two other young men were soliciting everyone to place a bet on the first race, two euro a bet. Kelly and Charley both placed bets. Kelly was pretty excited about the betting. She bet on a donkey named Sarkozy to place first.

Does he look like a Sarkozy??

It seemed like perhaps the races were about to start, so we went back to the square and found a good place to sit on a wall by what we thought was the finish line. And then we waited... and waited... I could have sworn the poster said the races started at 16:30... and now it was approaching 17:00!

Waiting for the first race

As we were waiting, I looked down below, and Doug and Carol-- our new friends from last night-- were walking up to the square. We had told them about the donkey races at dinner. Doug and Charley were both wearing khaki shorts, sunglasses and Tilley hats. They looked like they had planned their outfits together! I called them the "Tilley Twins."

Doug and Charley-- "The Tilley Twins"

Tilley Hats have a bit of a reputation on the Slow Travel website, where they are a favorite of the founder, Pauline Kenny. Charley and I both have Tilley hats, and he wears his often. We won them in a Slow Travel contest, prizes that were donated by Pauline, the lover of Tilley hats. The owner of Le Louvre cafe where we eat in Apt calls Charley "Crocodile Dundee" because of his Tilley hat. This past Saturday when we ate there, Kelly noticed that he had written "Crocodile" on the slip reserving our table.

We waited with Doug and Carol for the races to start, and Doug bought Charley a beer. Other villagers stood on the sides of the street and by the finish line. Finally several children came running through the old village gate followed by the man with the bullhorn. The race started back near the Mairie and came up the narrow old street. The donkeys were coming!

The donkeys are coming!

It reminded me of the Tour de France. It all happened so fast, and I was trying to take a photo. I'm afraid my photos aren't very good, but perhaps they'll communicate a bit of the excitement. I didn't really see that much of what happened, though I do remember the man struggling to stay on his donkey.

The first donkey race

Kelly was watching carefully though, and she saw that her Sarkozy donkey was the winner, and her second place pick came in second. She ran off to the betting table, eager to collect her winnings. Unfortunately, she found out that you had to have all three places picked to win. She placed a bet on the second race. And then we waited again...

The second race had a little more action. Maybe some of the donkeys were tired. One man tumbled off his donkey and crashed into the wall right near the end. Two donkeys and riders lagged far behind. Kelly wasn't a winner, but she enjoyed the betting and wanted to stay for more.

Approaching the finish line in the second donkey race.

These two donkeys brought up the rear

We decided that five more donkey races could take the rest of the evening-- and that Kelly's betting could be very expensive. A beer seemed more in order. We walked with Doug and Carol down through the village, past the donkey staging area, to the Cafe de France. The terrace looks across the valley to Bonnieux, and it's just a beautiful spot with a lot of memories for us. We can see the area where we lived here a few years ago and also the field next to our friends' house. We ordered a round of drinks and enjoyed visiting more with Doug and Carol. I definitely think they'll enjoy their two weeks here and this slow way of traveling. It was a very good day.

I never tire of the view from the Cafe de France in Lacoste (that's Bonnieux in the distance)