On
the 12th we drove from Gap to Carpentras stopping at
Sisteron where they have a Citadel high above their pretty town on a
huge lump of rock. Petrol (95) goes from between €1.33
and €1.50 per litre, for us with a 70ltr tank it means it costs us
about NZ$150 to fill up but it lasts a fair while. We found the
countryside here quite boring (sorry to those who love Provence), one
new thing was the avenues of trees we drove through lots of them and
they were quite cool.
We've
been using Google Maps to help us plot our journey through France and
keep off the motorways and toll roads, it has been working really
well especially since there is a McDonalds in every town with WIFI.
Like our tip to go to Interlaken we also got tipped by a friend that
we must go to Avignon which we were right next to so we headed there
and by some stroke of luck ended up in a free Park & Ride carpark
just outside the walled city. We spent the day wandering around this
cool city. We walked all over taking in a couple of churches, La
Place du Palais, the Bridge of Avignon (the bridge to nowhere), and
climbed the walls.
We
saw that south of Avignon on the Mediterranean there was an area
called Parc de Camargue, we hoped this might be a beautiful natural
area so headed there. Unfortunately it was mostly farmed and not that
great on scenery except for a spot next to Etang de Vaccares (a lake)
where we parked for dinner and watched the sun set. The next day we
went right out past Port St-Louis to the sea joining a lot of mobile
homes, cars and a tourbus there. Quite frankly we had no idea why
they would have gone there, it was distinctly lacking in attraction
for anyone but a fisherman and as well tho the sun was shining the
wind was up and cold. Maybe they all came to see the birdlife of
which there was some including flamingoes...
Our
next stop was Nimes, Nimes is apparently the place of Heroes and it
has the most complete Roman Amphitheatre in the world called the
Arenes for its sand centre. We drove right into the middle of Nimes
(where the Arenes is) and into a parking building in the ground which
appeared before us. We intended to just go and have a look at it but
ended up getting a combined ticket to see it and 2 other local
interest spots. It was already afternoon and it took a couple of
hours just to do the audio tour of the Arenes, then a hike across to
a park and up its hill to La Tour Magne or Great Tower for a birdseye
view of the city then on again to La Maison Carree to catch the last
showing of a 3D film about 'The Heroes of Nimes' showing the
emblematic heroes that left their mark on the city. An interesting
afternoon and it was getting dark as we exited the underground
parking building popping up into the rush hour traffic and nearly
causing an accident, we headed south. To see our photos http://cjb.pascoe.net.nz/ (click on or copy and paste into browser)
