Roman Around ....

After weeks of tapas, olives and coffee and suffering separation anxiety from our bikes, we thought we might as well come and get some culture. So we left Avignon and drove up the road to see Pont du Gard, the most preserved aqueduct of the Roman period. It was a bit like Ribblehead viaduct without the trains - and slightly older (1st century AD - blimey that's even older than Rob)! Next was a drive through the Cotes du Rhone vineyards to Chateauneuf du Pape (where our favourite wine comes from). We had hoped to go on a tour of one of the wineries and sample some plonk, but unfortunately we were the only 2 tourists about (in fact we were the only 2 people about) and they weren't running the tours (either that or they quickly shut their doors when they saw us turn up in our old campervan not wanting to waste a bottle on us!). Probably just as well anyway we'd only have got carried away and acted like mad English fools! So then it was on to Orange (the place, not juice!) for yet more Roman monuments. The best was the Antic Theatre which is the best preserved amphitheatre still standing in its entirety in the world. It dates back to the 1st century AD (they were busy blokes these Romans) and it's very impressive. We were given audio guides to listen to as we wandered round which filled you in on all the history and did a pretty good job of transporting you back in time. A huge statue of Emperor Augustus looked over the amphitheatre; there were hundreds of these produced as propaganda material but because emperors changed so frequently the heads were interchangeable! 10,000 people would fill the amphitheatre and seating was strictly ranked by class, the low life right up the top and the money at the bottom (guess we'd be at the top then!). Even women were allowed to attend these performances - it was the only public event they could go to!

Antic Theatre; Orange

Feeling very cultured we drove on to Fontaine-de-Vaucluse for our overnight stop on an 'Aire' (the French love campervans they even provide these nice parking areas just for us - this one was 3 euros a night (about £2) and it even had squatty loos!). The place turned out to be so nice we stayed another night. There's a spring here which is supposedly the most studied spring in the world, it comes from really deep underground and there's loads of caverns. We climbed up to an old ruined Chateaux clinging to the rock on top of a hill and walked miles through the hills, only to have to turn round and come back the same way when we realised we'd left Alfie's lead back at the Chateaux!

Fontaine de Vaucluse 1

Right class, the history lesson is over but we'll be testing you when we get home!

Pont du Gard

Rob tells me how many croissants he had today!