South of France Road Trip: Buisson

Actual date of this event: 7 May

I get so giddy thinking about this. How often do you get to visit a place that is your name? Our name isn't that common and the majority of the people out there can't pronounce it (myself included), so it was a huge treat for us!
(Short story: One time when we traveled to France, Luke stepped aside, forcing me to do the talking at the hotel check-in, meaning I had to say our French name to the French lady. It was so embarrassing... the lady looked at me like I was such an idiot for not being able to pronounce it correctly.)

So when I said in my previous post that we decided to rent a car to check out the spots that aren't possible to reach by train, I was talking about Buisson. When we learned years ago that there is a Buisson, France, we thought it was so cool! And then when we learned that it was only about an hour's drive from Avignon, we immediately said "We just have to rent a car so we can drive to Buisson! We absolutely have to do that. We can't not go to Buisson!" So we basically rented the car just so we could visit this tiny little city.

You know how certain tourists get made fun of when they travel because they take pictures of every single little thing? We all make fun of them, right? Well, that was Luke and me as soon as we spotted the first sign pointing us toward Buisson - we snapped a picture every time we saw one from then on. Then as we pulled up to the city, the camera went into overdrive. We didn't care though - we thought this was the neatest thing EVER!

Let's move on with it though... I felt like we were pulling into someone's house. There was one small road that went into the city, very similar to a driveway of a house. The "front yard" was a small vineyard filled with grapevines (can it get any better than that?!). We parked the car on the "driveway", and then as we walked up to the "house", we spotted what looked like a front porch.

The city is very small, and there was hardly any sign of life. We saw a few men working at the church, we could hear a child playing in one of the homes, and a few cats roamed the streets.

When we got to the main square, we saw a couple sitting on a bench eating their lunch and enjoying a bottle of wine. I assumed they were passersby who just chose to stop in Buisson for a break, but I now wish we would have chatted with them. They could have Buisson's like us who were visiting for the exact same reason as us!

I keep calling Buisson a city because it really is a city, not a town or village. Were were shocked to discover this as it is such a small place.

The back side of the "house" had a "patio" with great views of the countryside surrounding it. We decided that was a great spot to sit and eat our lunch (sans bottle of wine booooo).

We just loved Buisson! We always check out the big cities when we travel, and don't give the little ones much thought. Buisson was a little one, but it was huge in our minds. What a great experience that I will never forget!

More from the South of France: Intro, Nice, Antibes, Monaco, Eze Village, Avignon, Pope's Palace & Pont d'Avignon, Pont du Gard, Buisson, St. Remy, Les Baux, Arles, Nîmes

RANDOM FACT:
Part of the Côtes du Rhône region, the vineyard of Villedieu-Buisson produces organic wine.