Where The Streets Have No Name
Trip Start
Sep 07, 2008
1
7
33
Trip End
Oct 10, 2008
Provence,
France
Monday, September 15, 2008
We wandered around on the top of the large rock that the Palace is built atop and experienced first hand what is known as the Mistral. This part of France is known for being extremely windy, with these crazy winds called the Mistral, which apparently blow on 200 days a year
Palais de Popes
. It made walking down by the river quite a challenge but we persevered in order to get a closer look at the bridge across the Rhone River, known as the Pont St Benezet. Every book you read tells you that this is the site that the famous French song about dancing on the bridge at Avignon is written about, but having never heard the song, the significance was kind of lost on us. It is still an impressive sight as it is an arched bridge built in the 12th Century which only spans halfway across the river, as it was washed away in a flood in 1668.Our next stop was to be the town of Arles, known for its Roman ruins, just 70km south of Avignon. But Tom had other ideas. I realise that Tom is merely a computer with a voice, however after a few days of having his company on our journeys he had started to take on a bit of a personality. Tom very confidently led us out of Avignon, but as the roads started to get narrower and eventually ended in the middle of an industrial wasteland, we started to have concerns. Either Tom was taking us out to a deserted part of town to rob us of all our belongings, or he was lost. The best part was we realised he was lost before he did, then all of a sudden he went silent and refused to talk to us any further. We had to find our own way back to a major road in Avignon before he came back to life again. Lesson 1 - computers don't know everything. Not 5 minutes later, Tom very confidently informed us to turn left and take the motorway. Which would have been great if the motorway wasn't still actually being constructed at the time. Thanks again Tom.
We eventually made it to Arles, to find every tourist in the South of France had already beaten us there. There was not a carpark in sight in the whole town
St Benezet Bridge Avignon
. We eventually got lucky, and wandered along the banks of the Rhone into Arles. You may remember I mentioned my favourite painting by Van Gogh, Starry Night over the Rhone. Well this is where it was painted, while Van Gogh was living here in 1888. Arles is also famous for its Roman amphitheatre and baths. We wandered the streets of the old town, and eventually rounded a corner to see the impressive arches of the Roman amphitheatre in front of us. Being a Sunday, and after having found Avignon so empty of tourists, we were surprised to find a huge crowd of people sitting on the steps in front of the entrance to the amphitheatre. It soon became obvious that we had stumbled onto another festival, as the amphitheatre was closed to tourists and was full of tiers of metal seats. We couldn't read any of the signs in French, but as we strolled further through the streets we became even more intrigued. Drunk people spilled out of bars onto the streets, jazz bands played in the square, and one of the main streets was fenced off on both sides with 2m high metal barriers. Eventually we realised that we were in the middle of the Arles on the day of a bullfight. We had just missed the running of the bulls through the main street of town, and were standing outside the amphitheatre, without a ticket, while a bullfight was about to begin inside. We were a little disappointed as we would have loved to have seen it, however it did mean that we had seen Arles at its best, on a day when it was positively buzzing with excitement
Arles Roman Amphitheatre
. Sadly we had to leave to find our hotel somewhere in the countryside of Provence. Matt had booked this place on the recommendation of the Sawday's website, a well known website for B&B's catering to UK travellers. It was the kind of place that we had hoped to stay in Provence, to get out of big cities for a while and have some downtime from travelling. We were also keen to meet some locals. Armed with little more than some vague co-ordinates in the GPS and a phone number, we left the motorway and headed off into the countryside. We drove some amazing winding roads through vineyards galore, and around every corner seemed to be a little village perched on a hill. It was just spectacular. However as our directions seemed to run out, and Tom didn't seem to be able to get a satellite location, we started to get a little concerned. We even resorted to phoning the owners for more directions, only to continue to get an engaged signal each time. Eventually, just as Matt's patience for dead ends was starting to fade, I decided we needed help and wandered into the front yard of a local house to ask for directions. Not knowing the French words for lost, I just shrugged a lot and pointed to the address I had written down. They very quickly gestured that we should follow in our car and they would show us the way. Very kind of them we thought, even more so when we were still following them 20 minutes later, two villages away, up a tiny dirt road to our accommodation
B & B in Provence
. Our hosts were so grateful to Sophie, for finding their lost guests, and a bit embarrassed that the owner Caroline had been on the phone for the last hour, which was why we couldn't get through. We certainly met those locals we were hoping to meet, and hope to repay the good karma to some other travellers one day. Don't let that story put you off though, this place we are staying is fantastic and we would recommend it to anyone. It is called Domaine de la Blaque, and it is a B&B run by a lovely French couple, Jean-Luc and Caroline. It is in the middle of nowhere, but that is the charm. We are staying in a rustic old cabin, with exposed timber beams for a roof, and stacked stone for walls, but still with all the comforts that are expected. They have a pool, two horses, and two beautiful white Pyrenees dogs that we have fallen in love with. The hosts themselves are also very friendly and spend time each morning helping you plan your itinerary for the day, giving a bit of local insight which we found invaluable. Exhausted after our adventurous day, we had a lovely dinner of baguettes and stinky camembert cheese before falling into bed.
