We left the family at about 9am and drove north. We had two days until we were due at our home exchange place just over the French/Italian border. We had a lovely day trickling via back roads and avoiding the main roads and toll motorways.
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| Spring poppies |
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| The French do avenues particularly well |
Our first main stop was at the Pont du Gard. We had visited this bridge on our 1982 trip to Europe, and remember walking along the top, very high up in the air. It is an extremely large multi-layered aqueduct built by the Romans to convey water to its various towns. We drove up as far as we could, baulked at the exhorbitant 15€ parking fee (visiting the Pont du Gard itself is free) and fudged a park at an overlarge and empty bus-stop while we trotted back to have a quick look at the bridge. You are no longer allowed to walk on the structure at all. It was still an impressive sight but we weren’t impressed with the parking fee, given you can visit it for free if you walk or cycle.
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| Sit-in bicycle |
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| Early 1800s anamorphic velocipede |
Soon off to our next stop which was a bit out of the blue. We were following our GPS religiously, which we now have talking to us in French, not English, so we can polish up our French. We happened to see a sign for a motorbike and cycle museum so quickly turned off and found it down a side-road. It was housed in a big chateau and was part of a wider children’s museum/sculpture garden. Unfortunately it was supposed to be closed but we drove up the driveway anyway just to see the chateau. A large bus was parked, and it looked as though a party of children was at the museum. John went up to have a nosy and was given the opportunity to have a quick look around. He loved it. I meantime made our typical lunch of bread, cheese, tomato, avocado, salami and olives.
Our next highlight was Avignon. We have never visited here before, just didn’t have enough time when we were in the area. This time we made sure we did and it was well worth it. It is a lovely walled town, very like Aigues Mort which we have visited twice before, but much larger and with very impressive public buildings – it used to be a papal town. We had a coffee in the main square and a quick look around, vowing to come back another time when we could do it justice. Now we have a place in France, we will have the opportunity to do plenty of side-trips to explore France and beyond.
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| Le Pont d'Avignon, dancing optional |
Round and through more rural roads, really enjoying the countryside until it was time to try and find a place to stay for the night. Tried one lovely town but we couldn’t see much in the way of accommodation so we kept going. Next try was at Tavernes. The only place here was at a gite. The price was a bit steep, mainly because we were paying for a complex which catered for longer-stay guests, a swimming pool, etc but it was 6pm and we were ready to stop for the day. It turned out to be a lovely place. The host woman was extremely nice. The pool was extremely cold – less than 20 degrees so we were not tempted. Strolled to the nearby village centre for a coffee but found the whole place a little run-down feeling so bought a loaf of bread to make dinner (again) and slunk back to our big bedroom for a read and early night.
