Provence: Arles, Avignon, Hill towns, Orange, Lavender, oh-la-la!

Sur le pont d'Avignon, on y danse, on y danse

Arles:

We traveled the rugged territory from Carcassone to Arles and set up camp near Arles. The following day we parked far outside town where the camper-car lot is.  It was only five euros per day (a bargain in tourist areas) and it looked like quite a few people were staying there overnight. We first visited the ruins of the roman arena (Amphitheatre). We climbed to the top of one of three remaining towers and took pictures of the town and Rhone river from those heights. You could see so much of the city from there and down the crooked streets that rim the amphitheater. It was an amazing feat of engineering considering it was built nearly 2000 years ago. It, like most other large Roman spaces, was designed to keep the population happy with “bread and circuses.” It also ensured that none of the different classes of people ever had to rub shoulders with each other. However, even the “lowest” classes (read beggars and prostitutes) had seating areas for the events - even if they were in the nose-bleed sections. The design also allowed everyone to exit quickly after a full day of entertainment watching gladiators fight bears and bulls and each other. They had to make sure the crowd could exit quickly because fights would break out among the people if they were all packed together. Sounds like rush-hour traffic to me. They still have bullfights here but mostly of the much less bloody kind.

Next we visited the ruins of the roman theater.  Most of it had been disassembled after the Romans left. In fact, much of the St. Trophime Church was, ahem, repurposed theater rubble. In fact, the cloisters (check out the picture) had many carved stone columns and capitals taken from the roman theater. St. Trophime Church has what Rick Steves describes as “the finest Romanesque main entrance” he’s seen anywhere.  We’ve included a picture of the entryway with gorgeous carvings in stone all around the doors depicting Adam and Eve, Jesus and the Apostles, judgment day, the devil, etc. 

One of the things I most love about this area is that it is the land that Vincent Van Gogh (originally from the gray, flat, north) fell in love with. He painted feverishly in Arles. It is here that he lived with and eventually scared off another artist who would become well known - Paul Gauguin. It was here that Van Gogh cut off a piece of his ear after a fight with Gauguin. I  really admire these artists who made major contributions to the evolution of art and find it tragic that neither was recognized in their own time. The citizenry of Arles knew him then as a crazy man.  Now Arles has “Public Easels” which include a photograph of a famous Van Gogh painting set where he might been when he sketched or painted it.  Check out the picture of the cafe that he painted. The café was just limestone in Van Gogh’s time but he painted it in yellow candle light.  Now the owners have painted it yellow so it looks “right” in the daylight.  Click here for more about this.

The campsite in Arles was too light on amenities so we decided to leave after two nights and checked into a site in Avignon.  I was awestruck that we saw a huge field of sunflowers (a Van Gogh favorite) for the first time just as we were leaving Arles. These are the moments, like bright pearls, that warm your heart and glow among your travel memories. 

Avignon:

We settled into a campsite across the river from Avignon that was nicer and had what has become a necessity in this hot weather - a swimming pool!  While Dermot watches the World Cup matches, I take a dip and lounge by the pool.  The first day was laundry soccer/pool time.  The next day we visited the sights of Avignon. First was the Palace of the Popes. When Italy became too dangerous for the Catholic Popes in the 12th century, they basically bought the then small town of Avignon and built structures and infrastructure appropriate for the Papacy. Subsequent popes resided here until 1403.  It was a large, impressive building but we were getting little used to large, even older impressive buildings so it wasn’t a stand-out for me.  

Next we went to the famous “Pont d’Avignon.”  I realized I had been singing the song “Sur le Pont d’Avignon, on y danse, on y danse . . .”  incorrectly for years. There are many many versions of that song.  There was a good audio guide here too.  The picture of us together was taken on the bridge with the Palace of the Popes in the background.  

Lavender and Food:

What comes to mind when you imagine Provence? Is it sun-drenched vineyards and huge fields of lavender like the picture postcards?  I’ve often wanted to see those purple fields myself but never made it here in the right season.  Maybe you think of great food and wine and it certainly has that. Friday we followed directions gathered from person on trip advisor from three years ago to see lavender fields off the beaten tourist track. After many miles, mountainous areas, and hilltop towns, I was thinking I had fallen for an internet hoax, but then some lovely lavender fields came into view.  Then there were more. Unfortunately, we were visiting in late June and peak season is mid-July so many the fields were still more green than purple but we really enjoyed what we saw and smelled.  This is also the land reputed to have fantastic food but most of our meals were self-served. We did take full advantage of the grocery stores. One of the specialities of the area is bull meat. We got some prepared in a bull stew with carrots, onions, and a rich meaty sauce. I liked it except for a few pieces that were too tough but Dermot thought the sauce was too rich.

Orange

They say that many of the best preserved Roman sites are not in Italy, but in France.  The Roman Theater in Orange is an excellent example of this as it’s one of only three such Roman theaters with its acoustic wall still standing in the entire world. Check out the picture of both of us standing with a huge stone backdrop with a statue in the background.  It had a great audioguide and even a virtual guide.  We spent a wonderful day climbing throughout it, trying to stay in the shade, and visiting the accompanying films of event that had been held here over the years.  One was of Elvis Costello playing here the year before I graduated from high school!

Click here for our photos.

Campsite meetings:

On the ferry trip back to the campsite I noticed that a couple had on wrist bands from our campgrounds that are used for the pool.  I tried to start a conversation with them in French but that wasn’t working very well. It turned out they were from Germany and spoke perfect English!  We met at the pool and later they invited us for drinks and conversation at their campsite just steps away from ours. We really enjoyed talking about a wide range of subjects. We traded contact information and they even invited us to stay at their home in Germany! 

Another night, a young woman in her twenties came over and started a conversation in French. She was working the lighting at special events in the Avignon area for the next few weeks and was traveling alone. Unlike most people, she didn’t change to English when she heard my French.  We offered her wine, which she declined, but her face lit up when we pulled an ice cream bar out of the tiny freezer on this scorcher of a day.

Stepping up our navigation game:

Avignon was the land that finally convinced us to buy a better navigation system.  We had been making do with Google maps but there was no way to customize it for our purposes.  Road work caused excessive traffic; criss-crossing flyovers and bridge entranceways; frighteningly low overpasses and tight alleyways; and aggressive drivers who won’t let you change lanes finally put us over the edge.

Connectivity still bedevils us:

We had our bright, shiny Garmin - answer to all our navigation prayers (we hoped) and I spent the night trying to upload the map updates.  No joy. The camp internet even with mi-fi was too weak even to contact customer support or see the trouble-shooting info.  Also not able to upload photos for a blogpost. Sigh.