Visited: Oct 2018
I visited the South of France with my friend Micha this October. We did a lot of sightseeing and took in our fair share of wine and cheese. Here's a recount of the 6 days and fun times.
I've long been a fan of the south of France and have been there a couple times. One of which I don't remember as I was a child, plus in 2004 in Montpellier and Cote d'Azur. Last year I was in Bordeaux and Barcelona (and again this year - stay tuned for that post) but this time I dived right into the Rhone valley and some new parts in and near the Cote d'Azur.
Barcelona airport (again!)
I know it's only been 3 times in the airport in 2 years but I know the exact route out and quickest path to the rental car park now so I can call BCN one of my best known airports. I met Micha there (she lives in Barcelona) and this time the car hire pickup took only minutes so we were quickly on the road. The last time I drove at any length was in Scotland and being in London all the time I thought I may lose my right side drive skills. This was not the case - I'm still amazing at driving on the right side of the road.
Now that I've got a bit of the bragging out of the way, I will say the one thing I don't like about driving in France (and Spain) is the tolls - which are everywhere and can add up. I figure they are about 10 euros / 100 km. One thing I do like about driving in France (and Spain) are the speed limits of 120-130 in most spots and the very smooth roads (thank you tolls!)
We set out due north of Barcelona towards Girona our first stop. We hadn't planned to stop at Girona but since we were both a bit hungry and it is the host to many Game of Thrones scenes I figured why not!
Some photos of Girona - looks just like Game of Thrones doesn't it!!!? If not just pretend to amuse me. Ok well only the bottom left photo is a location for sure, but check out these links and you'll spot the stairs on the bottom left plus some similar locations. Link 1. Y linko dos.
Girona itself is beautiful like many European cities, but has an additional medieval feel to it that not all European cities have. Girona is relatively small with only around 100,000 people living there but the core part of the city (founded BC 79) is filled with lovely lanes, streets, shops with well maintained maze like junctions everywhere. Like a lot of cities around then it had some Roman rule. The city since changed hands many times and was held / conquered by the Visigoths, Moors, Charlemagne and Moors again, and then Barcelona took control and then... well whatever lots of people ran it and it doesn't look worse for the wear.
The city also has a beautiful cathedral (surprise, surprise), a river that is pretty small actually and some nice squares (go figure). Also we ate ice cream there which tasted nice. Go visit Girona.
Thinking about it I was never really was drawn to Spain but somehow have managed to go there 5 times now. Side note: some say the Rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain.
The ants in France stay mainly on the plants!
I can't verify that fact, although if it is true I did not notice any ants on the grapevines. On our way out of Spain we quickly plotted a visit to Perpignan - which I must admit was too hastily planned. In hindsight there is a lot to do there - Cathedral, Le Castillet, The Palace of the Kings of Majorca - however we only managed to a) get lost trying to find the Palace, b) not get in the Palace because it closed early that day for some event, c) get lost trying to find the Cathedral and d) give up and leave.
I will say this about Perpignan. It has a cool name and is close to Spain. It seems like it has potential too but we didn't prep sufficiently to enjoy it! So off to the next stop.
Cite de Carcassonne - still day 1
The Cite de Carcassonne is either the city or the Citadel or both. Regardless this medieval city and citadel are amazing and absolutely worth a visit. I had read about this as something to see in the south of France, as did Micha so we unanimously went in interested but with no expectations at all. Suffice it to say we were very happy we arrived. We first parked at a relatively cheap €2 which was £1.80 or so (plus a non-sterling transaction fee of £0.02 - thank you HSBC for cluttering my statement with all of these). Ahem ... then we went in to the Cite/Citadel for free! I would have paid €20 for sure.
When you arrive you can quite simply imagine you're walking into King Arthur's realm and on your way to see a joust and eat a feast of roast pig and boiled onions (hey we were commoners for the day). You enter in a large very medieval looking gate half expecting guards checking your carts and folks asking for alms. The whole place is like a giant fairy tale with winding streets and uneven pathways and steps in every direction. Majestic towers rise in many directions and there are some very impressive buildings scattered in many spots around town.
The one frustrating part was it was later in the day and light was not lining up well for the best shots! So I have err.. borrowed (to use a British term) a photo below these six giving you a better idea of how grand it really is.
The Cite has been around for 2,500+ years and was beefed up by the Romans! Busy folks these Romans, I'll have to go back to Rome soon. It's also been run (overrun?) by many different powers at different times. The Citadel itself was restored in the late 19th century (but looks legit old), and added as a Unesco Heritage site in 1997.
This photo is from the Medieval Planet (http://medieval-planet.com/eu/fr/cite-de-carcassonne/) which could use to upgrade its site, but took a mean photo below!
Post Cite, we drove then to Avignon, another 2 hours or so including the traffic accident that slowed down the trip. Once we got into the Airbnb we were able to relax a bit. We hadn't been to a winery or store to get wine for that evening. Fortunately Misha brought some from Spain!
Day 2 - Avignon, Pont d'Avignon (Pont Saint-Bénézet) & more!
Day 2 started off a bit slow but we managed to get out and at it for 10:30 or so to grab some breakfast in the walled section of Avignon. For those of you who haven't been to Avignon there are two parts to it - inside the walls and outside the walls (apparently called ramparts). The walls cover a huge section of old Avignon (maybe all of it, I'm not sure) and are quite impressive in and of themselves.
After a quick breakfast hit we wandered towards the Palais des Papes. For those who don't know Avignon's history here's a brief summary:
The city dates back to Greek times (sorry Romans you can't always be first)
It has been controlled by many powers over the years
It became Christian at one point - probably around when the Roman empire became Christian
Eventually became a Kingdom post Charlemagne
Seat of the Papacy from 1300 to 1377 (sorry Rome) - although the antipopes may debate that
Still a big catholic city/kingdom
Part of France
I went there Oct 2018
Back to the Palais - it is the center piece of Avignon and was the home to a few popes and two antipopes (what is it about the winners of the war right the history?). The Palais is billed as the one of the largest and most important medieval gothic buildings in Europe. This is so granular I suspect it's not a big competition and really it was the Pope's home so lets say that it better be large and important!
We actually didn't go in until what was at that point tomorrow (Day 3) so I'll leave it be for now. We did though but tickets for the Pont d'Avignon and a light and music show called Vibrations.
We first went to the bridge - which has an interesting story. Legend has it Saint-Benezet heard the voice of Christ asking him to build a bridge across the Rhone from Avignon to the other side (duh). He was mocked but proved his intents by lifting a huge stone to show his divine calling to get this project done! When he died he was interred in a small chapel on one of the bridge's surviving piers.
The remaining part of the bridge is quite well preserved, I'm sure due to more recent efforts. I shouldn't really call it a bridge as it no longer is. It's instead a left over section of a previous bridge which feel and was rebuilt many times before being abandoned in the Mid 17th century as it was too difficult to keep in one piece.
Also of note - there is a song about the bridge called Sur le Pont d'Avignon, the views of the Rhone are brilliant the bridge has a small but well done museum talking about its history and archeological / technical methods used to find its old form / path.
Wine Please
After the bridge we drove out of Avignon to the Cellier des Princes in the Chateauneuf du Pape appellation. I won't get into what an appellation is but if you want to know about wine you should read about appellations - which are sometimes called by different names in other countries.
The cellar had a bunch of different wines, many from the CdP app, but also some from the Côtes du Rhône app and some Vins du Pays (above table wine, but not appellation specific wine). The gentleman who helped us try wine spoke only French which is great for me because them I'm forced to use French and can't revert to English. The downside in this case is there was a lot of terminology specific to wine I did not know (and may not have known even in English). We tried around 10 wines and bought one white and one red.
The winery, finished product and vines - in no particular order.
I just realized this day is now chronologically challenged, but I'm not going to change it at the moment - because really do you care - I doubt you're even reading this!...
... before we went to the Cellier des Princes we went to Orange to see some Roman ruins as the Cellier was closed from noon-2pm and we had arrived there around 1pm.
Orange & Roman Ruins
So,... like I said the day was out of order - however we did visit a city called Orange which was an old Roman city with some really cool ruins. First up was a 2000 year old arch, officially called the Triumphal Arch of Orange. I just noticed Triumphal is spelled not at all like I would have expected. There is apparently debate over the timing of when it was built and why but the current theory is to celebrate a victory over those pesky germanic tribes around 20-30AD. It is described as "..one of the biggest and the oldest Triumph Arch of the Roman Gaul." Yippee!
Photos clockwise from top left: Triumphal Arch, View from the Theatre, Theatre under construction, column at Theatre, Theatre walls, Theatre Stands.
From there we drove to an old Roman Amphitheatre called the Roman Theatre of Orange. This was really spectacular site, the Amphitheatre was much bigger than I expected with two theatre, a very large main one which is still used sometimes!, and a smaller one to the side. Unfortunately both stages were under planned engineering work at the time of visit but just walking around and listening to the audioguide it was easy to get a sense of the scale and significance of the theatre. This 1st century theatre was built against a natural hill and can seat in excess of 5,000 patrons!
Post Theatre it was off to Cellier des Princes which I covered above, hence skipping a repeat story next step after Cellier des Princes was a second wine stop (recommended by the Cellier des Princes staff), this time to Gigondas la Cave. This particular stop was a combination of many growers all selling their wine in one spot. The gentleman manning the shop was quite kind and offered quite a few samples. While we were there another Canadian showed up, a gentleman currently living in Paris who teaches archeology (I think - or something with an 'a') so it was nice to chat with another Torontonian. We bought two bottles here as well to be safe. Wine was actually quite inexpensive, most bottles were €4-10.
After the second wine stop we headed to one last spot recommended by the Gigondas wine gentleman (see how this trail led us!), called Isle sur la Sorgue, a picturesque town not far from Avignon. We ended up there because it was apparently one of the only spot to get food at 5pm - which happened to be the time we were hungry.
Photos of Isle sur la Sorgue - again some bad late day sun alignment.
We did grab a bit of pizza there and then it was back to our place in Avignon.
So that was the end of the day! Just kidding. We then went to see the Vibrations light show. I'm tempted to write a lot about this show because it was amazing, however I will be somewhat brief because I don't believe the show is on longer than the end of October - unless they reprise it next year.
About this show! It is amazing. It's around 30 minutes long. The show is in the Palais des Papes in the main courtyard. They walk you in about 15 minutes before the show and you can stand anywhere you like in the courtyard. The show is around 10-12 different shorts where they project light and animations on all 4 walls around you. The light and animations often line up exactly with the architecture of the Palais walls and the music that goes along with it is so well chosen. A few shorts I can remember are 1) an opera singer cartoon sing very high pitched breaking glasses, 2) butterflies moving all around the courtyard walls to music, and 3) an impressionist set of painting and images being 'painted' all over the walls to music. I wish I had more photos, unfortunately I mostly took video - so you'll have to contact me if you'd like to see the videos.
Some photos of the walls lit up in the courtyard of the Palais - above the courtyard was open to the night sky and stars.
Finally a very busy and adventurous day 2 was in the books save for a bit of wine back at the flat.
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