Relaxing in Reims - weather is great

Wednesday 30th April 

Took the night off from blogging last night. Not a lot to report. We just had another long days drive from Lyon to near Langres (north). Beautiful roads - wide and very little traffic - and Rob was happy when we found a few short sections with speed limit 110 and no trucks. 

Time for lunch and right on 12 we passed through a village called Moissey with a restaurant for lunch. Roast chicken and the usual French vegetable - green beans, with panacotta for dessert. Very nice lunch and we were joined by the owners dog. 

We were very good and didn't indulge in these for breakfast.

Papa dit non - dad said no!

We stayed last night in small village near Langres. 

Today we have travelled to Reims. Again Dora picked some good roads - well done Dora. The trucks on the road to Lyon were just unbelievable. So good to be off the main road.

We did a bit of a cooks tour of central Reims as we searched for the tourist information centre. We kept coming up against one way roads and roadworks. They are doing extensive renovations to the historic centre - replacing a lot of the old cobblestone streets. No photos - we were just on a mission  to get to our accommodation. 

We are in a suburb of Reims for the next 2 nights. Tomorrow is a public holiday (labour day) and most shops and businesses will be closed. We are assuming all the touristy places will be open so we will visit them tomorrow.

Our apartment in reims. There are 3 in the back yard of the house. Small, but has what we need and the owners are lovely. They have 4 young children. Being able to sit out in the garden is very relaxing. 

Orange - off with his head.

Monday 28th April 

Time to head north and check out a different part of France. A long drive planned for the day to Lyon - a touch under 300k and more than we would normally do in a day, but we've got a bit of ground to cover. We don't use the tollroads - you see more travelling on the lesser roads - but maybe today we should have. It's a slow trip when you have to slow to 50 for every town, 70 for road junctions, 80 as the normal road speed, 90 if you're lucky and get a bit better road.

We left early and first stop was Orange to visit the ancient theatre - 1st century AD. A couple of things to chuckle over. 1. The statue of the emperor has a removable head so when the emperor  changes they just need to replace his head. 2. Spectators are separated by their classes - big wigs at the front, and then the peasants including prostitutes, beggars, commoners, and foreigners (ha ha) at the top in the nose bleed seats. The acoustics are amazing - at the top you can hear clearly what is being said down below.

Ancient theatre
- built into the side of the hill to give the foundations for the seating.

Odette was interested in the next act.

Statue in the centre is the emperor with the removable head.

On the road again and searching for a relais for lunch - right on time at 12 we spotted one. Very nice lunch and well set up.

On to Lyon. First part of the drive was not too bad,  but the last 100k was pretty awful - lots of trucks and traffic. Anyway finally in Lyon at 4pm and checked in to hotel which is quite nice - lovely lady on reception. Not keen to go out looking for tea so we've had pizza here in the hotel.

The sculptures are of successful athletes from Lyon, and their sports.
(And irises - Rob's garden favourite).

Intriguing little villages

Sunday 27th April  - rest day

We planned our stay here in Provence to give us a bit of a breather. After hitting all the touristy spots the past 4 days, we decided to check out one of the beautiful villages from our book -Ansouis. It had been raining overnight but not enough to keep us home. This was only a short drive away and on good roads with very little traffic. This village dates back to 12th and 13th century - perched on the top of a hill. We wandered the streets - all the way up, then all the way down. Unfortunately the guided tour of the Chateau wasn't until 3pm. We didn't plan to stay that long. But the village did own a fabulous patisserie. We need to support these small local businesses - don't we???

Sculpture of Saint Elzear - not sure what his claim to fame was.

Inside of the church - very dark and not very ornqte.

There was an exhibition of pastel works
- some lovely bird and animal pieces including this puffin.

Beautiful street scenes.

Dog of the day- cross between a whippet and bedlington whippet.  

Looking back to the village of Ansouis.

Time for a supermarket shop in a nearby bigger town - Sunday and shops shut at 1. We are loaded up now with groceries for a couple of days - maybe. 

Tonight we pack ready to move on tomorrow. Heading north to Lyon tomorrow night. 

Ancient Arles

Saturday 26th April 

Today we have had a lovely day out in Arles. The same sort of distance away as Avignon and les Baux de Provence, but a much easier drive. And the weather was finally pleasant without the cold wind.

Streets of Arles.

Our first aim was the amphitheatre. This was built in 1st century AD and is still in use for bull fights. (Yeah, nah!) The romans certainly know how to build stuff that lasts. Interestingly many of our arenas seem to use the same sort of plan eg marvel stadium in Melbourne. On to the ancient theatre. This was even older - 12 century BC. It's amazing to sit there on the 'seats' and wonder how many other bums have sat here, and how many other feet have climbed the steps and worn them away.

The ancient theatre- 12 century BC.

View from the top of the amphitheatre (arena).

Kerry and I tried to eavesdrop on the tour guide with the group of Americans next to us.

Odette at the arena.

Rob climbed to the top of the arena - far right in red shirt.

Arles was a village where van Gogh lived and did a lot of his paintings. Rob was keen to walk around the town last time we were here but we were a bit time poor then, but this visit he did the walk and visited some of Van Gogh's sites. Kerry and I just wandered some of the village streets and lane ways, checking out the shops, and enjoying the village feel. 

Found the Cafe Van Gogh.

A contrast - this very modern building in Arles.

Interesting sculpture - I've searched online and can't find anything about it.

Inside Saint-Trophime Church in Arles.

Arles market.

River cruise boat on Rhone River.

The Santiago de Compostela walk passes through Arles. 

Forum square - lots of people dining out and enjoying the sun.

It's market day. One of Rob's favourite things to do is browse the local markets. This market was food and the usual soaps, clothes, leather goods, hats, bags. Very crowded market and we only bought some strawberries and Chinese food for lunches. 

Arles is also on the Rhone River (as is Avignon). We only saw one river cruise ship in town. Arles was certainly not as crowded with tourists as Avignon - made for a much more enjoyable day. I'm certainly not busting to go back to Avignon. 

Saint-Trophine Church.

Trapped inside the walls of Avignon

Friday 25th April 

A trip to avignon today to visit the Palais des Papes and the Benizet bridge (sur la Pont d'avignon). We headed off early knowing that it was going to be busy in Avignon with tourists. River cruise ships in town and at least 10 buses near the river. No real problem finding the town and drove straight into the car parking at the market (big mistake we were to find out later).

Headed to the tourist information centre to get information on what to see, and maps of the town. The queue to get into the Palais des Papes was pretty long so we decided to do the Petit train tour of the old town first - this one had an English commentary and gave an overview of the village. 

Lovely street display.

Just one of the many churches in the city.

The opera house in Avignon

Toured the palais - 300 steps they told us. Of course the best bits to see were at the top of the steps - and we all know what goes up, must come down. Some beautiful frescoes on the walls but no photos allowed.  They had ipad type devices that opened up as you entered each area and gave picrures of how the room would have been when the palais was in full use. 

The gardens of the palais.

Cloisters inside the palais.

Benizet bridge - sur le Pont d'avignon 

Dog of the day - he was helping out at one of the shops.

Look at the colour of the sky - beautiful day,
slightly warm but windy and cool if sitting in the shade in the wind.
About 22 deg.

We exited the palais - turn right we decided. No, try left. Google phone to the rescue we thought - no, the further we walked the further away we got from where Kerry was waiting. Eventually we did the woman thing - and asked someone for directions. We were sort of heading the right way - but via a not quite direct route. I think part of our problem was being in norther hemisphere with a southern hemispher brain - it does adjust eventually, but today was not the day. We enjoyed lunch in the main square - Rob finally got his fix of moules and frites.

Kerry and I headed for the street we went down on the train where we had seem fabric articles - using typical Provence colours. A couple of small pieces of fabric to bring home. Rob walked down to the Benizet bridge for photos while Kerry and I shopped.

Time to head home, so back to the car. We got out of the car park ok, but with no signals we chose wrong and went right. This led us into a restricted driving area where we just followed the roads that were open to us (a lot of one way streets, or streets with retractable posts blocking us) and after driving round and round we found ourselves back at the parking lot. We couldn't go back the way we had come so actually had to go back into the car park and out the other side - and pay again for the privilege - and this time we turned left.

Getting out of town took forever as there was roadworks at the gate we were aiming for, and it was probably peak hour.  Then once out on the road, the traffic came to a stop not far from Avignon. An accident we figured - our 45 min trip home turned in to 2 1/2 hours. While sitting in the traffic jam we saw 3 tgv trains, a gyrocoptor flying over the accident site, 5 light planes landing at the airport - in a very gusty wind.