Today we made our way to the Provence area of France: Arles, Les Baux, and Pont du Gard. We wanted to visit Provence's major tourist sites before we get on our bikes tomorrow and start pedaling to the more remote hill towns of Provence.
Our first stop was the Roman town of Arles and the Saturday Market there, where just about anything and everything is for sale. Parts of it look like a garage sale/flea market, but other parts have beautiful linens, artwork and soaps for sale, not to mention the 3-4 blocks filled with almost any type of fresh food you can imagine.
We left Arles @ 1:00 and drove 20 minutes to reach the hilltop town of Les Baux, where we planned to have lunch, visit the castle ruins and do a little shopping. Although we'll be riding to Les Baux tomorrow afternoon, we didn't think we'd have as much time as we would like to tour Les Baux. The town was filled with tourists, but we luckily found a wonderful little restaurant where we again had fantastic salads, this time with fresh melon (the sweetest melon I've had in a long time) and prosciutto, fresh tomatoes with mozzarella, and a green salad. We toured the castle ruins, climbed the towers (or what's left of them), and saw a medieval catapult in action. We didn't leave Les Baux until almost 5:30 and we still had one more stop on our agenda: Pont du Gard, a perfectly preserved Roman aqueduct built in 19 B.C.
Due to the time, we skipped the museum and went straight to the aqueduct. There was going to be some kind of light show there tonight and there were hordes of people coming into the area. As a result, some of the hiking paths we had taken the last time we were here were now closed due to security. We still got some good pictures (see below for a sample).
We were supposed to meet Lee and Mary (Ashley's in-laws) for dinner tonight, but didn't get to the hotel in Avignon until close to 8:30. I sent Mary a text when we got in, but didn't hear back from her, so we headed out to dinner @ 9:00. Lo and behold, who should we run into on the way to the restaurant but Lee and Mary!! They joined us at the restaurant and we had a wonderful time. Not sure if we're ready for our bike ride tomorrow, but we'll give it a try.
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| Shopping for linens at Arles market |
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| Hilltop town of Les Baux |
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| View of the castle ruins from the tower |
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| Pont du Gard |
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| Underneath the Pont du Gard |
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| Another view of Pont du Gard from one of the trails |
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| Becky and Jerry at Pont du Gard |
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| Pont du Gard from the river bank |
Love it, your pictures are great too!!
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