We shifted into 'low Provençal" gear today and I think that's where we'll be for the rest of the trip. We've only got about 100 km of riding that we want to do over the next week and several new places for us to visit and explore.
Since we arrived in here on a Sunday, when most things were closed, we spent the morning exploring Orange, the vast majority of that in the Roman Theater. We were the first folks of the day to enter ... and there weren't a lot more after us. I would highly recommend this time of year to visit this area. The weather is very nice (not too hot) and while there are other tourists, it is not crowded at any of the tourist sights, hotels or restaurants (most important for us!)
The Roman Theater in Orange lived up to its promise. While it's currently undergoing a massive restoration / preservation, there is still a lot to see, and the preservation process itself is very interesting.
This is a very impressive structure, both physically and for how it functioned socially when it was built, and for the intervening 2000 years! It's still used for concerts (it's on our list to see a favorite act here) and it's one of the main features that attracts countless people to this area today (most in July and August - take note!).
I'll let the following pics provide more on the theater, I have to get on with describing the rest of our strenuous day .... we made a beeline for a boulangerie right after the theater, had a great roasted eggplant and chevre baguette, a coffee and a cake, and then tried to convince ourselves to ride in the rain for the first time on the trip.
That's right, there was a light drizzle, but fortunately the winds were also light. First time for that in several days. With that, we threw our legs over the top bar and set off. Thirty two blistering km's later we were in Avignon, checking into another very cool monastery hotel conversion.
Cleaned up, nice restaurant booked by the hotel concierge, we set out for a wander around the very lovely and largely pedestrianized center of Avignon. It's a lovely place for wandering about and we quickly found a very nice outside plaza for our post ride bevy (a small one .... 32 km's don't rate a full size recovery drink). We also used the short day to put the final touch's on our logistics for the final few days. We're going to explore around Avignon tomorrow, then ride to Arles on Wednesday(40 - 50 km depending on route) and spend Thursday poking around there before training back to Geneva on Friday. That will give us Saturday to get our bikes sorted for our Sunday morning flight home.
We managed to do all this (book hotels and trains) with our once again functional WiFi hotspot device while having our post ride bevy. For a short trip like this we decided to go this route rather than getting sim cards for our phones. It's worked very well but crapped out on Saturday night. After sending an email that night, first thing this morning we were contacted by the company (Travel WIFI) and with the help of our hotel proprietors phone in Orange, were able to get it back up and running! All good.
They played at the Theater in Orange in 1987 - this wasn't in their playlist 'cuase it wasn't released until 1989, but I like it, so just imagine this being played on a warm summer night in a 2000 year old Roman Theater! That's what I'm doing now.
Nice little street scene in Orange to start the morning
I've head the term 'nosebleed section"' to describe the upper seats in a stadium, but Vomitorium adds a whole new dimension to what goes on up there! The theatre sections were strictly segregated with separate access points ... I doubt you would find the Senators sitting up there!
