Un Après-Midi Au Pont-du-Gard

July 15, 2012

A bit slower today, after the activities of yesterday on top of the rest of the trip I promised Kim and Sydney a slower day that started with all sleeping in. We finally took off from the hotel about 1:00pm with two stops in mind but in reality we only made it to the first, the Pont-du-Gard. This structure is part of an aqueduct was constructed in the 1st century AD that runs from a spring near Uzès to the thirsty citizens of Nîmes. The only problem was the river Gardon lies in between the water source and the destination this the need for this structure. Held together by the weight of the structure itself alone, today it is a world heritage site and a great place to spend a Sunday afternoon. Many were there with a picnic and swimming, canoeing and we ended up lingering much longer than planned walking the cool water. We plan to return down the line for a full afternoon of relaxation (weather permitting, of course) and if you are planning to come to this part of France and want a slow afternoon, this is the place.

We did not completely neglect our second stop, the city of Nîmes but the only thing we did was to drive in to research our departure point tomorrow where we have to drop off ‘Jumpy’. And we are glad we did the station is not that clearly marked and the little bit of research today will make things easier tomorrow when we have to get up early and have our wits about us. TGV tomorrow and unfortunately the news today has some details of some stoppages due to idiots being on the tracks. We have had good luck so far and idiots tend to sleep in on Mondays…. Off to bed then… No drama tomorrow, ok?

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This Blog Post Brought To You By…

July 14, 2012

… tous les sponsors officiels de la Tour de France 2012. Vittel, Carrefour, Bic, Nesquik, Haribo, Le Journal de Mickey, Aujourd’hui en France.. Just to name a few…

We discovered a few weeks ago that the great race of France was going to have a stage quite close to us on all days, Bastielle Day 2012. The easiest place to see it was the near-by town of Uzès where the activities would start around 11:30am or so. Uzès also has a good market on Saturdays making it that much more of a call for us. Of course other blogs on this said stay away, the combination of the race and market would lead to a packed town. Not being deterred I got Kim and Syd up early (8:00am much to Kim and Syd’s happiness) and we beat it over to the town  ahead of the crowds. And you know what it was not that bad. The market itself was was great all things (it seems) were for sale. The food was excellent and boy, what a picnic you could put together!

Then there was the race itself, the cyclists were lead by a parade of vehicles decorated by the race sponsors who were throwing trinkets, samples, hats and the like into the crowd All I can say is thank got the Vittel water people had the sense to drive slowly had hand the bottles over rather than lob them at the masses… The came the cyclists in two groups, zoom zoom zoom, over in a few minutes. But the energy was fantastic, the crowd was in a great mood and we could not have enjoyed it more.

After the race we declared the afternoon off and crashed back at the hotel for some swims and rest, not that I had a choice, everyone was worn out. But it was a good way to wrap down the day and all were happy.

Happy birthday Mrs. Halaby, where ever you are.

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Vendredi en France

July 13, 2012

Today Arles and Saint-Rémy-de-Provence floated to the top, not so far away as yesterday, we could do both in an easy drive.

First up was Arles, another city that was founded in the Roman days and has the world heritage sites to prove it. The main stop was the Roman Arena in the center of town, for those fans of the movie Ronin this was the site of the gun battle in the arena where Robert De Niro’s character was injured. Known as the Arles Amphitheatre it has been around since about 90 AD and is currently still in use. Currently there are Bull Fights going on (the bull is only killed on Easter we were told) and when Sydney saw a man wetting down the central arena for dust control Kim and I (and another man) spent a few minutes telling her that they were rinsing the bull blood from the sand. Poor kid… After the arena we visited the Cloister at St. Trophime Church. The cloister has been around since the 12th century and is an important example of Romanesque architecture. Or so we were told, there was much remodeling going on so only part of the Cloister was visitable. Oh well, that is life on the road 🙂

Van Gough lived in Arles for awhile so we tried to see what we could on his inspiration, then tiring of the heat we bolted for Saint-Rémy…. Ahhh screw it, we had had enough of sightseeing and decided to head back to our quiet hill top town for a swim, enough already. Only our town was not so quiet anymore, the weekend has come and a holiday weekend to boot. Much busier and the hotel was fuller. Not enough to stop us from slowing down though…

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