Megz and Peter in Europe 2004

France, Part II

We returned to France after two days in Spain. It was nice to return to somewhere kinda familiar, although at first I kept saying "si" instead of "oui" and wanting to say "Hola" instead of "Bonjour".

Our first day was a long, long drive through the wine producing provinces of Roussillon (sp?) and Languedoc, to Nimes, almost on the border of Provence. Everywhere we went, as far as the eye could see, were nothing but vineyards. Being still spring there weren't any leaves on the vines yet, let alone grapes.

We stayed in the small town of Remoulin, just east of Nimes, and right next to the Pont du Gard, an amazingly well preserved, totally intact, three level Roman aqueduct spanning the river Gard. For free we were able to walk right up to it, touch it, walk around it, view it from every angle, do everything but walk across the top.

In Nimes we saw an old Roman colosseum which is still used for sporting events to this day, and an ancient Roman temple (now called the Maison Caree - square house) which is also perfectly preserved due to having been continuously used throughout the centuries.

From Remoulin we travelled through Provence (wrong time of year for the lavender fields I was hoping to see, but we did see lots of cherry (?) trees in bloom, to the Cote d'Azure. This was just a one night stopover before heading on to Italy.

I've been to the Cote d'Azure once before. After nearly two months of backpacking on my own I really needed a break, and spent a wonderful day lying on the beach in the sun in Cannes. On that occasion I travelled by train and it really was stress-free. This time however we arrived during evening "rush" hour, and it took us 45 minutes to travel just eight kilometres.

The Cote d'Azure is great if you want to spend a week on the beach. But if you're just passing through it's a bit of a nightmare. We stayed at Cagnes-sur-Mer, in a campground just out the back of the industrial part of town, in a deep valley that gets no sun. I guess land prices are so expensive here that you don't want to go wasting the good stuff on camping.

One hidden treasure we did find in Cagnes-sur-Mer was the house that Renoir (my favourite artist) had built, and where he lived and worked for the last 11 or 12 years of his life. It has now been turned into a museum dedicated to the artist. Really incredible to see his actual studio and to learn a bit about his life.

And then our trip through France came to an end, battling traffic to get to the Italian border. I've really enjoyed France - good food, nice people, lots to see and do. We've covered the whole range of French history - from prehistoric in the Dordogne, to Roman in Nimes, to Renaissance and Monarchy in the Loire, to 19th Century art in Paris & Cagnes, to modern life. Everything's been relatively easy and uncrowded, although less so as we've headed towards Italy and Easter. There are German tourists everywhere at the moment.

We'll be back to France in two and a half weeks time, if only to fly out of Paris and back to London. Doesn't sound like much time, but we've got a lot of things planned to do. Just hope we can fit it all in.

posted by Megz @ 4:06 pm