The Romans

You cannot go far here in Provence without running into examples of Roman buildings, bridges, towns, and water systems.  Most of it dates from around 2,000 years ago when the Roman empire extended right across Europe and the Middle East.  At its peak in about 100 AD it included modern-day Egypt, Morocco, Spain, Britain, Turkey and the Balkans.  In Nimes we saw the Maison Carree, the arena, and the gardens.

Glanum

Glanum is the Roman town discovered just outside Saint Remy.  Its oldest traces date back to 600 BC, and it was Greek before being taken by the Romans.  Eventually the town was buried apart from the large cenotaph and triumphal arch, before being rediscovered in the 1900s and excavated.  The site is now a tourist attraction.

The triumphal arch at Glanum.

The Glanum archaeological site.

There was a lot of information on the display panels around the site, covering interesting details of the town such as the hot baths (with heated walls!), the underfloor heating, and the water and sewage systems.  Glanum was the site of a sacred spring, one of the main reasons for its existence.

Exploring Glanum.

Pont du Gard

The Pont du Gard is a large three-level aqueduct spanning the Gardon river, built 2,000 years ago to carry water from a spring at Uzes to the city of Nimes.  It is the highest known Roman aqueduct, standing 48 metres high, and an awesome sight in person.  The water channel is about 1.2 m wide and 1.8 m high, and is covered over to keep the water cool and clean.  The most amazing aspect of the aqueduct is that it was just a small part of a 50 km long channel running all the way to Nimes, maintaining a fall of just 25 mm per kilometre to make the water flow.  It is estimated to have delivered about 40,000 cubic metres of water a day and was used for almost 600 years!

Looking up at the second and third levels of the bridge.

The attached roadway was built much later, in the 1700s.

Pont Julien

Pont Julien is a Roman road bridge, which was still carrying traffic up until 2005 when it was closed to preserve it.  It has since been incorporated into a cycling route.  It is not particularly large at 11 m high and 80 m long

Pont Julien.  The stream is quite small.

Pont Julien, showing damage from thieves stealing bronze pins!

Arles

We also visited Arles, which has its own surviving Roman arena, still used for performances today.  There is also a Roman theatre nearby.

Arles arena.

The Roman theatre in Arles.

The theatre was being set up for a performance as we went past.

Read Full Story...

Saint Remy-de-Provence

We are in Saint Remy-de-Provence, a little town 90 km northwest of our previous place in Vauvenargues.  It is much bigger than Vauvenargues, but still a small town.  It has the ring-road circling the old town centre like many other towns around here, but in this case it takes less than five minutes to walk from one side of the town to the other.  Our Airbnb is just outside that road, so we can walk into the town in 3 minutes - a big change from Vauvenargues to Aix.  The site has been occupied for thousands of years, and a roman town (Glanum)  has been excavated just south of here.

The centre of St Remy is filled with many shops and cafes, and the streets are very neat and clean.  In places the perfect paved streets feel almost as smooth as the inside of someone's home.

 

Saint Eloi Parade

The Saint Eloi parade honours the patron saint of farmers, and we stumbled upon it when we went out that day.  The streets were full of spectators, and the parade participants were lining up ready to start their parade.  A few minutes later they all wound into action and we were treated to an excellent spectacle passing before us over the half and hour or so.  Everyone was dressed in traditional costumes, there was music, lots of horses, and a troupe of young whip-crackers.  Saint Eloi was carried at the front of the procession, and it was finished off at the tail by a large decorated cart.

The head of the procession, warming up before the start.

The band played a pipe with one hand, and the drum with the other!

Many fine horses - must have been at least fifty.

The whip-cracking team.  They took great delight in cracking their whips.

Full family group on horseback, some sidesaddle.

That was a great treat, especially since we had not realised it was on.  After that we learned that we missed another parade, on the day we arrived, when sheep are driven through the streets.

Plane trees along the main road into town.

A quiet side street.

White star jasmine is abundant at the moment.

Plaque marking the house where Nostradamus was born in St Remy.

The Wednesday Market

Every Wednesday most of the town is taken over by a street market, and crowds of people come to browse and buy, or perhaps to have a coffee and a pain-au-raisin.  Some regular places don't open, because they are swamped by the market stalls.

Sue admiring the Nostradamus fountain.  One of many excellent market-day buskers.

There were hundreds (thousands, maybe?) more people in town, crowding the little streets and filling the cafes.  There is a great range of stuff on sale, bigger than the Nelson market on a summers day I'd say.  The crowd was almost gridlocked at some of the busy intersections of the narrow streets.

Even though we've been here a while now, we are still discovering tiny streets and bits of history each time we wander through the town.

Read Full Story...

The Avignon Pope

As we all know the Pope is from Rome.  But it was not always that way!  After conflict between Italian and French factions of the church, in 1309 the Pope decided to leave Rome and set up here in Avignon, France.  Popes continued to be based there for about 100 years, through all sorts of turmoil, until eventually power returned to Rome.

The Popes built an immense palace, which still towers over the square in Avignon.  The cost must have been staggering.  Avignon is of course also home to the famous Pont de Avignon, known to us since childhood for the French song about dancing on it.  Today the bridge is a stub sticking out into the Rhone, with just four of the original twenty-two arches remaining.  The rest tended to collapse during flooding, so the bridge was eventually abandoned in the mid 1600s.  It remains an important landmark however.

Someone punched a handy hole in the old city walls.

The Palace of the Popes, and the square where we lunched.

The gardens beside the palace.  Those popes knew how to relax.

The view down onto the bridge "Pont de Avignon".

These children were enjoying their open-air dance/exercise class.

There is a performance space set up inside the palace.

The stonework is in very good condition!

The rooms are huge with a very high stud.

With many other tourists and one or two unruly school groups we toured the palace, through the numerous huge rooms with such high studs that heating must have been a problem!  The "chapel" is the size of a large church.  They must have considered themselves extremely important.  The popes took everything when they left so the palace is largely empty now, apart from information panels and some exhibits.

Sue on the battlements, with the golden Madonna beyond.

The street around the back of the palace.

From the palace it is a five minute walk to the "Pont de Avignon".  It too is popular with tourists, so it's hard to get a clear photo with several people walking in front of you!  Most of it was washed away in floods, so that all that remains is about 20% of the original.

The gatehouse which controlled access to the bridge.

Returning to the city along the bridge, with the palace beyond.

It was satisfying to stand upon the Pont de Avignon, once such a far-away place for us.  We refrained from dancing on it, but we probably should have.

Read Full Story...