We set off from camp just after nine so that we would get to Lourmarin, about 45 km away, with plenty of time to take in the market. It was a small, twisty and scenic path through Bonnieux and the valley on the other side to reach Lourmarin. We had to find parking a little ways out of town as all the regular spots were either being used for the market or by the early birds. We stopped off at a café to use the washroom and enjoy the patio, but after 20 minutes without the waiter acknowledging us we decided to just head out to explore the market. We walked past many of the same stalls we had seen in St-Remy, with at least one vendor recognizing us now. We really enjoy strolling through the markets because it is a veritable feast for all the senses, even if you've seen it before. It also makes for some excellent photo opportunities and a successful market for me is one where I find a lot of photo ops and some delicious olives. We’ve been on the hunt for some olive wood kitchen items for ourselves and we finally came across some pieces here that we really liked. It also turned out that the vendor was also the woodturner and these were all his own work. We left with a mortar and pestle, spoon rest, and cutting board and were tempted to keep on buying. Other than that, our market purchases were limited to some bread for lunch and some Savon de Marseilles. The soap stand had so many different varieties, we had difficult in choosing the ones we liked most and in the end settled for grapefruit and raspberry. After we had perused the stalls sufficiently, we went for a walking tour through the town. Like Gordes, it had narrow and twisty streets that didn’t seem to follow any coherent plan. There were photographic opportunities around every corner and one such moment presented itself outside a restaurant that was cooling its bottles of rosé in a public fountain. I thought that was very clever and eco-friendly of them. We also came across a potter whose work was in bold and bright colors (reds, yellows, greens, blues). We love checking out pottery shops so we ducked inside and we finally saw the espresso mugs we’ve been looking for this entire trip. We chose the colours we liked best and picked up a set of them before winding our way out of Lourmarin back to the van.

It was around 1:30 pm by now and we weren’t quite ready to head back to camp yet. Megs had read in our guidebook about a place that specialized in ice cream, called "L’Art Glacier". So we headed out in search of this remote ice cream parlour that was supposed to be about 15km east of Lourmarin. We wound through vineyards and olive groves and past the occasional windmill with the Luberon mountains as our backdrop. We finally found the signs for “L’Art Glacier” and after one particular turnoff, the signs just disappeared. So we turned around, went in another direction for a couple kms and there was still no sign of it. So we returned to the intersection where we had seen the last directional marker. This time, we saw the subsequent marker just a few meters away telling us that we had to do a U-turn and go up a dirt road through the vineyards. As we followed it, we began to climb up out of the vineyards to the top of a little hill. We were desperately hoping that it was open because our guidebook just said that “hours vary”. We saw other cars in the parking lot which we took to be a good sign and when we saw people sitting out on the terrace, we knew we were safe. The view from the terrace was magnificent and we took a few minutes to decide on the best vantage point from which to enjoy our ice cream. “L’Art Glacier” (the art of ice cream) is a family run business that makes all its ice cream from scratch is known for its quality, presentation and variety of ice cream. We wandered into the shop to have a quick look around and I saw someone out back making ice cream while others were scooping out flavour after flavour of ice cream onto a large board, probably for one of their creations. As we sat outside pondering our plethora of choices, we took in the unobstructed view over the vineyards and the countryside stretching off into the distance. The waitress came over and took down our “creations” (that is what she had actually written on the order): Megs went for the Rubis (Strawberry, Raspberry, Vine Peach ice creams, Crême de Fraise de Bois, red fruit coulis, whipped cream, strawberries & raspberries) while Sheahan and I went for the Vivaldi (Cacao, Chocolat, 2 flavours of choice, whipped cream, caramel sauce & chocolat). My “parfums” of choice were mango and wild strawberries. As we waited for our creations to arrive, we enjoyed watching others digging into theirs with lots of sounds of approval and nods of the head. When ours arrived, we were not disappointed – it really was a work of art, complete with fancy decorations. The Vivaldi even had mint “leaves” that were edible, almond snaps that were to die for, meringues and the whipped cream was just perfect – light and fluffy. The ice cream, needless to say, was superb and we dug in right away. Megs’ Rubis came topped with fresh raspberries and strawberries and was decorated like it was attending a party, complete with a feather flower and birthday party decorations. The only problem with the whole affair was that we couldn’t linger and savour each bite because the ice cream was melting quite rapidly. Hands down, it was the best ice cream I’ve had. We ate every little bit of ice cream that we could scrape off our plates and just sat there thinking that we were very glad to have made this detour just for ice cream.

On our drive back to our campsite in Gordes, we took a slightly different road which took us through a very scenic gorge. We made a quick stop at Pont Julien, one of the last remaining bridges on the Via Domitia, an old Roman highway that stretched from Rome to Cadiz. Built over 2000 years ago, it is free-standing (that is, it doesn’t use any mortar) and until recently still accommodated foot and vehicle traffic. We clambered down onto the rocks beside the bridge, across the little river and under the arches to get a different perspective on it. Our final stop of the day was the viewpoint just outside Gordes, which is best with the evening light as the perched village is lit up beautifully. We pulled over to admire the view and take a few photographs. For me, it was the most scenic view of any village that we’ve seen on our trip so far. We headed back to camp after that final stop and were very pleased with the day’s outing: a successful market in Lourmarin, incredible ice-cream, scenic drives and amazing views.