A winter visit to Les Arcs-sur-Argens
Les Arcs-Sur-Argens is a small medieval village located only about 20 minutes from our house. It is a bit embarrassing but prior to this trip we had never actually visited this beautiful little town. So equipped with our campagnettes and cameras we started our little sightseeing journey around noon this Tuesday in February.
The GPS was kind enough to take us on small gravel roads instead of the direct highway with the added bonus of seeing some of the local vinyards with the wine-ranks naked in their winter habitat:
In Les Arcs there are plenty of parking spaces in the new part of town, just next to the town square. This is where you find all the small cafes and restaurants, probably busy during summer, but now most of them closed for the season. Still this part of town was fairly lively, centered around the big square and the Hotel de Ville:
But the interesting part of Les Arcs is when you start walking up to the old medieval part of town (vieux ville). When passing through the Clock tower gateway we discovered a medieval environment with its mixture of steep streets and old buildings. For about an hour we just wandered through the beautiful streets, almost by ourselves on this nice winter afternoon. Here are some of our photo’s from the visit – light conditions where not ideal with a low winter sun creating challenges, but the narrow streets are beautiful providing some nice photo opportunities. Click for full screen slideshow:
The old town is located on a hilltop, and when you walk all the way to the top, there is an old castle made into a hotel which seemed very nice. The hotel resturant was recommended by the Michelin guide, so we made a note of this for future reference.
After our stroll around the old town, which included a visit to an old olive square where we learnt that fresh olives picked of the trees have quite a strong color which may tarnish your clothes if you are not careful (!), we went down again towards our cars, ready for the next adventure of the day. Just outside Les Arcs lies the famous vinyard Sainte Rosaline.
Les Arcs is a very well known place for Cotes de Provence wine making. Thanks to the river of Argens, the quality of the vines and land, a dozen of prestigious vineyards produce this regions famous wine…
Pictures from the visit to Sainte Rosaline will soon be available in an upcoming blog…
Villa Soleil 