Avignon - day 10

After spending much time yesterday sorting the blog, care of a couple of glasses of wine in the lobby bar we decided it was time to hit the town and look for somewhere for dinner. Surprisingly there weren’t as many places open in the Main Street as I expected so after a bit of to and froing I suggested to J that we head for the town square where I remembered from our morning walk with Laura there were a number of outdoor cafes. So that’s where we headed. The rain had stopped and blue skies again, even though it was past 7 so we found a local place, decided to eat inside rather than the outdoor setting and each had a lovely pizza that neither of us could eat all of, plus a half bottle of a really nice white wine. It was a really nice finish to our day. Eventually we wandered back to our hotel, and time to get in the jammies, hop into bed and a read of the kindle before lights out.

(From here on, be thankful that you are seeing photos as I was quite prepared to do just my travelogue and wait til I got somewhere with better internet, but J convinced me to come down to the lobby again and make the full blog happen. What I am prepared to do for my adoring public...)
A 9 am start for an optional tour to an Olive Mill and Les Baux. Forecast is 19 and no rain but I’m taking a jacket and umbrella as we are literally heading for the hills. On the way we drive through st Remy de Provence which is where Nostradamus lived and pass the very plain house, tucked back in an alley of a more main street where he lived. Lovely scenery and changing landscape along the way. Good shot of the old city as we leave Avignon.

At the CastelineS family owned Olive farm we are met by the delightful Remy who was the quintessential young Frenchman who was charming, funny and nice looking. He could sell ice to Eskimos. As Princess Amalia would say, “I could spread him on a cracker and eat him!” LOL... anyway Remy showed us the workings of the mill and how olive oil is produced. It was really interesting, or at least he made it seem so. There are something like 100,000 olive trees on their land.Then we were given the opportunity to try all the different olive oils. Must say, I preferred this tasting to some of the wine ones! then it was time for shopping in their delightful shop. I thought I was very restrained as I kept reminding myself that it would all somehow have to fit in my suitcase, and we aren’t half way through our entire holiday yet. But others either didn’t think of that, or didn’t care!

Back on the coach and then it was a short drive to Les Baux which has a reputation as one of the most picturesque villages in France. The village is set atop a rocky outcrop in the Alpilles mountains, crowned with a ruined castle. As we are in our coach, we are able to be dropped very close to the entrance.

All those in private cars have had to park along the winding steep road up to the entrance. We take our umbrellas as the skies are dark and a light rain is starting to fall but then goes as quickly as it came. Fabulous views as Laura takes us through the winding streets to the top. Did you know that Bauxite got it’s name from here as the mineral was first discovered here and initially mined, but no more as much richer deposits found elsewhere in the world, so there’s another tidbit of potential trivia for you.


As this village was initially a fortified city, they breached the walls eventually to gain access, and that’s where we walk through.


There are two churches, loads of eating places and even more colourful shops.

Left to our own devices, J and I head to a restaurant Laura recommended for its great views. We elect to eat outdoors where J has a duck breast salad and I had lasagne. We both thoroughly enjoyed our meal which we shared with a cheeky little bottle of rose.

Time for J to go shopping but nothing special caught my eye. Such lovely, well presented shops.

Anyone interested in a ceramic cicada to put on the wall, that chirps every time you walk past? Well forget it, they drive me nuts!

There are even old ruins, and some people actually live here. From memory, about 400, but not all in the old city.

As we then get to our meeting spot to get back on the coach, it starts again with a light rain, and even the tiniest hail which was no more than a handful of frozen rain drops. Back on the coach and time to head back to Avignon.
But one last of view of where we have been.

So many days of our travel I’m seeing fields of poppies or more especially poppies growing wild along the sides of roads. My photos have all been blurred as we are in the coach travelling at speed, but you will just have to take my word of how pretty they are. Often too, there are irises, usually yellow but also some purple thrown in for good measure. Very pretty anyway you look.

Couldn’t pass the police station next door to uour hotel one more time without taking a piccy.

Back at our hotel a bit after 2.30 and J and I are off to a nearby laundromat that I’ve located through Siri where we while away an hour reading and getting all our clothes washed and dried. Back to the hotel for happy hour, blog writing and even time for a shower before we head out to Villeneuve Les Avignon for an optional dinner where we will be gazing out at the majestic Rhône-Alpes river, facing the Pope’s Palace and the spectacular D’Avignon. (So the itinerary tells me) Villeneuve was a residence for CArdinals in the 14th century.