First a word about the manor. David and Sandrine bought this place 14 years ago and restored it. Sandrine was from Beaucaire, the nearest town, moved to Paris, met David and decided to move back here to raise their family. They have three beautiful children, ages 10 to 15. The oldest is learning to drive. Very cute. The children go to school in Nimes, which is about 20 kilometers from their home. Sandrine drives them to Bellegarde, a smaller town to the west, to catch the bus. They get out of school the end of June and have July and August off.
Besides running the hotel, Sandrine makes confite (preserves) from the apricots, nectarines, figs and peaches her sister grows on the family farm. They're sent off to be jarred and then sold here and elsewhere. Each table at breakfast has at least four jars on it with wonderful breads. So we have enjoyed trying all of the flavors.
Back note: As for Joel, our host in Mougins, he owned a laundry in Paris, sold it, bought the villa in Mougins, restored it and now greets guests and serves breakfast. Not a bad life. They have three sons and I believe one is a dentist, but we really didn't get much history.
Also a note about the cars and petro. One car is a Toyota hybrid and had to be filled up yesterday -- 58 euros or about $90!!!!! This equates to about $6 a gallon. $4 doesn't seem so bad anymore. We have driven this car since Monday from Nice to Mougins to Monte Carlo to Mougins to Eze to Mougins to Beaucaire --- well, just say a lot. So we are getting good mileage.
The other car is diesel. It took a Hungarian to show Sara R how to fill it up. Filling up both cars was a true learning experience. We tried the day before, but none of us could figure it out. So if you drive here and are not sure how, pick a station with humans. Even better, pick one with full service. Damsels in distress!!!
Now for our day, we headed to Avignon first. As we said, Hannah and Betty (gps's) have deserted us for this part of the trip. So we are having to rely on the map and our sense of direction, not always a good thing. The two cars got separated. So we decided to just find each other in Avignon.
Avignon has to rivers that meet here, the Rhone and another we can't remember the name of. This is why it became a vital city. The papacy moved here during most of the 14th century. There are 200,000 people that live in Avignon today and 16,000 actually live within the walled city.
We hit the market first where we bought a few things and then visited the Papal Palace. It housed several popes during their residency in Avignon. It was filled with frescos, tapestries and ornate furnishings during that time.
On our walk back to the car, we came upon an orchestra on the plaza. It would have been nice to sit at one of the restaurants, order some vin and enjoy the music, but we all wanted to go to the Pont du Gard. That is an aqueduct built by the Romans and is close to 2000 years old. It had to be restored in the 20th century because over the centuries people scavenged stones to build medieval cities and churches. It is truly amazing the engineering and building skills these people had. It makes you realize not much today is really new; it's just been improved upon.
You can walk across the lower level of the bridge and look at kayakers, swimmers and sunbathers in the river below. On the other side, we of course found a cafe and had vin, our first for the day, as we were heading to Stes Maries-de-la-Mer for a real dinner tonight.
The trip there was again an adventure. With only a small detour and several circles around the roundabouts -- we were told five times at one roundabout and running one stoplight -- we found our way through Nimes and St. Gilles until we finally saw signs to Stes. Maries. Don't ever complain about the highways and byways in America. France could learn a heck of a lot about signage. It's a wing and a prayer to find your way. But we did and it was beautiful. It's an Agricultural area with huge and small farmhouses spread out among the fields. Along the way we saw the white horses that are native to this area. They're black when they are born and turn white after three years. Hey, kinda sounds like our hair color... We also saw white flamingos with a tinge of pink and lots of bulls.
Wwwwweeelll, we all arrived on what we have now agreed is the French Redneck Riviera. We've gone from the ritzy French Riviera to this. But here we are, hungry. So after checking out several restaurants, we settled on one. We all placed our orders and then discovered the fish (mind you, we're on the Mediterranean) was not local. It's from the Atlantic. So bless his heart, everyone started changing their orders. He finally tore up the ticket and started over. When he walked away, Sara R said, "Thank goodness he could speak Anglais," and Patsy said, "And it's a good thing he could speak English."
We were very pleased with our first course, fish soup or salad with goat cheese. And, of course, vin, blanc and rouge. While eating, the waiter came running up and said, "Watch. The horses and bulls will be coming by. It's the Bandito Festival." Little did we know we were in Pamplona for the running of the bulls.
Our main course was fabulous, fish, but bull for Gina -- surprise surprise. We think they used the bull we saw running earlier. For dessert we had one of each. Just suffice it to say it was all very good and we were all miserable. Then we had to drive an hour to get home!!!
It's been a long day and we are all tired. So off to bed we went. We have all got to repack and organize after our purchases. It sure has been nice having cars, but day after tomorrow we will be traveling by train.
Nite nite, y'all.....
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