Le Village Des Automates and The Pont Du Gard

This morning, we decided to let the kids run around and be kids. They have been real troopers most of this trip and they deserve a morning of kid fun! After passing it yesterday on the way to Avignon, we drove to Les Village Des Automates , a huge park in the woods about 20 minutes from Aix. We were there on a weekday morning and besides a small school group and a couple other families, we pretty much had 16 acres of park all to ourselves. The kids rode go carts, bikes, and trikes. They saw animals-ducks, chickens, goats, sheep, donkeys and ponies. They enthusiastically completed obstacle courses and rode zip lines. They saw puppet shows and played in a (fake) castle. After playing for a few hours, we ate our picnic lunch. After lunch, the kids had a few more rounds on their favorite ride (pedal cars on a track about 12 feet in the air, with a rod for Dad to use to pull them along from the bottom), and we left the park happy. The sun, trees, fresh air, and exercise did us all good.

After our park play morning, we drove to the ancient Roman aqueduct bridge, the Pont du Gard, a site Monsieur Bacon has wanted to see for quite a while. I won't summarize the whole Wikipedia article for you, but suffice it to say that it was amazing. We couldn't stop thinking about the staggering amount of work to bring water over 30 miles into Nimes. Much of the aqueduct was underground, dug without machines or dynamite. The bridge only drops a single inch over its entire length (I can barely get a picture hung on the wall with a laser level) while the entire aqueduct only drops 56 feet over 31 miles! The bridge is built mostly without mortar, the meticulously cut blocks held together by gravity. When most of the world was hauling swamp water with sheep bladders, the Romans made a point of building great engineering projects to bring running water and sewage systems to newly conquered areas. "Hey guys look! Aren't these fountains and baths awesome? Aren't you glad we conquered you so you could be Romans too?" Or something like that, I'm sure.

"What are all the big people looking at? Don't they know there are rocks and ants on the ground?!"

We made the climb up the side of the gorge for a view all to ourselves, then we hiked up the rest of the way to walk along the aqueduct's ruins in the mountains for a while. As soon as we turned around, about the furthest you can get from shelter, it started raining! We started running, but we were quickly soaked and running just didn't make a difference anymore. So we distracted the kids by having them stick their tongues out to catch rain drops, which turned it into a game!  By the time we toured the museum and got back in to the car, we were pretty much dry again and ready to head home for a take-out pizza and a good night of sleep.

The City of Popes: Avignon

Avignon has to be one of the most spectacular cities in France. Both its history and its monuments are beautifully dramatic. In 1309 Pope Clement V chose Avignon as his residence instead of Rome and until Pope Gregory XI moved the papacy back to Rome in 1376, Avignon was home to the popes. Then during the Western Schism, a string of antipopes lived here from 1378 until 1403. Their seat of power in Avignon was the Palais des Papes (Popes Palace), a magnificent fortress-castle. With the arrival of the popes, Avignon became a thriving, opulent, sophisticated city with a growing university and attracted artists and scholars from all over the world. Avignon really set the stage for the Renaissance.

 Driving towards Avignon, we were first awed by the massive ancient city walls which encompass the heart of town. Inside the walls, the city is incredibly walkable with beautiful plazas and streets lined with restaurants and high end boutiques. After inching through the narrow medieval streets trying to avoid scrapping both sides of the car on stone walls at the same time, we finally found a parking spot.

We then headed over to the Palais des Papes. It felt like walking into the pages of a fairy tale. It was a truly stunning sight!

It started raining and we had a hard time finding a place for our picnic lunch we had brought from home. We spotted a Petit Train, a tourist train we have used in both Aix and Marseille. We got on board and enjoyed our sandwiches under the roof, while looking over the beautiful town. The train took us back up behind the palace and cathedral and through the Pope's Gardens. The views of  the Rhone River were amazing and we were able to see the famed Pont Saint-Bénezet, a medival bridge built between 1177-1185 which once spanned the Rhone. It is now a ruin, after half the bridge fell into the river in 1669. Every French child grows up singing, "Sur le pont d'Avignon, l'on y danse, l'on y danse" (On the bridge of Avignon, we dance, we dance).

We had another view of the bridge and the city walls as the train took us along the outside of the old section of town:

After our little train tour, we headed in to the Palais des Papes.

A gargoyle dripping rain water from it's mouth.

The line wasn't bad at all and soon we had our tickets in hand and were through the entrance. Of course, only after we made it through a maze of scaffolding and rain in one courtyard and hiked up into the castle, did our 3 year old decided to tell us he needed to use the restroom...so back we went through it all to the restrooms on the other side of the courtyard. A couple of workmen in rubber boots told us the restroom was "fermer". OK, so where are some that aren't "fermer" or this dancing kid may find a quiet corner with a potted plant. Ahh...this is traveling with kids, folks!

We had a wonderful time touring the castle. Walking through it felt like being thrown back to the 14th century. It's mostly bare, but still very beautiful and totally captivating. How amazing it must have been at it's height of opulence! We were not allowed to take photos of the Pope's Chambers, but it was very cool. The walls were painted in blue, green, and gold, with pictures of trees and squirrels. The flooring was done in small multi-colored tiles. 

"We could shoot arrows at people through these holes!" FYI, Monsieur Bacon and Madame Salade quote Monty Python constantly in France. "Now go away, or I shall taunt you a second time!" 

Next to the Palais des Papes is the beautiful little 12th century Cathedral Notre-Dame des Doms. It is somewhat overshadowed by the Palais, but it's guilded statue of Mary on top stands out from all over town. After touring the Palais des Popes, Garçon Livre wanted to go in the cathedral. Monsieur Bacon and Madame Salade looked sullenly at the mountain of stairs leading to the cathedral, then at the small children who would inevitably need carrying, and then gave each other the, "oh, hell no" look. Garçon Peanut Butter also had a great disdain that day for anything too, in his words, "cathederal-y". But, our 6 year old soon won us over and we were on our way to the cathedral. We just don't feel right about squashing his dream of "seeing every cathedral in the world".

The cathedral was small, but very pretty. Inside, a priest welcomed us and told us something in French about the main attraction being over there and he gestured to the side of the church and a doorway. We walked over and discovered the elaborate tomb of Pope John XXII. Of course, we didn't really understand what we were looking at at the time, so I did not take a picture, but it was a work of art!

Photo by Garçon Livre

Next we walked through a couple of the town's plazas to find a good place for the kids to run around and Mom and Dad to sit and relax. We quickly settled on a spot right in front of the Hotel de Ville (City Hall).

On the way back to the car, we spotted a bakery with beignets and grabbed a bagful of the little treats. They were sweet and lovely, but to be honest, Cafe Du Monde's in New Orleans are better!

Avignon is an enchanting place and was a great day trip for us. Perhaps our favorite so far. It's hard to beat an ancient walled city with a castle and so much history, plus it's just a nice city overall. It's clean, bright, and walkable. We saw lots of families with kids and students with backpacks. There are many more sites and museums in the city to see, but our time ran out. Until the next time, Avignon... À la vôtre!

The City That Drove Van Gogh Mad: Arles

After Les Baux, we drove over to Arles for the evening. This ancient little city was founded by the Greeks in the 6th century B.C. and was an important trading port. It became known as, "The Little Rome", after Julius Caesar established a thriving Roman Colony here. The rich colony was fed by canals and aqueducts, and enjoyed the luxury of sewers and latrines. The colony built thermal baths, a forum, a stadium, theaters, and an arena. The emperor Constantine brought Christianity to Arles when he moved to the city. His son, Constantine II was born in Arles. Luckily for tourists, many ancient ruins still remain, some of them very well preserved. Arles is also the city Van Gogh went wild for, moving here and painting it in over 300 of his pictures. Oh, it's also where he went mad and cut off his ear. Fun fact!

Arles is said to be a pretty festive city with a Spanish flair, but it was quiet the day we were in town. Much of the city seemed to be closed. We still had a great time walking around and checking out the sites.

The first stop on our walk was the Theatre Antique, located in a beautiful shady park area. Augustus began constructing the theater in the 1st B.C. It was once a venue for 20,000 spectators. Now, only two of the Corinthian columns and a row of arches remain inside. Much of the stone was taken from the theater to build Christian churches.

We had a bit of a hike to our next destination, the ruins at Les Alychamps (Elysian Fields). This site was once a Roman necropolis and later became a Christian burial ground for early Christians. The site is now pretty much a park....lined with ancient tombs. It was a favorite spot of Van Gogh's to paint. Les Alychamps was both peaceful and creepy.

"Hey dad, what used to be in these boxes?"

Saint Honoratus Church at the end of the Alyscamps. A beautifully massive mausoleum church, empty except for the pigeons living inside, with its open crypt full of rain water and many windows open or broken. Beautiful during the day, I can't imagine a creepier place to spend a night...

Next we headed towards the Roman Amphitheater, one of the best preserved in the world:

The amphitheater was built in the 1st century. It's four medieval towers were built on for fortification during the Middle Ages. The arena seats 25,000 and is still used today, as a venue for bullfights and concerts. Olé!

After walking around the arena for awhile, we headed to the Place de la  République. A couple of beautiful churches line this square and in the center is a fountain made with a 4th century Roman obelisk.

It was getting dark and rain had started, so we found an open restaurant on the main street through Arles for a bite to eat. I don't remember the restaurant name, but like many establishments in town, it offered sangria and was decorated with pictures of bulls, a poster for an upcoming Gypsy Kings concert, and a stuffed bull head. The food was okay, but the atmosphere was a perfect ending to our time in Arles. Although it was somewhat run down and gave off a bit of a rough vibe (it was the kind of city I wouldn't want to walk alone in at night), Arles was still a very cool little city to visit. The ruins were incredible and it was fun to feel a sort of Spanish vibe after two months in France.