Gordes

This is a picture of market day in Gordes. Gordes has always puzzled me. From the road as you approach the town, it is THE picture perfect Provencale hill town. Three of four levels of ancient stone houses stacked up a hillside with breathtaking views in three directions.

You park and walk up a long curving road into the town. You arrive into a large open square, filled with the weekly market on this day, and anticipate a wonderful day of sights.

Well, Gordes has been taken over by wave after wave of the rich and famous. I have walked around it twice and found it very hard to get to a place where you can see the views. Oddly for a Provencale town, all of the houses have their backs to you and walls erected to keep prying eyes away. It started with entertainment folk, Gerard Depardieu supposedly had a house here, and seems to have moved on to people who want a Disney-Provence experience. It's just that perfect look of too much money having been poured in. To me it's like an old car that has been restored to better condition than when it left the factory. Beautiful, but not really authentic.

Just one view, a lot of people love Gordes, and the market is nice because there is room around the displays.