We aren't in Kansas anymore Toto!

We have left our home in Burgundy and headed South to Provence.  Gone are the pastures of cows and sheep grazing, the country roads, the forest walks, raspberry bushes and cherry trees.  Gone are the shutters on the outside of 200 + year old homes with lace curtains in the windows and flowers spilling out of them.

A dog we befriended near our houseto fill our "We miss Moose" void 

Happy Cows

Now, we are in the sun drenched land near the sea where sunflower fields and hilltop towns abound, and we are surrounded by the most well preserved Roman ruins in existence.  True, the ruins here are said to be better and more well preserved than those in Italy!  Here in Provence, there is a constant symphony of the cicadas which are large bugs that some people think are related to locusts, but apparently they are not.  I don't care what they are, as long as one of them does not decide to come near me.  That would be an entirely different kind of "symphony."

Yesterday, we headed out of the home that the kids are still referring to as "home" in Burgundy at 6:22 am.  We wanted to make sure to be able to see a few things in Provence before arriving at the home that we are being hosted at in Marseille.  By 10 am we were in Avingon and able to spend some time looking at the St. Benezet Bridge and the Palace of the Popes.  (Not to mention just a little bit of time to browse the shops...this is the part of France that is knows for it's lavender, herbs, salt de la mer, olives and olive oil and it's fine linens.  These things are all difficult to pull us away from in these little shops!)

St. Benezet Bridge is the "pont d'Avingon" of a nursery rhyme that I am not familiar with, but will certainly look into now.  It was built between 1171 and 1185.  It has only four arches left today, but in it's original form had over 22 arches and was 3000 feet long!  That is close to 10 football fields for those who need more of a visual like myself!  That was quite a bit to swallow and try to imagine!  Today, it does not even cross over the river because the city decided after a  huge storm in 1668, not to try and rebuild it.

The Palace of the Popes was erected in 1309 in order to keep Pope (who was French at that time) safe.  The French King felt that Italy was not safe.  This palace continued to house the Popes until 1403.  This place is rich in history.  A little of which we learned about yesterday, but I think that we simply scratched the surface of what went on here.  What a massive structure this was to behold!

St. Benezet Bridge

Palace of the Popes

If you google image Provence, you will see several things.  Lavender (which we hope to see today), sunflowers, hilltop cities, and Pont du Gard.  This was our next stop of the day.

Pont du Gard is a perfectly preserved Roman aqueduct that was built in about 19 BC.  Please, let that roll around in your cranium for just a moment.  BC!  Perfectly preserved!  Oh my stars!  At it's prime, it was a 30 mile canal, that by dropping an inch for every 350 feet, supplied 9 million gallons of water per day to Nimes!!!!!  Again...let that sink in for a moment!

OK.  Now that you may have had a chance to let that hit you as it hit me, we had done our homework and knew that we should arrive for the afternoon with our bathing suits on.  So, grabbed our picnic (sadly without any of the olives that my mouth is watering for!) and our newly purchased tablecloth/picnic blanket, and walked to the bridge.  We crossed this incredible structure, walked down and then frolicked in the water just under this incredible sight for a couple of hours!  The water was cold, but refreshing!  Jeff and Makenna swam under the Pont du Gard, while Rachel and Soren were busy catching little fish and frogs!  Nirvana for Soren!

We drove through Arles on our way down to were we are staying in Marseille.  We will go back there tonight for bull games in the 2000 year old arena!  Do not worry.  Here, it is said that the bulls die of old age because they are not hurt in the arena at all.  I am not sure that the same can be said for the matadors.  We shall see.  As I write this to you, I am sitting here in my black and white outfit, wishing that I had a red scarf!  (Apparently that is what you wear to bullfights!)

Today, we will go into Luberon in search of lavender fields and hilltop towns before heading over to Arles for the bull games!  When we get back here, Richard and Marie would like to open a bottle of wine to share with us.  Last night when we arrived, Marie was cooking jam and baking bread!  The kids loved it, but got a little weepy when they were going to sleep saying that it smelled like home.  It was a full and wonderful day, but at the end we all still miss home!