Bonjour from CDG airport, we are sitting in the Cathay Pacific Lounge sipping coffee, its the quietest we have been since arriving in France. Our last day in Avignon we did a bus tour and fell in with a couple of Aussies from Cairns who were great fun to travel with.
We started the day with a trip to Orange to see the Arc de Triomphe built by the Romans to celebrate their victory over the celts in the 1st century AD, a truely amazing edifice. We then headed the Roman Theatre 'theatre antique' a huge amphitheatre which is one of the best preserved in the world. In fact they are still holding productions including operas there now.
After a scenic drive through the Provence countryside we stopped at Chateauneuf-du-Pape for a lesson in wine production, a visit to the ageing cellars and finally the best bit a tasting of their wines. We tried a white and a few reds, and I have to say ours are better, in fact since we have been away I have developed a greater appreciation for our wines and food in general - I think our gastronomy is world class.
After our tipple we sloshed back onto the bus, Kim from Cairns said "well it was okay but give me a good NZ or Aussie Sav Blonc any day - to which we heartily agreed. A 40 minute drive took us further into the hills to the village of Les Baux De Provence which is a medieval village perched on a rocky spur in the Alpilles hill range. An incredible sight, we stopped on the outskirts for photos and then headed into the village for lunch and lavender ice cream.
After lunch we stayed in the hills and headed to the village of Gordes which is a village comprised of drystone cottages, then drove to Roussillon which was the site of ochre production for centuries until synthetic dyes made ochre production obsolete. The houses are all painted with ochre in a mind boggling array of ochre hues, very picturesque.
Our final stop for the day was Le Pont du Gard which is one of the largest and best preserved Roman aquaducts, it was completed in the first century AD and supplied all the water to the town of Nimes.
We arrived back in Avignon at about 7:30pm exhausted but enriched. And then we had to pack!!!!
Saturday we ditched the bloody fiat panda that had sat unused in the driveway since our arrival, the europcar people in Avignon were lovely (which didn't really make up for the ones in Marseilles being arses!!) And we boarded the train for the trip to Paris. Just a word about fast trains - its almost 700kms from Avignon to Paris by road, so by train its probably 650kms the train left Avignon at 10:42 on time and arrived in Paris at 1:24, yes folks thats 2 hour and 32 minutes - I don't think we go from Wang to Melbourne in that time!!! We grabbed a cab and headed to our hotel, and thank you John Bursill for his tip about using Timhotels, it was great. But a big but, guess who didn't know the weekend they planned to spend in Paris was the weekend of the Paris marathon!!!! OMG the crowds, but not to be deterred (and once again thanks to Mr Bursill) we headed out for our tour under the eiffle tower, we chickened out of using the metro as we were both tired and didn't want to have an argument and took a cab to the tower. Secuurity in Paris is worse than airport security, to get into the tower area you go through a bag check and then a scanner, this gets you not into the tower but into the compound - which is like a city block - where you buy your tickets (after queuing for at least an hour) thank god I'd pre booked the tour as we had prioity and went straight through. We met our guide and spent an enjoyable 90 minutes going under the tower and then up the tower. Warren thought it was the best excursion we had done all trip. After leaving the tower we had a walk around the area and then caught a cab back to the hotel, had room service and off to bed.
Sunday we headed off on the metro, a really helpful young lady in information printed out the route we needed to take and the changes of train required to get to our destination, yes Mr Bursill it is easy peasy, the metro is fantastic, we could really learn a thing or two. Cost was €1,30 each which is about $2.10. As we had plenty of time we wandered around the streets, got somethong to eat and generally soaked up the atmosphere, there were so many cops and closed streets due to the marathon that getting around was a little difficult. Then we met our tour group and headed out of the city for Versailles.
Our first stop was Petite Trianon, which was Marie Antoinette's summer palace, once again security was bag check and scanner, several times. We wandered through the palace and then into the grounds before back on the bus and off to Versailles where once again multiple security checks to get in. We had a really interesting guided tour through, but it was soooo crowded that it spoilt the experience. However I can say now that my old mum was right when she said it was vulgar and it was the reason for the revolution. The place is huge, the baroque decor is over the top (but at least each Louis did use French people and materials) the gardens 800 hectares of them are beautiful, we were lucky that all the fountains were on and the music was playing during our visit. All in all an experience I'm glad to have had even if the crowds were horrendous. We took the metro back to the hotel before heading out for dinner and a walk around Montmatre.
But more of that in the next blog, here are a couple of photos before we hop on the plane. Take care all, we miss you xx
We started the day with a trip to Orange to see the Arc de Triomphe built by the Romans to celebrate their victory over the celts in the 1st century AD, a truely amazing edifice. We then headed the Roman Theatre 'theatre antique' a huge amphitheatre which is one of the best preserved in the world. In fact they are still holding productions including operas there now.
After a scenic drive through the Provence countryside we stopped at Chateauneuf-du-Pape for a lesson in wine production, a visit to the ageing cellars and finally the best bit a tasting of their wines. We tried a white and a few reds, and I have to say ours are better, in fact since we have been away I have developed a greater appreciation for our wines and food in general - I think our gastronomy is world class.
After our tipple we sloshed back onto the bus, Kim from Cairns said "well it was okay but give me a good NZ or Aussie Sav Blonc any day - to which we heartily agreed. A 40 minute drive took us further into the hills to the village of Les Baux De Provence which is a medieval village perched on a rocky spur in the Alpilles hill range. An incredible sight, we stopped on the outskirts for photos and then headed into the village for lunch and lavender ice cream.
After lunch we stayed in the hills and headed to the village of Gordes which is a village comprised of drystone cottages, then drove to Roussillon which was the site of ochre production for centuries until synthetic dyes made ochre production obsolete. The houses are all painted with ochre in a mind boggling array of ochre hues, very picturesque.
Our final stop for the day was Le Pont du Gard which is one of the largest and best preserved Roman aquaducts, it was completed in the first century AD and supplied all the water to the town of Nimes.
We arrived back in Avignon at about 7:30pm exhausted but enriched. And then we had to pack!!!!
Saturday we ditched the bloody fiat panda that had sat unused in the driveway since our arrival, the europcar people in Avignon were lovely (which didn't really make up for the ones in Marseilles being arses!!) And we boarded the train for the trip to Paris. Just a word about fast trains - its almost 700kms from Avignon to Paris by road, so by train its probably 650kms the train left Avignon at 10:42 on time and arrived in Paris at 1:24, yes folks thats 2 hour and 32 minutes - I don't think we go from Wang to Melbourne in that time!!! We grabbed a cab and headed to our hotel, and thank you John Bursill for his tip about using Timhotels, it was great. But a big but, guess who didn't know the weekend they planned to spend in Paris was the weekend of the Paris marathon!!!! OMG the crowds, but not to be deterred (and once again thanks to Mr Bursill) we headed out for our tour under the eiffle tower, we chickened out of using the metro as we were both tired and didn't want to have an argument and took a cab to the tower. Secuurity in Paris is worse than airport security, to get into the tower area you go through a bag check and then a scanner, this gets you not into the tower but into the compound - which is like a city block - where you buy your tickets (after queuing for at least an hour) thank god I'd pre booked the tour as we had prioity and went straight through. We met our guide and spent an enjoyable 90 minutes going under the tower and then up the tower. Warren thought it was the best excursion we had done all trip. After leaving the tower we had a walk around the area and then caught a cab back to the hotel, had room service and off to bed.
Sunday we headed off on the metro, a really helpful young lady in information printed out the route we needed to take and the changes of train required to get to our destination, yes Mr Bursill it is easy peasy, the metro is fantastic, we could really learn a thing or two. Cost was €1,30 each which is about $2.10. As we had plenty of time we wandered around the streets, got somethong to eat and generally soaked up the atmosphere, there were so many cops and closed streets due to the marathon that getting around was a little difficult. Then we met our tour group and headed out of the city for Versailles.
Our first stop was Petite Trianon, which was Marie Antoinette's summer palace, once again security was bag check and scanner, several times. We wandered through the palace and then into the grounds before back on the bus and off to Versailles where once again multiple security checks to get in. We had a really interesting guided tour through, but it was soooo crowded that it spoilt the experience. However I can say now that my old mum was right when she said it was vulgar and it was the reason for the revolution. The place is huge, the baroque decor is over the top (but at least each Louis did use French people and materials) the gardens 800 hectares of them are beautiful, we were lucky that all the fountains were on and the music was playing during our visit. All in all an experience I'm glad to have had even if the crowds were horrendous. We took the metro back to the hotel before heading out for dinner and a walk around Montmatre.
But more of that in the next blog, here are a couple of photos before we hop on the plane. Take care all, we miss you xx
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