Advertisement
Olive Tree
2000 years old bought from Spain Today I booked an all day private Provence tour with Jane Satow of Experience Provence. She picked us up at our Avignon hotel when we checked out. I found Jane online and we corresponded on what we wanted to do for the day. Jane lived in Boulder CO for 11 years and graduated from CU. She married, had 3 children and now lives outside St. Remy and operates a tourist travel co. She was delightful and we thoroughly enjoyed our day with her.
First stop, the famous Pont du Gard roman aqueduct built in the 1st century. Absolutely a marvelous piece of construction by the Romans. We toured and walked across the 16th century pedestrian bridge and enjoyed the musee on the building of the 30 mile long water system to Nimes. It is so amazing to view such an arcitectual marvel and realize how difficult it was to achieve.
Next, we went to St. Remy and toured the asylum that Vincent van Gogh was sent to after he cut off his ear in Arles. We saw his room in the 12th century building, many of the places that he painted while there and lavender fields. Then we drove
to the town square and stopped for lunch. Jim and I shared a pizza with goat cheese, honey figs and lettuce. So very French. We headed back out to the countryside and saw des baux castle and town, beautiful valleys, olive and almond trees.
We went to an olive farm and totally enjoyed the experience. Tasted olive oils and enjoyed the shop at Huile D'Olive (mas des Barres). We made several purchases from this lovely farm and store including herbs de Provence.
Next up, Arles, which began as a roman colony in 46 BC. We saw the arena which was built in AD 75 and seated 20,000 people.Today they use it for bull fights and other sporting events. We went to the Cafe van Gogh Nuit which was painted in his starry starry night painting as the yellow awning cafe. We saw a wall from the 1st century roman forum, a church from the era as well as an obelisk and fountain.
By now it was close to 5:00 so we walked down the Rhone river walkway and saw our ship. Jane went to get her car and we continued to the boat and met her there
to get all our luggage. We gave her a big hug and thanked her for such a wonderful day. She also works with residents that rent their homes out and maybe one day we will arrange to go over and spend a month living in Provence. Note to self: Learn to speak French before you do this!
We checked in to the River Royale Uniworld ship and went to our cabin. We have a lovely cabin on the top cabin deck with a large sliding glass patio door. We unpacked for the week and went to the lounge for welcome aboard update and then dinner.
We still seem to be having on and off difficulty with Internet connection even though Jim signed up to activate the internal sim card. Oh well we can log on to the ship wifi. BTW, here in France, FREE wifi does not mean free, it means someone needs to give you a login and pass code for it to be available and free.
Another marvelous day in Provence. Tomorrow the ship has various tours with the group but we have already been to all the locations, I think we may just walk
in to Arles on our own. Did I say how hot it is here. Wowee, it is very hot.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.033s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 7; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0133s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb