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Saturday, June 23, 2001
We were up at 4:15 again. I woke up wondering if the alarm was wrong, but it was only 2:05. Next time I wondered about the clock, it was 4:02.
This was our first morning without Catherine. Bill drafted Deb and me as navigators - Deb will ride with Adam and I will ride with Bill. Fortunately, he remembered to go over the route with us before each trip....
Our first stop of the morning was Beaucaire. We followed Catherine’s directions into town. They were clear as mud. Of course, once we arrived, they made sense. However, we did a little wandering. She said the main attraction here was the colorful canal boats. We got to the canal and found some boats, but not very colorful, as you can see (left).
So we headed into the maze of streets. Several were very picturesque, except for the trash bags dotting the side of the roads. It was evidently trash day!
The three photos above were taken during our wanders through town. The photo on the left is the main door to a church. The center one shows a very vine covered wall. The photo on the right shows the sun just striking the corner of the church.
We found a nice frieze on the side of a church, depicting a version of the last supper (left).
There was also a nice castle. I never got to the castle, however, as the maze got pretty confusing. I did find the building where they did falconry exhibitions. Of course, it wasn’t open yet...
I found a bakery, however, so I got some breakfast. They have some very good pastries here.
Once everyone had returned to the van, we continued on our journey. Next stop was Pont du Gard (the photo on the right shows an informational sign on how it was built), a well preserved stretch of Roman aqueduct that crosses the river Gard. The foundation stones in the river are supposed to weigh over six tons. It’s an impressive sight.
For future reference, come in on the right (Droit) bank, not the left (Gauche). The classic view of the aqueduct is from the river level and it’s easier to get to from the parking lot on that side. We parked on the left bank. The view there is still impressive. Crossing the bridge to the other side is well worth the effort. As is climbing down the bank to river level.
The three photos above show three different views of the Pont du Gard, all from the left bank. The photo on the right also shows the modern walkway used to cross the river to the other bank.
More views of the Pont du Gard. The photo on the left is taken from the river level and includes a reflection of the aqueduct. The center photo shows just the reflection of the aqueduct in the River Gard. The photo on the right shows another view of the modern walkway that now croses the river, taken from near the top of the aqueduct level.
After taking pictures there, I headed up the path I had found that takes you to the level of the aqueduct itself. Very interesting. It’s about 90 steps to the top level. There, you can see where the water course comes out of a tunnel and crosses the bridge. The opening for the water course is a mere four feet square. This supplied the water for the town of Nimes in ancient times. The pont is about two thousand years old.
We reassembled at the vans and headed back to the hotel, arriving in time for a late breakfast (10 am). On the drive back, we spotted some sunflower fields starting to show some nice color. We thought we were too early for the sunflowers, so this is a nice bonus.
Arriving back in St. Remy, we discovered the Saturday market. It’s much smaller than the Wednesday one was. This one was just fruits and vegetables. The previous one had included all kinds of things - a combination farmer’s market and flea market. We only spent a short time looking this one over.
Deb and I ran a few errands. First, we went by the post office for some stamps for our postcards, then by the tourist office to find out the hours for Glanum, the Roman ruins located just outside of town. Actually, there are both Greek and Roman ruins here. The Romans built on top of a Greek town. And under it all are the remnants of an even earlier town, probably Celtic. We plan on spending part of tomorrow there.
With the end of the mistrals, the days became very hot. We settled into a pattern for the remainder of our stay here. Up early in the morning for a morning shoot, returning to the hotel for a late breakfast, usually between 10:30 and 11. Then free time until meeting around 5 pm for an evening shoot, staying out until dusk, returning to the hotel late, usually between 10 and 10:30. During our free time, we usually did a little shopping, picking up something from the bakery for dinner, stopped for a large lunch (had to get the good French food in some time), then retreating to the coolness of the hotel for a nap, rest, write postcards, do laundry, read, whatever. We could tell why the shops all closed during the hot part of the day. No one was out and about.
This day, Deb and Judy and I had lunch at the Grain du Sel (Grain of Salt). They both had large salads. I had the tuna entree with veggies and wine. And we picked up some ice cream for dessert (cherry vanilla today). Adam and his wife, Sherry, happened to be eating there, too.
After a short nap, we all met in the lobby at 4:30 to find out the schedule for the remainder of our stay here. We were planning on going to Les Baux for an evening shoot today, but Deb found an article saying that today was the culmination of a Renaissance faire at Les Baux. There’s minimal parking there on the best of days. There’s liable to be none at all today. While it might be interesting to shoot the costumes and people at such an event, it will undoubtedly be a royal zoo! So we switched today’s and tomorrow’s scheduled evening shoots around and headed for Gordes.
Gordes is a nice evening shoot. This is one of the main towns pictured when one sees pictures of Provence. Very photogenic. And very restored. Some of our party were complaining about the very modern swimming pool in the middle of most of the shots! What does he expect? These people still need to make a living. We wound up not going into town here. It looked too cleaned up....
The three photos above show the town of Gordes, France, from the nearby highway. These views make it obvious why most of the towns in Provence are referred to as "perching towns" overlooking the surrounding countryside.
The two photos above are closer views of the buildings of Gordes. The one on the left looks like a castle, while the one on the right is a church.
These photos show the lower, more modern portion of Gordes, France.
Once we lost the light, we returned to the hotel, getting in about 8:30. We wound up sitting in the lobby talking and drinking wine until about 10:30.