Driving in Provence - from the road
Trip Start
Apr 06, 2003
1
60
69
Trip End
Ongoing
Nancy, Lyon, and Les Baux,
France
Sunday, April 17, 2005
Exactly 2 years ago today I landed at Schiphol to
begin this adventure - you'll get my 'Deep Thoughts by
Jack Handy' email on the past year sometime soon. For
now, we wanted to say hi from Provence France.
We drove 6 hours from A'dam on Sat. morn. We stayed
the night in Nancy, a nice town with nothing too
interesting to see but conveniently located at a good
place to stop on our way south. The next morn we
drove another 5 hours to Lyon, France's 2nd largest
town which was a lot nicer and 'quainter' than we had
expected. Again, the next morn we continued south 4
hours until we made it to Provence.
We spend Mon., Tues., and Wed. in a small B&B outside
of the hilltown of Les Baux. Les Baux is a very cute
town crowned by a 10th-century castle. Once we
arrived in Les Baux on Mon. afternoon, we spent the
remainder of the day walking along the 10 or so cute
pedestrianized streets which make up the town.
Tues. we drove 30 minutes to Pont du Gard, a 30-mile
Roman acqueduct which was built in 19 BC. It was
awesome! Next, we went to Avignon, home of the Pope
from 1309-1377 when he left Italy because he was sick
of the Italian politicians. This was another cute
town.
Wed. we visited the market in St. Remy. Afterwards,
we went to Clinique St-Paul, a mental institution
where Van Gogh spent a year after cutting off his
ear. It was quiet informative and even gave a pyscho-
analysis of Van Gogh. We then spent about 90 minutes
walking along a self-guided tour in the countryside
with info signs showing many of the paintings that Van
Gogh painted in the actual place he painted them. As
a Van Gogh fan, it was quite amazing! We finished our
Van Gogh day by driving to Arles. There was nothing
particularly great about Arles but the weather was
nice and there was another really well-done tour of
town with easles set up showing the present scene of
places he painted 100+-years ago.
This morn we bid farewell to Les Baux abd drove
another hour south to Aix, Cezanne's birthplace. We
did a Cezanne walking tour through town this afternoon
and will likely spent the remainder of the day at a
cafe along the tree-lined Cours Mirabeau (boulevard).
Tomorrow we will drive 2 more hours south to the
French Riviera. We will likely spend 4-6 days in
Nice, Monacco, etc before heading back to Provence for
a few more days and then it's time to journey back to
A'dam. A GREAT 2 WEEKS IN PROVENCE!!!
We hope all is well with you all and that we hear from
you soon.
-Stephen and Julie
Check us out at
http://www.travelpod.com/members/kantors_abroad
