Last days in Provence

So, for our last two days in Avignon, we booked a daytrip around Roman Provence (the baths, arena, and monument to Austus in Nimes, the Pont du Gard, and Uzes thrown in for good measure) and tickets to Arles for a day trip.

The tour was a lot of fun. The company was called Provence Panorama and had several tours based on the things provence is famous for (wine, truffles, flowers, roman ruins, etc). They picked us up in a van outside our hotel and drove us to all the sites.

Nimes has some amazin roman architecture (it's hard to call them 'ruins' when they're still standing and in pretty good shape), and their arena is excellent. The commentary was very un-provencal in that it was actually fun to listen to. They did a great job of explaining what life and the games were like back then, and even walked through a day of particularly interesting games.

Nimes itself was pretty interesting, too, or at least the description our guide gave us was. The city was a huge textile and industrial center for decades, so he city was (and to some extent, still is) swimming in money. As a result, they didn't really want or need tourism, so the city flat out refused to allow a hotel to be built there until the middle of the 20th century. It's still not exactly a tourist-friendly town, apparently.

Next, we headed to Uzes, the definition of a sleepy little French town. The guide walked us through the city, showing us all the little alleys and the gorgeous main square that make the city a lot of fun to walk around. She pointed out a mulberry tree which had some ripe berries on it (tasted like a very sweet, seedless blackberry), and explained how the Protestant nature of the city shaped its architecture.

The guide also told us how a descendant of a ducal family still lives in the palace at Uzes. He's apparently a crafty little bugger, as he has found a way to sneak around the tax laws in France. Apparently, anyone livin in a historic palace or castle in France has to pay a tax to live there, unless they allow public access. So, this guy basically roped off 3 or 4 rooms of his castle, sells 12 euro tickets to whoever's stupid enough to pay for them, and basically thumbs his nose at the government.

We then headed up to Pont du Gard, the roman bridge that supported the aqueduct from the spring at Uzes to the baths at Nimes. The bridge is a marvel of engineering, and it's amazing that it's still standing. What's even cooler is that the river it spans is still used as a beach area for people in Provence. How is that fair? When I go to the beach, I have to look at condos and high-rises. They get to look at 2000-year-old aqueducts. Not. Fair. At all.

After that, we crammed in the van (after chewing on some local rosemary bushes) and headed back to town.

The next day, I woke up and just had no desire at ALL to do anything, let alone go to Arles. No idea why, but I just decided to take a lazy day in Avignon. Sean still wanted to go, but came back really quick, thanks to alternating rain and bug storms. I wandered around Avignon for the day, where is was just slightly misting, and pretty much just people-watched. That turned out to be a little interesting, as the kebab shop I was eating in was visited by some Ren-faire folk, which was a little...unexpected. But, after that, I headed home to blog and upload photos.