Chris and I hardly sleep at Chamonix between the heat of the room and the noise of the rain. At one stage in the night I had opened a window to cool us down and when Chris got up at 3.00am or so to close it, he announced “There’s a guys sitting right under our window in the rain”. Well that made us feel a bit paranoid but we had to laugh in the morning in the light of day when we realised Chris’s “man” was a rubbish bin!
It was still pouring when we left but we decided to take the scenic route to Annecy because we had heard it was gorgeous. And it was. A beautiful mountain road, through the middle of stunning green forests and beautiful Swiss style villages. At lunchtime we arrived in Annecy with high expectations – it is called the most beautiful town in France or the Venice of France. And it certainly is beautiful with the canals running through the old streets.
We had a lovely lunch by the canal but hit the road soon after, keen to lessen the distance between us and St Felix. We spent the night in a highly unremarkable hotel near Valance and hit the road again early the next morning bound for Orange.
Orange was a pleasant delight. In the middle of the town is a fantastically preserved, 2000 year old Roman colosseum. We drank coffee across the road while Chris researched it and then we went inside for a thorough investigation! What an interesting history Orange has! The town was created by Julius Caesar’s retired troops (the Romans rewarded retiring soldiers with land from conquered countries) around 55BC and within 20 years they had created this magnificent colosseum. The town grew and soon the Roman Empire was keeping conquered townships around the “world”, including Orange, happy and complacent by holding “public games” and theatre events every second day, (sometimes all day long) and letting everyone attend whenever they liked, for free. So the colosseum was the heart of the city and public life and a powerful political tool. Sadly after the Romans left the colosseum feel into disrepair, the beautiful statues and frescoes were stolen, the roof was burned to the ground by Barbarians and it was used for various things, including as a jail in the 1700s. However by the mid 1800s it as recognised for its historical significance and preserved and repaired and here it stands today in magnificent glory. We got such a great sense of what life in a Coloseum would be like 2000 years ago.
After that we enjoyed menu du jour in a restaurant attached to the Coloseum. The ambiance inside was amazing and the food was surprisingly nice.
Back on the road, and within 30 minutes we hit Chateau Nerf du Pape which has become one of our favourite wine regions in France. We found the old Chateau which used to be the residence of the Pope, but again, feel into disrepair after he left, with locals using the stones of the castle to build their own homes and Nazi bombers blowing half of it to smithereens. The region has a real Tuscan look and feel.
Down the hill from the castle was a little doorway advertising “degustation” and Chris and I just couldn’t resist. And I’m so glad we didn’t! In this little cave, we found a 2000 year old wine cellar created by the Romans and adopted by the Pope’s household (it used to be under the castle!) Recent excavations in the cellar revealed some old stone vats used by the Romans to store their wine. We hung out in the cool space for an hour or so tasting some different wines from the region and learning a lot about French wines in general and local wines in particular.
The children had been very good while Chris and I were playing, so we drove from there to a local chocolate factory and bought them some lovely chocolate. And the joy of the day was not over! Within 15 minutes we had arrived at our final destination of the day, Avignon, settled into our seedy hotel in the heart if the medieval town, and Chris and I took off on foot to explore before dinner. Soon we arrived at the old Pope’s Palace and we spend a good hour exploring. Because it was so late in the day we nearly had the amazing space all to ourselves. It was an interesting place – full of secret rooms, money and land deeds hidden in stone crypts beneath the floor (not discovered until the 1980s) and many of the original frescoes and terracotta floor tiles from the 1300s still in great condition (I can’t believe they let us walk on it).
By then, as you can imagine, we were really tired and so a quick stop by the supermarket and a lovely picnic dinner (more cheese and baguette) before bed!