Arles-Avignon

Had a gentle start to the day, with yet another sunny bright day...

First port of call was literally the port of Marseille, where the fishermen had just brought in their catch, and laid out their wares for all to see and purchase. The harbour is beautiful and edges right on to the city of Marseille.




Then we travelled on through the flat plain that forms the region of La Camargue. This is formed by the delta that happens when the Rhone river splits into two before it hits the coast and flows into the Mediterranean Sea.


Our morning tea stop was a lovely city called Arles... It has an ancient Roman history, as do many cities in this corner of France, and this was displayed in the form of a still-standing Colosseum, and Roman Theatre, as well as the remains of the
Roman Forum in the Arles Roman Square.


Arles is also famous for the amount of time the painter Vincent Van Gough spent here. The painting "Le Cafe Nuit" was painted in the Roman Square at Arles, so I took this photo from approximately the same spot from which Van Gogh would have painted it... There's hope for me yet - I might still become an arty-farty... I bought a book on Van Gogh for the kids in Year 4, and all the people on the bus were really interested, and quite a few ended up buying one too!

Le Cafe Nuit - Van Gogh

I loved Arles - it had a lovely feel to it. Again there was the mixture of the old city and the new. The Church in Arles was built around 1000AD, and was really old (obviously!), When you went inside, it just had an ancient feel to it. In those days, France was barely Christian... The facade at the front told the story of the Last Judgement, and our Guide, Jonathan, is really good at explaining what all the historic facades are trying to explain. In those days of course, people were not able to read and write, so the Churches needed to make visual representations of what they were on about, so that people could grasp the stories through the pictures and sculptures.


After Arles we moved on to Chateau Neuf de Pape - one of the famous wineries based in this area. I have a very fond memory of this wine... When I was young and foolish, I went through Canberra with some of my nun friends, and my brother Terry was based there at that time. I remember well that he took me out for tea, with one of his friends Peter, and we went through a bottle of this Chateau Neuf de Pape wine. I think I must've had a good night, because my nun friends reminded me of how they had to pour me into bed...!!! So I was very pleased to go to this winery and see how this beloved liquid is made... We had a short introduction to wine tasting, and everyone was being very polite, but we were all secretly waiting for the time when you actually got to put it into your mouth!!!! it was lovely, I have to admit...


BTW, Chateau Neuf de Pape measn the new castle of the Pope. One thing I've learnt about again ( I had forgotten a lot of this) was the history of the Pope's move to Avignon, and the scandal of the Papacy at the time. There were actually 3 Popes at one stage, and some of them were very naughty boys...!! I must read up more about this period of Church history when I return... always love to hear the goss...


Then tonight was one of the highlights of this tour so far.... In theory we were supposed to provide our own dinner tonight, but Jonathan had a plan... he gets some very good plans sometimes, and this one was exceptional! He knew this area quite well from his own life and had holidayed here quite frequently, and he knew this fantastic restaurant that was about 30 mins outside Avignon in a place called Fountaine de Vaucluse...


My Melbourne friends might immediately recognize that name, because the school I attended for my Secondary years was called Vaucluse Convent. So I was immediately interested to visit this region... We left Avignon about 5pm, but the traffic was the usual peak hour horreur, so it took us nearly an hour to get there. But it was worth it all. This most beautiful restaurant was situated on the River Sorgue, a very fast flowing river that has its spring not far from here. The reason the region is called Vaucluse is taken from the Latin words - Vallis Clausa - surounded by the hills. This town is literally surrounded by the mountains all around, and is in a cul-de sac where you can go no further.


But the restaurant is itself was spectacular...! It sat right beside this magnificent river, and had a wonderful ambience as soon as you walked in. The food was magnifique, and I even had some vegies.... Yee Haa! Their house wine which was unlimited was taken from the vineyards of Chateau Neuf de Pape, so we were in heaven! A good night was had by all...


So, I've had a lovely day in France. It seems to be going so quickly now, but I can't complain. I've had just such a wonderful time. How blessed I am...