When I planned this holiday in the South of France, I looked at all the pre-organised tours and thought I could do better…
There were certain Roman places we wanted to see – Nick was particularly interested in the Pont du Gard, the huge Roman aqueduct for example – but no tour did everything that we wanted. So I contacted a private tour company and gave them my complete itinerary for our unique tour.
Not everything worked out exactly as we wanted because, with a rather anxious tour guide, we didn’t have the flexibility to stop and change our schedule when we wanted. She was determined to keep us on track and got quite cross when we stayed too long at our first stop. That certainly took the shine off the day but we did get to see a lot and it was great to have someone dedicated to driving us around. Next time, I think we just need to make it clear that we won’t judge her if we don’t get everything done simply because we’ve chosen to go with the flow!
les baux de provence
Our first stop was the stunning village of Les Baux de Provence which we reached via a quick drive through St Remy-de-Provence. Les Baux de Provence is a very picturesque medieval village perched in the rocks between Arles and St Remy-de-Provence. The buildings look like they are built into the rocks and the narrow cobblestone streets are delightful. We wandered around the little shops and cafes, bought a coffee and then decided that we were starving (no breakfast yet) and wanted to take paninis back to the car. Unfortunately making the paninis took too long for our driver was very agitated when we got back late. However the paninis were totally delicious so it was worth experiencing her wrath…
If we had more time, we could have stopped near Les Baux-de-Provence to visit an oil mill or the organic and biodynamic vineyards. We also would have chosen to stay longer in Les Baux-de-Provence. Our guide suggested most people only want around half an hour but if you want to eat and explore the genuine uniqueness of the village, at least an hour to an hour and a half could easily be filled.
arles
After our visit, we headed off to Arles. Our guide knew Arles better than some of the other areas of Provence so was able to take us through the sites of Van Gough and the Roman monuments. Unfortunately, the tickets we had pre-purchased for the Roman monuments still needed to be stamped in the tourist office so, after parking and learning of this inconvenience, we followed our guide on a mad run to get to the tourist office on the other side of the town. It was a bit of a panic and had we been on our own, we would have probably just taken our time to experience the beauty of Arles on the way through, especially as we had seen the Colosseum the year before so the Arles monuments were not ‘the be all and end all’.
Ultimately, we probably only spent 15 minutes at the Roman amphitheatre and other monuments. It was lovely but nowhere near as impressive as the one at Nimes or indeed anything in Rome. Our guide then took us on a dash around Arles to all the sights related to Van Gogh including the asylum room where Van Gogh stayed (viewed from outside) and the places that inspired his paintings including the Yellow House on the Place Lamartine and the hospital garden. Our guide was quite informative and clearly loved Arles. We would have liked to have stopped for lunch at one of the delightful cafes in Arles as it is a village with a lot of charm and character – but we needed to stick to our schedule!
nimes
So onwards we went to Nimes with our first stop being the Tour Magne, a Roman tower that was once a part of the city’s outer fortifications. It stands on the top of a hill in the Jardins de la Fontaine, overlooking the town. Unfortunately, by the time we got there it was closed for lunch and wasn’t opening again until 2pm so we just had to admire it from the outside.
I had bought tickets for joint entry for Maison Carree, Arenes de Nimes and the Tour Magne for 13 euros (adult) and 11 euros (student) each so we attempted to visit all three places in Nimes – with varying success!
After attempting the Tour Magne, we took off in our guide’s Mercedes van down the narrow, winding streets towards the centre of Nimes. It was supposed to be a short cut but we soon found that the tiny road more resembled a lane and wasn’t built for large cars or vans. It was so tight that the car was badly scraped and at some points, we had to go backwards and forwards to find just a few centimetres of angle to get through.
This was a very slow process! But strangely, the driver in the car behind us seem to think we could move faster because they kept blowing their horn at us – totally pointless when we couldn’t go forward and they were preventing us from reversing out the way we came!
Eventually we scraped through to cheers from all of us and a sense of relief that we were once again on our way.
We made it into Nimes and again had bad luck because the Maison Carree, the beautifully preserved Roman temple, was not allowing anyone else in for some time. It officially reopens each day at 2pm but we weren’t allowed to go inside. They have a film on the history of Nimes we believe and it truly is in perfect condition after being restored so if you can, I would definitely recommend you get your timings right and take a tour inside! Even if you miss it however, it is interesting to watch the amorous young French couples sitting amongst the columns of the temple – the French are certainly not backwards at putting their affections on display!
We headed from there to the Nimes Arena which we DID get to go inside and it didn’t disappoint. It’s certainly not the Colosseum but it is well preserved for a 2000 year old building. Russell Crowe’s movie Gladiator was filmed there and it is today used for bullfighting – the French version where the bull isn’t actually killed thankfully.
As well as the Arena, there is the Temple of Diana, which wasn’t actually a temple in its day but a library. If you love all things Roman, it is worth taking a look. We bought joint tickets to all the monuments in Nimes and only ended up seeing the Arena which was the best but, with more time (and better planning!), we could have spent half a day in the area. As it was, wine and the aqueduct were calling us so we headed out to Pont du Gard.
pont du gard
Now the Pont du Gard is impressive and like nothing we had seen before. I am sure we would have been awestruck by Nimes (and probably Arles) if we hadn’t spent so much time in Rome the year before but the aqueduct was totally new to us. This amazing structure was built to bring water to the town and quite rightly, is a UNESCO world heritage monument.
Here again, we bought tickets (Discovery Pass plus top level entry for 11.50 euros for adults, 9 euros for youth and 6 euros for child) that we couldn’t use. We wanted to have a guided walk along the top of the aqueduct but the timing of the next tour meant that we wouldn’t be able to get to our last place to visit before it was time to go back to Avignon so we had to give it a miss. In addition to the tour tickets, we had purchased general admission tickets but our tour guide had included them in our package as well – so again, wasted money!
However, we thoroughly enjoyed our visit. The setting on the River Gardon is quite barren but intriguing and we took a walk into the bushy surrounds. The huge size of the aqueduct is quite surprising and you can only be impressed with the incredible ingenuity of the Romans in building this masterpiece of architecture. We loved our visit and we felt we had experienced something truly unique.
chateauneuf du pape
After our visit and our relaxing walk, we headed for the wineries of Chateauneuf Du Pape, the most famous wine of the Cotes Du Rhone. Our guide was committed to showing us as much as possible so drove through Orange on the way, stopping by the side of the road for us to take a quick shot of the ancient Roman Theatre.
Our first wine museum was from the Brotte estate where we sampled a wonderful range of red and white wine with an interesting talk from the winemaker. We felt a little obliged to make a few purchases there and they weren’t cheap but we were very happy to buy a bottle of La Fiole Du Pape in its fancy twisted bottle covered in dust. It is quite a showpiece that needs to rest for a few years so we decided to lay it down for four years to open when we celebrate Sam’s 21st birthday.
After the Brotte museum we headed for Chocolaterie Bernard Castelain where we couldn’t resist the magnificent range of chocolate and wines. You could choose several options from the sample tray and they were all divine. None of us could resist buying our own favourites, which while quite expensive, felt unmissable unlike most of the manufacture chocolate you see throughout Europe. We sampled and bought a few wines too although by this stage we were getting a little worried about how we were going to get all the wine and gifts home in our suitcases.
Although we did so much in our day, we did actually get back to Avignon on time and went back out to our favourite local restaurant, Le Forum on Le Place Du Horloge for dinner. This time we sat outside but we were served by the same comical waiter. He recognised us and proceeded to let Nick know that he wouldn’t let him order Carbonara again given he didn’t eat it the night before. As he didn’t speak English, it was an amusing exchange as he used his expressions to convey his meaning. My limited amount of French wasn’t good enough to have a conversation with our waiter but that didn’t stop the fun. When Nick and Karl ordered beer, he brought Karl a tiny glass and Nick a huge stein. When pretending to take a group photo of us all, he just took one of me. I’m sure he played this role night after night but we enjoyed his light-hearted engagement and, after a big day out, it was pleasant to sit back and laugh at his antics.
The meal was delicious again – traditional provencal lamb although of course most of the boys ordered pizza and pasta. It was all lovely and filling for our last night in Avignon.