Day 4 Romance in France

June 25, 2011

Dear Family,

We had a little bit of a rocky start this morning as we discovered that we had lost our iPhone/iPad charger. We must have left it at Mt. St. Michele. We will be more careful about checking for chargers in the future.

Still, we were able to enjoy some fabulous pastries and hot chocolate before we were off to the train station to catch the high speed train to the South and Avignon. It is remarkable how rural France is once you leave Paris. As we travelled farther South the general character of the land was similar, with gently rolling hills, and farm fields, interspersed with small stands of trees, with small bushes often lining the edge of the field, and small clusters of red-roofed houses, but the color of the soil changed gradually as did the content of the field.

After a long wait to get our rental car in Avignon (Eurocar must be the best deal as it was the only one with a line), I found myself in the rental lot with a keyless car that I didn't know how to start and couldn't get into reverse. We eventually discovered the secrets of working the machine and headed downtown to replace our lost charger. The downtown of Avignon is fully walled from the middle ages and was quite beautiful to walk through. Then we were off to see an even older area at the Point du Gard, an impressive Roman Aqueduct.

The biggest adventure of the day was our attempt to discover the location of our hotel in Nimes, using the GPS. The GPS don't know about one way roads and soon it has us driving through narrow alleys, barely wider than the small car we were driving, and eventually to a turn that was impassable. It was quite an ordeal maneuvering out of that alley but eventually we turned around and headed for the nearest parking lot. My advice for future travel in the South of France is to find the nearest parking garage and then take to foot when you are visiting these medieval cities. Also, small cars are definitely better in France.

After we found our hotel and stashed our bags, sewers of to see the old Roman sites in Nimes, like the Maison Carre, the fountains, and the Temple of Diana. There is also an ancient arena there which we didn't make it to see.
After all of our walking, we were hungry and found a fabulous square Place de Escalanfidous, where we ate under the stars. It is very interesting there. There are four restaurants around the square with their menus posted. You choose which one looks most appetizing to you and sit at one of their tables in the square. The different restaurants' tables are differentiated only by different color table clothes, and are situated right next to each other. The food from L' Escalanfidous was outstanding, some of the best yet that we have enjoyed.

Sincerely,
Michelle