No one else in our little gaggle seems worried as we trudge up toward the Cafe de Sade. My mind spins with menu possibilities in a bistro named for the marquis and tucked in the shade of his ruined chateau.
But lunch is nothing more sinister than the Provencal specialty le soupe au pistou, vegetable soup made spicier and more garlicky with each spoonful of pesto we add.The is ringed by stuffed skunks and wild boar, with nary a torture device on view.
We’re in Lacoste, France, pausing at the midway mark in a Wayfarers walking tour of Provence. We’ve already tromped up the hillside to see the marquis’s castle, his 1770s base for kidnapping locals.
It’s a quirky stop that few travelers would make in this village of fewer than 500, and that’s precisely the Wayfarers’ point. Only by lacing up and slowing down, they contend, can you truly experience a place. It’s travel at the micro level, and in Provence that means from the roots up…d olive trees