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South of Cavaillon along the Durance
is the town of Orgon. There’s nothing remarkable about the
town that you don’t see in most other Provençal towns.
The most notable feature is that it sits at the base of
a white bluff on which stands the church of Notre-Dame de
Beauregard. The limestone cliff also holds the ruins of
a château built by Henri de Guise who at
some point owned much of the nearby area including Eygalières.
The surrounding rock is also fairly well known as a building
material. There are pockets that are better than 99% calcium
carbonate and exhibit an unusual whiteness. Some of the
stones quarried here were used to build the Palais des Papes
in Avignon.
My hike climbed steeply up the hillside
past the castle and the Beauregard site before leveling
off at the summit. Altogether, it was a brisk 12km stroll
with some nice views of the Durance and the Petit Luberon.
This seemed to be a popular area for hikers, climbers, and
hunters. I’ve been asked by several people how my French
is coming along. After all, I’ve been here for more than
two months now, so you’d think there would be some improvement.
I’d have to say it's much better then when I got here, but
it’s my comprehension that has benefited the most. There
are a number of stages to learning a language and I don’t
profess to know them all. But there are some basic ones
like conjugating verbs in compound tenses, getting a handle
on sentence structure so that you can easily insert new
words that you come across, and eventually thinking in the
language instead of directly translating your English thoughts.
One of the stages that I think I’ve reached is what I call
reflexive French. This is when you instinctively say Bonjour
or Bonsoir when you pass someone, Pardon
or Excusez-moi when you bump into them, Comment?
when you realize someone was talking to you, Oui
(pronounced more like way then wee) to
let someone know you understand what their telling you,
and even Merdre! when you step on the occasional
trail biscuit. I still have a long way to go, but I’m making
progress.
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The white bluffs
of Notre-Dame de Beauregard.
The Beauregard
abbey grounds.
Notre-Dame de Beauregard.
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