France 8 - Troyes, our home for the week and a Roman aqueduct

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September arrived and it was time again to board the train for France. Our plan this trip was to spend two weeks in a gite near to the Camargue. Not an area that I had been to before so it left us with a huge shopping list of things to do and places to see. It was too far to drive straight down to our accomodation so on leaving the train we headed in the direction of Troyes - a city I had never seen before and one I felt was worth a visit. We arrived late afternoon and stayed at a Kyriad hotel on the outskirts of the city. It wasnt too far to drive in and we parked up on a convenient car park within walking distance of the main sights. A clean and tidy centre ville with a cluster of medieval half timbered buildings. The usual square with cafes spilling into the street. A pretty place worth a stay in perhaps one of the centre hotels. I am sure it was a lovely place to wander in the evening but unfortunately we had chosen to stay too far out to do that and to make matters worse we had reserved a table for dinner in the restaurant and found ourselves heading back far too quickly.

The next morning we ate breakfast before heading south down the arrow straight toll roads all of which were fairly empty. I guess the french children were back at school, the English had all gone home and we were left to the luxury of traffic free driving. We arrived at our base for the fortnight late afternoon. We had the choice of three gites, two larger ones nearer the main house which was occupied by the American/British family and a more quieter smaller one up the top end of the estate. We chose the more private one and were shown in to what can only be described as an upside down house with the lounge and kitchen on the top floor reached via an outside staircase and the bedroom/bathroom on the ground floor. The house itself was very pretty built of stone with cornflower blue shutters on the windows and the arrangement suited us well. We had everything we needed and settled in, investigating as we went along. No TV probably due to the large oaks behind the house. They overshadowed everything. In the house the smell of lavender pervaded the air. We found out later that this came from the lavender harvested in the gardens of the house, distilled locally and bottled. We also found out the reason why the lavender was used in the house. But more on that later!!! The house stood in large gardens which led on to woods of beech and oak . I hoped to see a hoopoe - a strange bird and I hoped there might be one or two here in this part of the world.

We ate dinner, an assortment of salads and puddings from Mr LeClercs supermarket locally. We christened the local store E LeClerc as Mr LeClerc after a character from Hello Hello. The house had a lovely balcony on which you could sit and watch life across the valley below. There was a small village with communal washhouse just below us and we could see the tiny roads reaching out like a spiders web from the village.

We had a list of things to do whilst here and visiting Pont du Gard was one of them. When the Romans wanted to dominate they conquered , when they wanted to build towns nothing stopped them and when they wanted water they built the most functional and beautiful structures. You could see the aquaduct in the distance and it looked impressive. When Glenn last went in the 70's the parking was free and the area uncommercialised. We found a pay and display car park and a museum with pay booth. We followed many French families spending the day out walking, talking , picknicking, children paddling in the river, young men and women sunbathing on the pebbly beach and others canoeing.

We walked across the medieval part of the bridge along with others but it seemed that since the 70's the organisation which administered French heritage had organised guided tours to the next level and you needed to book on these some days before. The upper level once open for walks was now closed due to health and safety issues. I guess that they worried someone would fall off. It is an impressive structure and one worth a visit.

We drove home and started to work on French time, its odd how you only have to be there a while to start to wind down. We go to bed earlier and get up earlier as the pace of life is so much slower. Our evening was spent on the balcony watching the twinkling lights of the village below. Our itinerary tomorrow would probably be to do nothing . There was a wood behind the house to explore, a swimming pool to use and a garden to explore.

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Photos

Troyes
the town square with leaning half timbered houses