After our first week in Paris which included the trip to Normandy on the weekend, we felt that it was time to venture out on our own and give Matt and Jen some space. Our plan was to head south to Provence as Roman Gaul is full of antiquities, a special interest of ours. With Jen’s help in arranging tickets we headed out of Paris on a 9:15 a.m. train to Avignon. Two hours and forty minutes later we arrived about 500 miles south to our destination. The TGV is a super fast train with large comfortable seats, good views and on-board amenities and we were in second class! We both agreed that we would pick it hands down for travel in the US, if was available over air travel. The terminal, a few miles outside of Avignon, was new and like a small airport terminal. From there we took a bus to Arles which is about 30 miles further south.
Arles is an ancient city and was along the Roman Aurelian way. The area around there was given to the Caesar’s 6th Legion as a reward for their fighting on behalf of the Roman Empire. So as they settled this area it became much more than a Roman outpost. Arles is a compact city so we were able to cover it easily. We started out with a visit to their new Ancient Museum which houses artifacts from the Roman period from 1st to 4th century AD. The model of the city as it was then was especially good as so many of those structures are still standing.
After that we set out to explore the old city. The amphitheater is the largest one remaining and seated 20,000 in ancient times. Today, aside from tourists, they host “bullgames” which are a gentler version of a bull fight.
A few years ago, the movie, Ronin, filmed some key scenes in the amphitheatre. There was an ancient feel to this town, but there were so many colorful doorways and homes that we also really knew that we were in Provence.
With the Roman influence and the romantic Provençal feel to the small spaces we had the makings of great pictures.
(Also, Stage 3 of this year’s Tour de France passed right through Arles and crossed the Rhone River on its way to the Mediterranean coast.)
After 2 days we headed to Avignon. This time we took the local train and 15 minutes later we were pulling into the city. After a short walk to the TI, where we got maps and details we headed to the Palais des Papes or the Palace of the Popes, the major site of Avignon.
For about 90 years around 1300-1400 the Vatican and the Pope was located here and not in Rome. While the Palais is mostly empty it was interesting to see and hear about the largest surviving Gothic palace in Europe.
A short distance away was St. Benezet’s bridge over the Rhone River. It is now a foot bridge with great views of Avignon and the river. The Rhone has always been a major thoroughfare through southern France and has many river cruises.
Our time was almost up so we retrieved our luggage from one train station and took a bus to the TGV station for our trip back to Paris. The train travels through countryside and farm lands. And even at high speeds you can still appreciate the lavender fields, small villages and the hills of the Luberon in the distance. While we don’t speak French, we can recognize many words and know the basics please and thank yous to get by, we never had any trouble negotiating our adventure.
We arrived in Paris Friday around 6:30 in time to picnic at the park around the Eiffel Tower with Matt and Jen. What a wonderful way to spend a Friday night!
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