Friday, April 20, 2007

Another glorious day in paradise!


Another glorious day in paradise! 30 degrees plus and blue skies. We planned trips close to 'home' today, but didn't quite turn out that way as we were distracted by the interesting places to see and visit.
First stop was to the Theatre Antique d'Orange, an amazingly well preserved/semi-restored Roman theatre and a UNESCO world heritage sight. We drove through a very pretty valley, stopping off at a 'working' monastry that was set amongst fields of lavender. I would love to have seen them in flower, only problem would have been that the area would have been extremely busy, rather than just a little busy. We are incredibly glad that it is not the holiday season here, as the roads are narrow and windy and meeting a few cars is stressful enough!
We saw the Village des Bories, bee-hive shaped buildings made out of rock. Life must have been pretty grim I think. Nearby was Gordes, a village built into the cliff face and full of narrow, steep and windy cobbled streets. All of the cars we saw had scraps down the sides - not surprising considering the places they managed to drive to. Typical French, we saw three people sitting at a table on the road edge, drinking a bottle of wine, with the fourth seat taken by a dog that had it's water-bowl in front of it, on the table.
Last stop was to Roussillon which is a village where the buildings are plastered in a pretty pink colour made from the red clay on which it is built. the interesting thing is that the red clay is localised, though we did manage to bring some back with us, on our clothes!
Supermarkets close at 7.00 here and we were too late, so had to resort to MacDonalds for the kids for tea. In this land where food is such an 'occasion', it seem strange to see the 'Golden Arches' in every town.
Some of the many coloured doors in Rousillon!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey, finally worked out how to post a blog. sounds like you guys are having a great time. we have survived Sarah's 5th birthday - what an event! 3 sleeps till she starts school, as you can imagine we are all counting down the sleeps. showed kids pics of your hols, Sarah wants to visit the castles and go to the places Ella has been! Love from us all to you all, stay safe and on the right side of the road!
The Pasks

Anonymous said...

Just got back from Nelson, Beautiful place and the weather was wonderful. Richard bought the Triumph 900 and is very pleased with himself. His mum sent smoe money out for his birthday present and with my winnings from the quiz night we went to the Casino. Lost very little money but we had a good time. Spent today out at school getting things ready for Monday. I sent in the application for St. Josephs so hopefully will hear back from them next week. All is well here, look after yourselves and love to all.
Annette and Richard

anon said...

Bonjour you Young things.Great to read about your big adventure.Always wanted to try out my high school French,not to mention the wine, so I'm quite envious of you all.No word on the jazz so far-guess no one's interested.Making good use of time on mac as you CAN~sea$ %**^@?? / ?...
Might as well grab one of those castles for a "time share" David,if it's going cheap,then we could come and stay ha ha.Have a wonderful trip and safe return
Warm regards,Maurice