Bastide la Combe Vaison-la-Romaine

... rain finally stopped after nearly a week so we were able to enjoy some out of Scooby time!

Saturday 7 Nov
Forecasted for rain today but it held off until late afternoon which gave me time to replace the washer in the gear box and for Kim to go for a run, which she was hankering for as she had been getting a little cabin fever of late due to the rain and lack of exercise/time outside!

... to be wagered. Anyway, behind us was a French man who emitted a loud sigh every time my friend shuffled the cards, as it seems the shuffling was making too much noise. So, we shuffled them a new way to lessen having to listen to his loud sighs.

Our train finally arrived in Avignon, albeit 30 minutes late, which seems to be unusual over here. We hauled our bags out the station and waited in a line with several ...

found a great little town in Provence.. and as they say "when in Rome (Provence)"... we had a great meal in true french restaurant... happy to be away from tourist food... and had some very nice red wine........ just a stopover but a friendly little place and nice hotel...

on the road again...

... the wind to walk across the bridge in the evening to Avignon for dinner. This morning we went on a wine tour (I know, but it is too hard to resist) around the Cotes du Rhone with Phillipe, a very competant and helpful local guide. We ended up at Chateauneuf du Pape drinking wonderful reds which has been a wine hightlight of the trip - the village has the most amazing view of Provence ...

... driver behind us). Ok, so he was waving and flashing behind us and we had no idea what he was going on about so we figured he was either mad or had never seen a car with a right side driver, but then later realized when he drove by that he was only pointing out that the bulb had blown.

Finding the resto was a bit of a challenge, the 3 others (4 including the one we found out was closed on the website before ...

... In the world-famous Châteauneuf-du-Pape we could have purchased many incredible bottles of wine to bring home and share with friends. Alas, since all liquids have been declared potentially dangerous to carry onboard planes, we were limited to trying them on site.

The town itself was very quiet. I expected more hustle and bustle, but perhaps everyone is busy squeezing the grapes just harvested from the fields. One advantage of grapes ...

... the word until he eventually threw his hands up and yelled out, "OH in-TER-net!". Ok now despite his slight French accent, he pretty much said it in exactly the same way as we had been for the past 5 minutes. So we were all a bit confused by that encounter but glad to have directions for an in-TER-net cafe.

However our problems didn't end there. His directions were... confusing at best. We found ourselves wandering the streets of Avignon with no ...

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Sunday 31/6/09 Vaison la Romaine Roman sites Today was spent wandering around the Roman ruins at Vaison. There are 2 quite extensive areas of excavations into several grand villas, a streetscape and a theatre. The theatre apparently seated 6000, more on the scale of a sports stadium perhaps. It was interesting to see all the mechanics of the buildings exposed, such as plumbing, sewage and drainage which ...

... We caught hints of the sights, sounds, and smells of Provence as the locals must know it, but these gems were barely discernable through the patina of tourists and enterprises catering to tourists. We joined these crowds as happily as the next tourist, and for what it was worth, left our tourist footprints on Provence, but I can't help but wonder about the unseen side of this region, a side which remains to be discovered ...