Provence Part Deux: Orange, Côtes du Rhônes wine villages, and Vaison la Romaine

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Day 20 (Wednesday, September 16, 2009)

We awoke on our second day in Antibes to an absolute downpour. After reluctantly getting out of bed, we eventually began driving and headed north back to Provence. During this two and a half hour journey on the auto route, we ended up paying an astonishing 21.40 Euros (about $31 USD) in tolls. We both thought it was absolutely freaking ridiculous! These two spoiled Americans are not at all used to having to pay to drive on the “freeway” so we were highly annoyed. Don’t get me wrong though; in all actuality, it makes much more sense that those who actually use the roads are the ones who have to pay for it, versus all of the taxpayers (some of whom who don’t own vehicles) paying for something that very few use. I just don’t like having to use a good chunk of our daily budget on tolls!

We eventually arrived in the city of Orange, which is famous for two important Roman sites; its theater (Théâtre antique d'Orange) and Triumphal Arch of Orange. We arrived at the theater first, where we proceeded to park at a nearby pay lot. We paid about 15 Euros for us both to enter the theater, which included the use of a very helpful and detailed audio guide. The theater was built sometime during the first century and is considered by many to be one of the best preserved Roman theater in all of the world. After the Roman Empire declined and Christianity took center stage, the theater was closed due to the churches’ opposition on what it regarded as uncivilized spectacles. Throughout the decades, the theater continued to decline as various people and groups came to pillage statues, marble, etc. Eventually, during the sixteenth century, an entire small village was built within the walls of the theater, thereby practically covering up any sign that a theater had even existed. It wasn’t until the time period between 1825 to 1869 that the theater was finally restored. The theater, along with the Triumphal Arch of Orange, is now on UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sights.

Although it appeared before us under a cloudy backdrop, the theater was no less than spectacular. It seemed unbelievable to me that such a sight still existed, especially in the condition it was in. Most of the Roman sights I've seen in Europe have been “ruins”; fragmented bits and pieces left from the once powerful and mighty empire. The theater, on the other hand, is still standing in as good of condition as you would expect anything that was of 2000 years to be. Although most of the columns, statues, and colorful pieces of marble were long gone, it was easy for us to imagine how the theater would have appeared in its original state. This amazing theater still provides the backdrop for many opera and theatrical works during the summer months in Orange, so anyone who is staying in Orange for at least a night should check to see if there are any scheduled shows, as I am sure that watching a show from one of the seats would be an amazing experience.

From the theater, we drove straight to the Triumphal Arch of Orange. Unfortunately, as we approached the arch, we noticed that it was covered entirely in scaffolding, so no stop was made nor were any pictures taken.

Afterward, we headed out of the city to several small villages within the Côtes du Rhônes, a famous wine region in France. Our first stop was the village of Gigondas, which was filled with several eateries and many caveau (wine tasting rooms). The town was fairly quiet, so we just walked around for a bit and then left just as a torrential downpour began.

Next, we drove to Domaine de Durban. From what we could understand and see, all of the wineries in the region are called domains. This particular domaine (just one of many) was recommend by Rick Steves, so we thought it would be worthwhile to stop by. While it was a long three mile drive from the tiny village of Beaumes de Venise, it was worth the energy it took to get there for the winery was set in the most spectacular setting. When we arrived and walked into the very small but cozy tasting room, we met a very nice couple from Vancouver Island, British Columbia. We chatted it up for a bit, and then they left with their wine purchase. Just as we stepped up to begin our tasting, a group of about eight people showed up, so we felt somewhat rushed. We sampled two of their white wines, the first being Fruite de Durban and the second being Muscat de Venise. The Fruite de Durban wasn’t actually too dry, and I thought it would be a wine that would be palatable enough for me to drink with dinner. The Muscat, on the other hand, was dangerously sweet and smooth; a perfect accompaniment to dessert. We bought a bottle of each, and paid less than 13 Euros; not too bad for such great wine!

From Domaine de Durban, we continued our loop around the Côtes du Rhônes, next stopping in the tiny village of Suzette. From the vantage point of this village, we had an amazing view of the surrounding countryside. Of course, these views would have been about 1000 times better had there been blue skies and sunshine involved, but I tried not to get too upset.

As we walked through this village, I attempted to photograph the beautiful houses and buildings without getting raindrops on my lens. As we were leaving the town, I stopped to photograph some closed shutters. As I was positioning myself in front of the house, I heard several loud thuds coming from the first floor window. My range of view immediately moved from the closed window upstairs to the window directly below it, and I noticed an older lady glaring at me. It took me a few seconds, but I eventually realized that she was pretty pissed off that I was photographing her house. I’m not sure if she thought I was photographing the lower windows (i.e. looking into her house) or what, but whatever it was, she wasn’t too happy to see me. I found this quiet strange and jarring, as by this point on the trip, I had photographed probably hundreds of homes throughout France, none of which created the kind of ruckus that this lady did. In addition, I would have thought that the woman would have been used to her house being photographed, considering that she lives in a tiny village that is frequented by tourists. The village is probably able to survive, thanks in great part to all of those tourists who consume the wine that is grown and made outside her doorstep. So, why she got so angry with me I'm not quite sure. It was a very strange and uncomfortable experience, so we definitely made sure to leave Suzette in a hurry.

Afterward, we drove to Le Crestet, another teeny tiny little village with cute buildings and great views of the countryside from its streets. We walked through town for about ten minutes until the weather suddenly changed from no rain to another downpour. We hadn’t brought our rain jackets or umbrella with us from the car as there was not a raindrop in the sky when we had arrived, so we had to run like crazy in order to get back to the car to avoid getting soaked.

Next, we were planning on visiting the fifth and final town of Seguret, but considering the amount of rain that was falling from the sky, we thought it a better idea to visit the following day, when the weather was supposed to be both clearer and drier. Instead, we headed into Vaison La Romaine, where we had a room reserved at Les Tilleuls d'Elisée for one night. After getting slightly lost, we eventually found the gorgeous home which was a very welcoming site from our long day spent in the wet weather. The interior of the house had been renovated gorgeously, and the proprietor was the nicest gentleman, giving us lots of tips on nearby restaurants and chatting it up with us for a bit before we settled in our room.

Soon afterward, we drove for about two minutes down the road into one of the parking lots in town so that we could find a place for dinner. After checking out several of the proprietor’s recommendations that turned out to be more expensive than what we were looking for, we eventually settled on a place called Bar Sporting Pizzeria. The menu item which caught my attention and lured me into the restaurant was a pizza with crème fraiche, onions, and bacon. I absolutely love crème fraiche, so when I saw it being used as a topping for pizza in lieu of tomato sauce and cheese, I knew I had to try it. After reviewing the menu, Mike ordered a pizza that was topped with chorizo sausage, green peppers, and ham. The pizzas arrived promptly and boy was I excited to dig into mine! Sure enough, my pizza was insanely delicious; the rich crème fraiche paired perfectly with the salty bacon and the crisp texture of the partially cooked onions. It was a very yummy combination that I knew my stomach probably wouldn’t be too pleased with. For those of you who don’t know, I have the sad diagnosis of being lactose intolerant. In addition to the fact that I should always avoid milk products in any situation, my stomach also has a huge disdain for onions; cooked or raw, it doesn’t matter. So, when you combine these two lethal food items together, it can quickly become a very dangerous and rather unpleasant situation for myself. That being said, however, I took all necessary precaution and swallowed two lactose pills, with high hopes that I wouldn’t have any problems. I didn’t really care though as the pizza was too damn good not to enjoy it. And although I had thought for sure that I would later pay for my indulgence, I magically had no problems that night, so I was quite thankful.

Later that evening, I went downstairs with my laptop to use the internet since we couldn’t get a good Wi-Fi signal in our room. As I was uploading photos from the trip onto Facebook, a man entered the breakfast room, and began speaking to me in French. I managed to get out a bonsoir and ça va before he continued on in a smattering of French that I could not at all distinguish. After apologizing in French and explaining that I only spoke a little bit of French, he immediately switched to nearly perfect English (though he claimed that his English wasn’t good). I learned that he was from Belgium, and although Flemish was his first language, he also spoke French, English, and German, and was in the process of learning Italian. Whew; that is A LOT of languages! Europeans never cease to amaze me with their language skills. We ended up striking up a long conversation, that ranged from discussing world languages (and the fact that Europeans tend to speak multiple almost fluently while Americans speak just one) to traveling in France to bike riding. I learned that he had ridden his bike all the way down from Belgium to Provence in a period of just ten days; I was truly amazed. We eventually said goodnight and figured we would see each other again the following morning for breakfast.

Day 21 (Thursday, September 17, 2009)

Thankfully, we awoke to glorious sunshine; after having experienced horrid rainfall the day prior, we were quite happy! We eventually made our way down to the breakfast room, where we had the typical French breakfast of breads and croissants with the most delicious cherry jam ever. Shortly after breakfast, we had to get going, but we were both quite sad to leave the bed and breakfast as it had been one of the nicest we had ever stayed in.

Our first stop of the day was Vaison La Romaine, where we once again parked for free in one of the parking lots in town. We walked over to the old town, and spent about 30 minutes wandering through its quiet backstreets.

Afterward, we drove to Seguret, which was the village that we had attempted to visit the night before. We parked the car in the main lot, and then wandered down the street, looking for the village as it didn't appear to be located in any obvious direction. After walking for about ten minutes, we still hadn't found or seen the town. In fact, by this point, we couldn't understand what the big deal was about this village as we had only seen a smattering of small houses placed sporadically along the road. As we were walking back to the car, we realized that we should have walked in the opposite direction as the town was uphill from the parking lot, not downhill! Just as had been indicated, the village was cute, but not overly impressive; small towns were beginning to flow together and blend in our minds; it was difficult to differentiate the ones that we had visited from one another, except for the very unique ones.

Upon leaving the village, we headed to our next stop, the city of Lyon....(continued in next blog entry).

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