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Sunday, June 24, 2001
We have the morning off. We wound up getting up about 6:40 and had breakfast at the hotel before setting off for Glanum. Deb and I had planned to walk there, since it’s only about half a mile up the road, however, some of the others decided to tag along and Bill gave us all a ride up in one of the vans. He wanted to take along the Eagle Creek bags and use them there.
Eagle Creek had sent him some luggage and asked that he provide them with some shots of the luggage in use. He’s been trying to work them into some of the various locations we visited.
When we arrived at the vans, we found that one of them had been the victim of thievery! Some one had stolen one of the tail lights and the strip of metal that runs across the front of the van with the emblem on it. And these vans were parked in the large parking lot, directly in front of the police station! The thieves planned this carefully, knowing that the police station is closed on Sundays. Oh, I suppose if there had been a murder or something that someone could have found a police officer, but the station itself was closed.
We took the other van to Glanum. It’s a fascinating site. The photo on the left shows the view as we approached from the parking lot.
One of the attractions to the area was the presence of a sacred well (right). The original Celts decreed it sacred and it remained so for the following settlements of Greeks and Romans. And one end of the valley could be easily sealed off for defensive purposes.
Some time around 220 AD, the town was sacked. Eventually it was covered over by Mother Nature and lay undiscovered until early in the 20th century. The excavations are still going on.
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They reconstructed a corner of one of the temples (the three photos above) to give people an idea of the magnitude of the place. They used the same type of materials as the original and copied the original techniques. Quite impressive. And quite incongruous. This one bright corner is all shiny and new. The rest is a collection of ruins.
The Romans added a nice collection of baths, including a swimming pool with a river god (photos to the left and right) pouring water into it.
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There’s an overlook that you can ascend to get a good overview of the site. That’s where Bill caught Deb and I for some Eagle Creek photos. So, if you see an Eagle Creek ad with two women looking over some Roman ruins, the odds are good that it’s us. The photo on the left is a general view of the main part of the excavation. The photo on the right shows the ruins with the more modern town of St. Remy de Provence in the background.
Bill and most of the others soon left. Deb and I stayed on to explore some more.
Three more photos of the ruins at Glanum, showing some of the excavated ruins.
Three more photos of the ruins at Glanum, showing some of the excavated ruins. The photo on the right shows some details of a pediment that was excavated.
Then we walked back into town. While at Glanum, Deb’s camera quit working. When we returned to the hotel, she took the lens off and the mirror fell out! Fortunately, she has a backup camera with her. Unfortunately, it’s completely manual, so it will require more work and will take longer to set up.
When we returned to St. Remy, we discovered yet another market set up in the main square. This time, it was for artists. Some of the art was very, very good. Some was not. Deb picked up a small picture for a souvenir.
We had lunch at L’Olivade. I had a large salad, beef shishkabob, scalloped potatoes, ice cream, and wine. We were serenaded during lunch - music provided by a wandering musician. Very nice voice. It was getting hot, so we headed back to the hotel.
On the way, we looked for, and found, Nostradamus' birthplace. The photo on the right above shows the building that gets that honor. Next to it was a neat fountain (center photo) with a twisty fine growing nearby (photo on the left).
I kept rearranging my camera gear. Initially, I took the backpack, with the big lens in it, and wore my photo vest. The vest held most of what I needed. However, we were warned to not leave anything in the van because of thieves. There was no way I could easily carry the backpack around some of the places we were going. It’s just too heavy. So I wound up leaving it in the room most of the time. A couple of the times that I took it along, I shoved it up under the seat and crossed my fingers. No one broke in.
Then I switched to carrying the camera bag with whatever lenses I thought I might need that day. If it looked like I might use the big lens, then it went in the bag. If not, it stayed in the backpack. When I switched to the camera bag, I also left off the vest. It was just too hot to wear. Carrying the small camera bag wound up being my most common configuration.
We met in early afternoon to spend some time with Catherine, seeing some of what she’s been working on recently. It’s very avant garde. And boring as hell. The room we met in was hot and her midwestern voice was so soothing that I nearly fell asleep. Most of what she showed us didn’t appeal to me. I suppose there’s a market for it somewhere, though.
After we finished there, we packed up the vans again to head for Les Baux. This time, we weren’t able to park in the nice close parking lot. There were too many people. Since we had the vans, we had to park in the oversized area, which was down the hill and a bit of a hike away from the town itself. The town looks different with people in it. I wound up doing some tourist things in addition to taking some pictures.
For one thing, the Santon museum was open, so I spent a few minutes there. They had some very old Santons. Some dating from the 1800s. Very nice. And the building was very cool. The photo on the left shows a store window displaying some Santons, not a shot from the museum.
I picked up a tray and a poster at another store.
Les Baux claims to have Balthezar (one of the three wise men) as a founding father. This hotel (sign to the right) was named after him...
Near the upper end of town was a very old hotel with a unique collection of antique musical instruments, including something that looked like a one drone bagpipe (see the photo to the left). One was called a serpent and looked like a really long oboe bent in a serpentine fashion. And they had a rams horn and something that looked like a keyed violin. Very strange.
The three photos above were taken in Les Baux. The photo on the left shows a well preserved column in the castle ruins. The center photo shows some of the other castle ruins. The photo on the right is a cobbled street with an arched passageway.
Three more photos from around Les Baux. The photo on the left is a statue we found in the castle ruins. The center photo was taken looking straight down a well. And the photo on the right is a stonemason's shop.
As we started to lose the light in town, we drove back to the overlook Catherine had showed us for some dusk pictures of the town itself. The town is hard to photograph (see photo to the left). It needs a panorama camera to do it justice - it’s spread pretty horizontally.
On the way to the overlook, we passed a man running along the highway - someone out for some exercise. Later, he passed us at the overlook. That’s very hilly terrain. I wouldn’t want to run in that area.
One man that joined us at the overlook claimed he could see the sea from there with his binoculars. Must have been really strong binoculars! I think all he was seeing was the haze in the distance.
Our car adventures for the day included having a wasp fly into the van as we were leaving the overlook. Bill stopped dead when it flew in, but we couldn’t get it out. I spent most of the ride back keeping an eye on it to make sure it didn’t move. It was still sitting in the window when we arrived back at the hotel. Bill could then give it his full attention and got it out of the van. Of course, the other van didn’t know what was going on and wondered why we had stopped and why Bill was waving his hands all over the place.....
Because of the thefts the night before, Bill decided to park the vans in the driveway of the hotel at night for the duration of the trip. Parking them in the driveway is interesting. In order to safely pass through the entrance gate, we have to pull in the side mirrors - they fold in against the vehicle. Backing out again in the morning takes a couple of people - one driving, one in the street stopping any traffic, and one watching to make sure the van mirrors and sides clear the metal gate.
We got back about 8:45 and went to bed early.