Date and Time of Visit: November 23, 2016 at approximately 1:00 p.m.
Another new village has been registered in Languedoc-Roussillon, so I’m two months late!
Second beautiful village registered this year on September 26, 2016.
場所は、オクシタニー地域圏内（※）にあるガール県。ポン・デュ・ガールでもおなじみのエリア、近くにある街としてはオランジュ、アヴィニョン、正にプロヴァンスの観光の名所付近にある村です。なお、この周辺にはすでに幾つかの美しい村登録済みの村（Aigueze, La Roque-sur-Ceze, Montclus）があります。もちろんすでにこれらの村には訪問済みです。
※ちなみに2016年9月24日よりラングドック・ルーション地域圏とミディ・ピレネー地域圏が合併してオクシタニー地域圏となったようです。オクシタニー地域圏(wikipedia)
However, I was fortunate enough to visit the village in May, which was just registered in July, and continued to be in a state of complete visitation, but now my complete visitation is broken again.
So we have another profile scam going on….
We immediately went on a 3-night, 5-day forced schedule!
If that’s the case, then let’s go! Fortunately, I was able to take the time at the end of the month (although I had a feeling that I was forced to take it), and the Air China ticket was cheaper than I expected (53,000 yen including expenses) and the departure time (19h30 from Narita) was also very good, so I decided to make a bold visit.
As usual, I went straight from the office to Narita, left my clothes at the familiar dry cleaning service « Linet », and went to the airport.
I arrived at Charles de Gaulle Airport Terminal 1 at 7am, about 20 hours via Shanghai. I immediately moved to Terminal 2 and took TGV for 3 hours to Avignon. It was actually my first time to visit Provence in the south of France by TGV.
We arrived at the Avignon TGV station at noon, where we rented a car and drove to this beautiful village without making any stops.
This is the heart of the Côtes de Rhone, a famous wine-growing region, and you will arrive at your destination, Lussan, after an hour’s drive with beautiful views of the autumn leaves in the vineyards.
It may be off-season, and the parking lot for tourists is only my car. I’m sure I’m the only tourist.
Lusson, a beautiful village in the Côtes de Rhone
We parked our car at the parking lot and started sightseeing immediately. This village is a fortified city on a slightly high hill, but its structure looks different from the bastide style often seen in the Midi-Pyrenees.
The remaining chateau in the village was built around the 16th century and is now the village hall.
In front of the village hall, there was a news article like this. It seems that five villages were nominated for the award, and Lusson was chosen as the most beautiful village in September. Congratulations!
Is there a focus on tourism, or will there be a focus on tourism in the future? These information signs are relatively new. There is also an English version.
However, there was a tourist information center, but it was closed.
It’s off-season, so I guess it’s not open. By the way, I visited the village in May, which was newly registered two years ago, and the tourist information center was open, probably because it was the season. Let’s hope for the season on. (I probably won’t go there, but lol)
This village was chosen as one of the most beautiful villages in the world, and it has an atmosphere that you can’t find in other villages or towns, and you can feel it in other beautiful villages, as if time had stopped since the Middle Ages.
I couldn’t take very good pictures, but I still think this square in the center of the village had the best and calmest atmosphere. Children were playing here and talking to us.
There is also a church, but we were not allowed to go inside when we visited.
And the best feature of this village is that it is surrounded by a magnificent limestone wall. It is located on a slightly elevated plateau, so the autumn scenery of the Côtes de Rhone from there was very beautiful.
The plaza and park along the castle wall were very comfortable. It’s cold in this season, but it would be very nice to take a walk in spring or autumn when it’s cooler.
As usual, our stay lasted less than an hour.
Now, I can call myself « the person who conquered the most beautiful village in France » for a while, but I’m sure new beautiful villages will be registered next year. I’m sure there will be more beautiful villages registered next year.
いずれにしてもフランスにいくきっかけができることは大歓迎です！
