Day 9 -- To Provence!

We both awoke rather tired. I recall Graham saying the bed in Carcassonne was by far the best we'd had so far, but I think the thin walls interfered with restful sleep. Graham had decided the night before that he wanted to get a nutella crepe and espresso for breakfast back up in La Cite in the morning so we'd scoped out our options and knew exactly where we were headed. We ordered yogurt for Isla and it came in this cute glass jar with an adorable baby spoon.

We ordered 2 espresso drinks and thought we ordered 2 nutella crepes but the waiter came out with coffee only. We waited. And waited. And waited. I tried to spy and see if maybe he was waiting for his crepe plate to heat up but after 15 or 20 minutes, he still wasn't putting any batter on it. Finally we re-ordered two crepes and they appeared almost instantly. Graham ate his with cold espresso. I was too impatient and had no coffee left to wash down by delicious snack.

We returned to our hotel only to load up our bags into the car and head out. We followed the signs directing us to the autoroute but they never seemed to get us to the main drive (I'm sensing a French theme: they warn you of the "upcoming" autoroute miles and MILES and maybe even an hour before you are actually near it). We ended up going through a bunch of small towns that probably added about 40 minutes to this leg with all the slowing/stopping at lights. But the scenery was beautiful on this more "country" route. We passed patches of red poppies and immediately noticed the landscape was looking more Tuscan.

After a couple hours of driving, we stopped at a supermarket to grab some picnic foods to take to the Pont du Gard, an amazing, gigantic aqueduct, still in tact from Roman times. We were a bit surprised to find a) you have to pay for shopping carts in France and b) you don't get any bags to put your groceries in after you shop. It's no wonder Europeans do their shopping on a day-to-day basis! This wouldn't have been such a big deal except that I was really looking forward to this shopping trip because we were in desperate need of a plastic garbage bag for the car and I was certain this would be the time we could get one. All I needed was one measly bag and I'd been on the hunt for a couple days now. Really, should it be this hard!? Anyway, we bought a rotisserie chicken, some sort of orange cheese, fruit and a loaf of boule bread.

We drove on, paid the steep $15 fee for parking (there was no way to avoid paying unless you biked in from miles away) and had our picnic while enjoying a more level version of the above view.

The aqueduct itself is believed to have been constructed in the middle of the 1st century AD and was designed to transport water over a distance of about 50 km. This portion, the Pont du Gard, is breath-taking (not to mention HUGE) and in great shape. It was hard not to wonder How on earth did they build this without all the modern machinery today? We were able to walk across the lower set of arches as workmen were strapping fireworks to the upper sets for a huge firework show scheduled later on in the month. The sun came out at the end of our visit so we snagged a couple scoops of overpriced ice cream from the visitor center.

We hit the road again with Autoroute 7 as our final goal. We spotted a sign for it and so thought it logical to head in that direction. Somehow, surprise surprise, we end up taking the LONG route again smack through the large city of Avignon. I'm laughing now because I'm reading my travel journal and see that I wrote we only got "mildly lost." That's the nice way of saying it.

We drove through beautiful countryside speckled with vineyards. Ahh, this is Provence!

We finally arrive at our Bed and Breakfast at about 5 PM and I about died. The place far exceeded my wildest expectations. It had three rooms, all named after local wines (we stayed in the Muscat), a lovely living/dining/kitchenette area for guest use, a large pool and beautiful gardens. When I found the place online, I was hooked and determined to stay there, no matter the cost. I showed Graham the pictures and he agreed! We'd initially hoped to stay three nights but discovered they were completely booked on our last desired night and so we altered our itinerary accordingly and booked the third night in Arles. 

Upon arriving, Monique, our kind hostess, greeted us and helped us lug our suitcases up to our HUGE third floor room. I was really bummed to discover I didn't take many photos of the B&B but you can see more if you explore the website. I did happen to capture this video of Isla's silly screech laugh and her newly-found clapping ability that also shows footage of our room.

After settling into our room, Monique welcomed us to her patio to meet the other guests while sipping glasses of local wine, and munching on bread with homemade tapenade, mixed nuts and fresh cantaloupe (Isla's first!). We tried a Rose wine (which we drank on ice as the locals do in the summer) as well as a sweet Muscat which came from a vineyard just up the road. Sigh. This was the life!

Shortly after our arrival, Monique informed us that the guests who had originally booked our room for our 3rd night in Provence had to cancel. Immediately my ears perked up. I no longer cared about visiting Arles. All I wanted to do was stay here and relax and live the Provencal life. So, next chance I had, I snuck up to our room to e-mail our Arles accommodations to see if we could cancel. Graham and I agreed that if they couldn't refund our money, it'd be a no-go, but what do you know? They canceled our reservations without charge! So it was decided, we'd stay here 3 nights-hooray!

Monique recommend a restaurant in the nearby town of Beaumes-de-Venise for dinner and called and made reservations for us. We had a fabulous meal! Graham ordered duck rillette as his starter (similar to pate) that came with caramelized onions, balsamic greens and bread to pile it all on. You can only see the greens in the picture below, but you can sort of get an idea of the setting. We got to eat outdoors--the place was lovely and our meal lasted almost 3 hours!

I had a green salad with a goat cheese "purse," pictured both above and below. :) What struck us most in Provence were the fabulous dressings and sauces made simply with olive oil and herbs. I had to post two pictures of my salad because it takes a close up to really see the herbed olive oil drizzled around the edge of my plate.

Graham's main dish was (surprisingly) an Asian pork dish with noodles that was especially tasty. He recalls this being one of his top 5 French dining experiences. I had a salmon calzone for my main dish. Does that sound odd to anyone else? It wasn't my favorite, but my salad was phenomenal so no matter. Graham had an extra creamy creme brulee for dessert and I, ice cream with fresh strawberries. Of course there was wine too, a Syrah that tasted quite different from their US counterparts.

Isla did great throughout our long meal although see started throwing things at the end. We didn't get back to the B&B until 10:30 PM and so she fell asleep in the car. Graham successfully transferred her into bed without waking her (a first!) and so she spent the night in her clothes rather than her jammies (also a first!)

A huge wind storm blew over that night and, since our room was right below the roof, it sounded like someone was pounding right above us as the shutters slapped against the side of the house. We awoke a few times in the middle of the night which meant we accidentally slept in the next morning...