Here’s some of the highlights from Southern France…

The first two photos below are of an ancient Roman arena in Nimes where they held gladiator fights.  Later it was fortified for living/defense purposes, and then later used for bullfighting.  They still put on bullfights and other shows here, but unfortunately nothing was scheduled while we were in town.  The last photo is a Roman building called the Maison Carré, one of the best preserved Roman temples in the world.
 

Our favorite Roman site in Provence was the Pont du Gard, part of a giant Roman aqueduct system.  You can walk across a tourist bridge to get to the other side, and there’s tons of hiking trails so you can get photos of the Pont du Gard from every possible angle.  It’s hard to capture in photos, but this aqueduct is huge!  It was built entirely without mortar and one of the arches is the largest Roman arch still standing.
 

More roman ruins… the first two are near an old roman city in St Remy de Provence, the last photo is from the Roman arena in Arles (you can see the tall rectangular fortification – this arena was also used as a castle during medieval times).
 

The place below is called Les Baux de Provence, a small village and old castle on top of the hill.  We didn’t tour it, but walked through the small medieval streets.
 

We stopped briefly in Avignon.  The Palace of the Popes (first photo below) was impressive. During a brief stint in the 14th century the Pope moved to France.  Later the Papacy moved back to Rome, and there was a big conflict between France and Rome over who was the real pope (Rome won). Also, apparently the bridge shown below is famous, “The Bridge of Avignon”.  But it’s just a ridiculous tourist trap if you ask me.  People actually paid 4.50 euro to walk out on this tourist-filled bridge.  We skipped it.
 

My favorite hill-town stop in Cote du Rhone was Vaison-la-Romaine.  We got there late in the evening so the sunlight and clouds where picture-perfect.  There’s an old medieval villiage and we hiked to the top (it was free, which was surprising since most places, like Les Baux, were charging for this).  The streets were so cute… I would love to spend more time here.  Unfortunately we didn’t get any photos of the city from a distance, but here’s a few from within the city and at the top.
 

Here’s some pretty pictures of the Provence countryside.
 

View Drive in Southern France in a larger map
Some observations:

• Roundabouts instead of stoplights at most intersections
• Nothing quite like suddenly realizing you’re driving by the remains of an enormous 2,000 year old Roman aqueduct.
• Many of roads out in the countryside are lined with enormous Poplar trees with bark like an impressionist painting.  It’s everywhere and it’s gorgeous.
• Speed limits in France were pretty high – 110 to 130 km/hour (70 to 80 mph) on the highways – and most people drive faster.
• Most gas stations don’t take cash or credit cards.  I think they take special European gas station credit cards.  When we went to fill up the tank before dropping off the car we had to go to 5 different gas stations to find one we could use.
• Gas stations also don’t sell ice in France.  Nobody sells ice in France.  God help you if you sprain an ankle or want a refreshing Coca-Cola on the rocks.
• Road names are extremely hard to find in France, rendering maps mostly useless.  Everything is done by which direction you’re headed, so you need to know the name of every city between where you are and where you want to be.
• Many of the roads are based on old Roman roads, meaning that they go right through the middle of every city.  Running roughly parallel to these are newer toll highways.  We did a lot of driving on both.  The old roads are scenic but slow, the new roads are very fast but very expensive.
• French drivers seemed very aggressive to me, like NY drivers, but we might have simply managed to get on their nerves, driving so slow and erratically when lost.

Alonna with the rental car

Alonna with rental car at a rest stop. I have no idea what those platforms in the bay are for.

Carcassonne is really quite the sight.  It’s a fairy tale medieval castle in real life.   The walled city is huge and it’s always open so you can walk around and get lost on the tiny cobblestone streets.  We really enjoyed it, and I think kids would love it too.  However, I’ve heard that it’s usually full of tourists – we saw it in the early evening, so maybe that’s why it seemed rather quiet to us.

We arrived in Carcassonne without any hotel reservations – a first for this trip (but definitely not the last, I’m sure).  But we lucked out and the second place we stopped was fine – not too bad price-wise (55 euro ensuite), with free parking and free internet.  Plus is was just a 2 minute walk to a bridge where you see the entire Carcassonne city.  At night the city is lit up brightly and a nearby bridge has lights that changed colors.  We loved this place!

Alonna

Ben

Exploring the medieval city

More exploring (it was huge)

Ben standing on the wall

Cool view under an arch

Carcassonne lit up at night

The bridge changed colors

View from the old bridge

 

We did save €35.  But I think next time we’ll just rent at the train station.

Next we found a place that appeared to be the French equivalent of a Walmart.   The seafood section included some very large squid, there was an entire wall with a wide variety of baguettes, the selection of wines was jaw dropping, but other than that it was like a Walmart with a dress code.

Finally, a country that appreciates the hazelnut! €3.50 for half a kilogram.

After some mildly stressful driving (and driving in another country is always at least a little stressful), we finished the day strolling around Carcassonne, a gorgeous medieval city.

Next stop: Arles.  Probably.

That same night, I decided to take a photo of a person with the Eiffel Tower.  So I turned on my small Canon Point & Shoot camera, and guess what icon it has for night portraits?  A person standing in front of the Eiffel Tower!  It worked pretty good too.

Here’s a few other random photos… the Notre Dame, St. Chapelle (unfortunately the main alter area was under construction, and it was a cloudy day, so the sight was a little disappointing), Sacre Couer, Luxemborg Gardens, etc.

Of course we went to a few museums, but definitely not all of them.  The big ones were the Louvre (we went twice for 2 hours each time), Orsay, and a quick stop at the Orangerie.  Here’s a few photos from that:

The Louvre was amazing and huge.  I loved the Italian Renaissance section, especially Raphael (my favorite shown above), and the Winged Victory was really cool.

Ben and I rented bikes at Versailles.  We thought that would let us explore more of the gardens and Hamlet areas, but it turned out we couldn’t take our bikes in there, so we left them parked for over an hour.  But we did ride the bikes all the way around the canal, which was really fun and gave our feet a little break.

We were all exhausted by the end of the day, but it was well worth the trip.  It’s amazing to think of how much money was put into something like this, and it gives some context to the French Revolution.

Hall of Mirrors

Versailles front gate

Versailles palace

View from inside the palace

Versailles

Versailles

Robin, Candy and Ben

Petit Trianon

Marie Antoinette's room at Petit Trianon

Hamlet

Petit Trianon

Versailles from the end of the canal

Biking around the canal

Biking around the canal

Biking around the canal

 

Our first day here was awesome.  We got up early and headed straight for the Eiffel Tower.  It is so cool to see in person.  I thought it might be one of those places that you expect to be amazing but when you see it it’s disappointing.  It wasn’t one of those places.  We rode the elevators all the way to the top.

After a picnic lunch nearby, we visited Notre Dame.  Somehow I didn’t manage to get any good photos of it.

That night we went to Champ Elysee and Arc de Triomphe at sunset, which was really cool.  We attempted to walk to the Eiffel Tower from there, to see it sparkle (every hour on the hour the entire tower sparkles, it’s AWESOME).  Well, we got to the viewing area (Trocadero square) like 2 minutes late.  Oh well, another night.  Still, I got some good night photos of the Arc and Eiffel Tower:

We’ve been really busy in Paris, but it’s been a blast.  Tomorrow (Wednesday) we’re headed for Versailles.  Au revoir for now…