Advertisement
Published: December 17th 2005
Edit Blog Post
A few days into our stay in Arles Mom and I decided to take a day trip out into the country and do what all tourists do: taste a lot of wine! So we got in our rented car and sighed with relief thinking that we would have a mosquito free day with air conditioning. AC we did have but those little mutant insects are stealth when it comes to finding well hydrated tourists: They crawled in through air ducts or somewhere and continued to buzz around the car. We found if we drove fast enought they settle at the back window so we sped through Avignon and up through Aix en Provence to look for a winery. I must bluntly state, once again, that this place was GORGEOUS! Lavender season was over but the charm was still there; we drove by browning fields hiding run down barns and cottages. Surprisingly there were also large amounts of sugar cane growing along all the small side roads. We drove for miles through a tree framed road that wound through many towns. Eventually, due to our mosquito motivated speeding, we ended up behind a very slow tour bus. We assumed it must be
headed to a winery since we didn't know of anything else touristy nearby (I love spontinaity : )...) and ended up in the parking lot of Van Gogh's insane assylum. His living portraits were all around in the mountains and gardens. It was really amazing to see a patch of ground and have a plack tell you its a painting in some museum. : ) Can you smell the sarcasm? Well, aside from the placks I liked the gardens and I even decided to be a little dangerous and I snuck into the part thats still being used. Didn't see anybody though. Thats probably a good thing....
From the immortalized loony bin (how pc am I?) we headed straight into the mountains. From the hospital they were probably a mile away. It was an incredible sight- they were so white they looked like they were made of chalk. Driving up them was an adventure thats worth mentioning. Straight up, straight down, with a stick shift- I was not driving! We evened out at one point and came to a winery on the flat top of a mountain. The owner had quite a time flirting with my mom and we got
to taste a few wines which we bought and never drank due to custom limits. He was British but had lived there 25 years growing his grapes. What a cool life- must be lonely though. From there we drove on to a town carved out of stone which I'm sure my mom's mid-age crush, Rick Steves, must have recommended. I can't remember the name of the city but I'll add it later. Anyways, the town dated back to medeival times and used to host lords, ladies, knights, and monks. Crowded. Its a magnificent town that has now been made into a stone carved tourist stop. All the old houses and rooms are now stores. I wandered off the main path and found that houses are still lived in and decorated much like they were in Arles except the walls are made of mountain. : ) We walked through the city for a few hours, gawked at the "toilets" which looked like shower floors (no bowl, no seat, serously just a tiled floor with a drain and a roll of TP. I don't like to specify on details of bathrooms but there are some things that you must have such as
a toilet!) My mom, being the twisted one, took a picture to show my dad. I'll post it later : ) I'll pretend to be demure but I admit I laughed too. From there we drove on through the mountains and stopped at a lookout of the city. There were weird carved, geometric squares carved into the side of one of the mountains. Rick Steves said its some sort of gallery for friendship or diversity or something, funny place to put it though. We drove back down all the mountains we'd come up and decided to go to the coast so we could see the Mediterranian. We were aiming for a small town and ended up getting lost and driving through Marseille. What a dirty old town! Its kinda pretty from far away but its also dingy, crowded, and dirty. We drove down the main harbor where are the rich people stay and that was in better shape but one block over you were back to my original description. From there we back tracked and drove along the coast back to Arles. It was about a 3 hour drive but it was absolutely magnificent. We stopped to look at the
ocean- my mom's first sight of the mediterranian in her life. I was glad I was there to share it with her. I'd seen it 5 years earlier in Spain and Morocco. It was definately cleaner this time. And then we had another visit from those blasted mosquitos. I could hear them buzzing in my ears. We walked around and got some nasty bites and then headed back to the car. I swear they'll never let me donate blood...
On the drive home we had the most incredible sunset I'd seen in a while. Sunsets in Ireland made me grateful for my new life and just happy to be alive. This time I was grateful to see my mom again after 8 months and to share a part of my travels with her. It was a great ride home. : )
Advertisement
Tot: 0.333s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 14; qc: 66; dbt: 0.0784s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.4mb