Pont du Gard

For our last little adventure this summer we took a day trip to Pont du Gard. Built in the 1st century AD, Pont du Gard is the highest Roman aqueduct bridge and was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985. All summer long the various Roman sites we've seen have just boggled my mind. Honestly, I don't know enough about engineering to know how one would go about constructing an aqueduct today, but the thought that it was being done with the resources available 2000 years ago floors me. It's worth checking out the Wikipedia page on this if you're interested.

There were several bonuses at this site, including an indoor area for kids to learn a bit about archaeology, water collection and disbursement, and life in Roman times. An additional bonus, which we knew about ahead of time, was that you can swim in the Gardon River, just below the aqueduct. The water is frigid, but it feels great after hiking up and down the surrounding hills. And like all good Roman sites, there was ice cream available.

A side note: I do believe I've eaten more ice cream this summer than in the previous few years combined. I know that Anna's eaten more than she's had in the rest of her life! It's amazing how certain practices go out the window when the temperature is above 90. Every. Single. Day.

Versailles

For a while now we've been promising Anna that one day we'd take her to a real castle. Last year we talked about going to Versailles, but never made it. We intended to take her to Buckingham Palace, but didn't count on it being sold out days in advance. So with the determination required to brave the crowds, we finally made it to Versailles.

We were lucky to get a day that wasn't too hot, though after many, many hours of crowds and lines and walking David and I felt like we'd been through a battle. That said, you can't deny the beauty of the place, especially the enormous grounds. The sheer number of fountains is amazing, each with a different size, shape and theme. Time and time again a blind turn in the gardens would reveal some beautiful surprise.



Inside the chapel (which is inside the Palace).

One of hundreds of chandeliers in the infamous Hall of Mirrors.





A bedroom fit for a queen.


A detail from a painting of the coronation Empress Josephine.








View from the Grande Trinon.






One of the hundred of statues in the main gardens. I took a particular liking to her.

Les Baux-de-Provence

The village seen from the castle ruins

Last week we took a short drive to Les Baux, the site of a now-ruined castle perched on top of the rocky Alpilles mountains. The area was inhabited by the Celts around the 2nd century BC and was the seat of a feudal lordship in the Middle Ages. The castle has a really rich, varied history, ending with it's destruction ordered by Cardinal Richelieu in 1632 (all this from the wikipedia site, if you are dying to know more).

We were with our friends from Portland, and the girls were real troopers. It is a huge site, and it was a bloody hot day, so we even though we were there for hours, we only saw a fraction of the ruins.
















The highlight of the day, at least for me, was a trip down the hill from the castle to Les Carrières de Lumières, the site of a former rock quarry that has been turned into an amazing sound and light show. Apparently the show changes annually — we were lucky enough to catch one featuring Monet, Renior and Chagall, although many other artists were represented. Imagine walking into a massive rocky quarry, with walls 40-feet high, and rooms hundreds of feet long. You're in total darkness for a moment. Then, one by one, the walls around you are covered with art. The art is constantly changing though, in time with the music that's also filling the space. You are free to roam around the space, every moment a new discovery. We stayed for at least an hour, and had the pleasure of discovering a 2-minute-long bonus show with images from nature starting with a storm in the quarry and ending with a trip through space. The whole thing was fabulous.





Can you see Anna spinning Mattea around in the foreground? The girls began dancing to the classical music the minute we entered the quarry.






Anna and David become part of the art.


In some cases the projections went along the floor as well.




The walls “filled up” with water starting at the bottom. Here we are surrounded by floating jellies.

Nice, day 2

Our time here in Nice is jam-packed, but it a really good way. We get up and out of our Airbnb flat (which I've taken to calling “The Hovel”) early and spend the entire day sight-seeing.



Day 2 started with a walk to Confiscerie Florian, a candy-maker since the 1940s where they still hand pick and preserve fruits and flowers from the region. We had no idea what to expect, but ended up with a private tour where the entire process was explained to us, after which we could taste almost anything we wanted. It was amazing and we left with a small box of candied vervain (the green candy in the photo — a sort of minty flavor that's hard to describe) and a jar of rose preserves.

From there we headed up the 345-or-so steps to the Colline du Chateau, a former citadel and park, with a man-made 17-th century waterfall and amazing, panoramic views of the coastline.


















After lunch in the park we took a bus to the Chagall Museum. Most impressive was the first room you enter, where they had the entire series of (very large) biblical paintings that Chagall originally did as a series for a chapel in Vence.









As always, David's pictures of the day are amazing. See them here.