|
Carpentras is a lively town, ringed by boulevards, and lying in a fertile market-gardening plain. The town has always been important, having been the capital of the Memini, a local tribe of Gauls who traded with Greeks and Phoenicians travelling up-river from Marseilles. Later, under the Popes of Avignon, it was the capital of Comtat Venaissin. Today, the town, sometimes called "The Crucible of Mont Ventoux" for the way the mountain watches over it, is the local market centre.
Most of the interesting sights are in the narrow streets of the Old Town, close to the cathedral. Friday mornings are market days and there is both a general market and a flea market. Between November and late March there is also a truffle market, for truffles are something of which Vaucluse is justly proud.
The only vestige of the ramparts put up by the Popes in Avignon in the fourteenth century is the Port d'Orange, a 90ft (27m) high fortified and restored tower near where Boulevard Leclerc and Boulevard du Nord meet. Outside the circling boulevard, an eye-catching building in Place Aristide Briand is the elegant eighteenth-century hospital, the Hôtel-Dieu, whose upper balustrades are surmounted by carved oriflammes. Inside is a graceful monumental stairway and the eighteenth-century pharmacy, little changed since the eighteenth century, can be visited. Within it, local and Italian faïence-ware stands in cabinets decorated with paintings of monkey apothecaries.
Next to St Siffrein is the seventeenth-century Palais de Justice or Law Courts whose court rooms - which can be visited - are decorated with striking friezes. Tucked behind, is the Roman Municipal Arch, erected in the first century AD during the reign of the Emperor Nero. It marked the entrance to the Gallo-Roman town, originally called Carpentoracte and changed to Forum Neronis. Although not well preserved, its basreliefs of two prisoners are distinct; they commemorate the victories of Augustus in Germany and the East.
A little to the north-east and reached by Rue d'Inguimbert, is the oldest synagogue in France, although it has been much reconstructed. The first building was erected in 1367 when the Popes at Avignon were heavily dependent on Jewish financiers and gave Jews sanctuary in Comtat Venaissin after they had been expelled from France and the rest of Provence. Consequently, the town, like Cavaillon, had a flourishing Jewish ghetto. Baths for ritual purification, called in Provençal the cabussadou ('head first'), are in the basement. Ovens for baking unleavened bread can be seen. Carved woodwork, panellings, wrought ironwork, candlesticks and other liturgical objects impart an air of delicate elegance.
For the non-specialist, the Comtadin Museum in Boulevard Albin-Durand is enjoyable. Objects that were in daily use many years ago make it an agree-able bygones collection. Of par-ticular interest are the bells used for the age-old sheep-drives, the transhumance, because Carpentras was the centre where generations of bell-makers from the Simon family worked. Bells of different shapes and tones for sheep, rams, goats, donkeys and horses were made to harmonise musically as in a carillon, for the sheep-drive was conducted in a recognised order of procedure, almost as a religious ritual. So great was the Simons' reputation, that no other bells but theirs were sold in the market stalls throughout Provence.
Above the Comtadin Museum is the Duplessis Museum of paintings by local artists. Within the same building is the Inguimbertine Library, named for the founder of the Hôtel-Dieu hospital, with about 250,000 volumes and 5,000 manuscripts, some very rare.
Nearby, to the west, is the Sobirats Museum, a delightful reconstruction of an eighteenth century town mansion, while to the north, housed in a building that was once a convent and then a chapel of the Grey Penitents, is the Musée Lapidaire with a collection of local archaeological finds.
Destinations in Carpentras
Dentelles de Montmirail
The return to Vaison from Carpentras gives intriguing glimpses of the Dentelles de Montmirail which calls for a separate excursion. This is a small range of dramatic, naked rock towers, elegantly eroded into a lacework (hence the name) that is ideal for rock-climbing. They rise to a little over 2,400ft (730m) but look much higher, and are virtually encircled by the roads between Vaison, Malaucène, Beaumes-de-Venise, and Sablet.
Leave Vaison by the D938 and, just before Malaucène, turn right and follow a scenic road upwards past the Cirque de St Amand. There is a backward look along this view to Mont Ventoux's western end which, while not having the dramatic appeal of the view from the north, is a fine sight. The and the wine-village of Beaumes-de-Venise. A beautiful run at any time, this journey is particularly so in early summer when the evening sun slants behind the sharp, white Dentelles and sets the scented yellow masses of Spanish broom ablaze.
From Beaumes the D81, and then the D7, turn into the road which runs on the west side of the Dentelles. On the right, a grass track leads to the rural chapel of Notre Dame d'Aubune whose tall, square belfry is ornamented with three fluted pilasters and carved decorations on each face, an unusual, much admired design. Some believe that the chapel dates from the twelfth century, but others believe that it is much older, perhaps dating from the ninth century. Either way, it is one of the most attractive buildings in this area of Provence.
Folk-legend has it that Charles Martel, having defeated the Saracens outside Poitiers in AD732, fought them again during their retreat in the vicinity of the Dentelles. The Tour Sarrazine (Saracens' Tower) is said to be a ruined, eighth-century signal tower. It lies up the valley from the hamlet of Montmirail, above the spring which once provided curative waters for a long-forgotten spa.
The Saracens' Cemetery stands on a little plateau just above Notre Dame d'Aubune, marked by the ruins of the chapel of St Hilaire that most agree dates from the seventh century. There may be no historical evidence for these names. It is just as likely that 'Saracen' refers to gypsies for, since the fifteenth century, the Provençaux, seeing a physical resemblance, having called gypsies sarrasins.
On the D23 is Gigondas, whose Grenache is second only to Chteauneuf-du-Pape as a red wine of quality. The road continues past another delightful rural chapel of St Come and St Damien whose external apse-roofs are covered with fish-tail tiles while the main roof is weighted with massive blocks to hold off the mistral. Higher still is Hôtel Les Florets, an Alpine Club centre for horse-riding, walking and rock-climbing.
After Sablet on its hillock, it is worth making a small detour up hill to Séguret, snuggling under a sheer wall of rock, for a stroll about its alleys, washhouse, old gateways and views over orchards and vines to the plain. To the west of Séguret, beyond the D977 and the Ouvèze river is Rasteau, one of the main villages of the Côtes du Rhone appellation. Here, at the Domaine de Beaurenard, the visitor can explore the tools and processes of viniculture and wine production. |
