The village we walked from (which I will find out the name of when Jim is around) was perched up on top of a hill, surrounded by grape vines and with a river running along the bottom. It was very quiet and beautiful.
When we arrived, people were riding horses.
We walked into the village, noted a creperie, and then headed off on our one and only real hike of the trip (it started raining the next day).
There was a lot of talk in the walking book that we were using about wild boars. Apparently in the fall there is much hunting of the boars happening in the area where we were walking. We didn't see any boars, but we did see one hunter and we checked out this boar roasting station that was early in our walk. I think that the Pigfest set up rivals this.
Figuring that wild boars weren't that interested in cold pizza, we stopped for a picnic in a pine grove.
Jim in the vineyards:
Evie's grapes, stolen from the vineyard (we tasted them and they were good!):
When we got to the river at the end of our walk, Jim couldn't resist wading in. It was rocky so not the most comfortable experience.
Evie and I stayed on shore.
It was a beautiful river, which was rushing in some parts and calm in others.
This was a very old (can't remember how old, of course) and significant bridge. We drove over it to get back to our house and it was also very narrow and significantly scary. Fortunately there were not cars coming from the other direction!
After our walk, we just couldn't resist the call of a crepe (and ice cream). It was the best crepe we have ever shared. Sadly for her, Evie slept through it.
But when she woke up, we played a really fun game that involved me running towards her. It was, she thought, the funniest thing ever. So it made up for missing out on the best crepe ever.
Jim and Evie next to the old and significant bridge.
The next day: Avignon!
When we got there, we carried Evie up a lot of stairs so that we could wander around a park. Then we realized that we could have just rolled her up, if we had approached from the other end. Live and learn!
At the top of the park overlooking another old and significant bridge (I remember that this one got destroyed by a big ice storm or something and they never built it back. There is also a nursery song about this bridge, but I don't think I know it. My lack of knowledge of historical events is not surprising, but I'm usually an expert at nursery rhymes!)
Actually, it was kind of rainy and we were kind of tired so I didn't take very many pictures of Avignon. There was a big beautiful church because the vatican moved there at some point in history and it was the first place in Provence that we visited which seemed really touristy (also the first place we saw other Americans). So we kept our visit brief.
Avignon had a very happy parking garage.
This is a picture of what it was like driving with Jim all over France. I'm the driver and the hysterical person in the passenger seat is Jim.
Stay tuned for Uzes (again) and Arles.
