We opted to use scenic roads rather than motorways. The vineyards on either side of the road along with the fruit orchards and olive tree groves are spectacular. While we did print out some Google maps, we found them virtually superfluous to the road signs. As a chief navigator, I am proud to report we got lost only a number of times (and I blame Paul's love for accelerating past the road signs for this).
People in France love their fresh baguettes. You see people leaving boulangeries from dawn to dusk carrying fresh sticks of doughy goodness under their arms. Don't get me started on the taste of food here. Everything tastes so fresh and so good. Dining al fresco is one of my favourite things.
But I digress..
Montpellier
We drove into this very busy city and realized street parking here was not an option. Even getting to the garage took almost an hour. The historic centre has a regal aura about it. The impressive Promenade du Peyrou was built after Louis XIV pronounced Montpellier the capital of the Bas Languedoc region.
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| Arc by the entrance to the Promenade du Peyrou |
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| Promenade du Peyrou |
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| Sainte-Anne Church |
I noticed these random tiles plastered into the facades of buildings. Paul was excited to educate me on these. The artist - Invader, is a French urban artist who pastes characters from a computer game Space Invaders onto buildings across the world. The tiles are made up of small coloured mosaics that form a space invader character. He documents his tagging with maps and books detailing the location of each tile across the city. Montpellier happens to be one of the cities where an "invasion" occurred. Pretty neat, huh?!
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| Cathedrale St. Pierre |
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| Opéra Comédie, Boulevard Victor Hugo |
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| Place de la Comedie (Central Plaza) |
Nimes [neem]
is a gorgeous city with ancient Roman history. Partially because the afternoon sun and the blue sky was so inviting we found Nimes (whose claim to fame also rises from the local invention of denim {de Nimes} - meaning literally 'from Nimes') absolutely enchanting. The pictures do say it all. We dined at a small piazza where the smell of food was so enticing - we had to have a meal there.
We arrived to our hotel near Avignon close to midnight. We had to 'phone-a-friend' to get help finding the hotel which was on the outskirts of the city, as there was no one on the roads at 11-something on a Tuesday night. It is all part of the road trip adventure! Special thanks to Jacob, navigating the remote towns of Provence on Google Street-view from Epsom.
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| Arena of Nimes |
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| Liberation Plaza, St. Perpetua Church in the background |
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Maison Carrée - one of the best preserved Roman
temples in the former Roman territories |
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| Dessert |
I thought denim was invented by Strauss :)
ReplyDelete...and they bake baguette from morning till night so that it's always fresh!