Nimes

We're staying just outside of Nimes and to the east of the heart of Provence. Nimes is a large enough city to be afraid of getting lost in, but our house is 20 minutes away in an old town. It's  hard leaving the St. Tropez house and arriving at night, on a colder day, to a smoker's home with a unknown cat. It takes a couple of days getting used to. It helps to explore Nimes, a Roman city that use to be the capital of Roman Gaul. A large arena and temple modeled after the Apollo Temple in Rome give us all a taste of antiquity. The 300 meter long Pont de Gard which helped to hydrate the Roman city is one of the best preserved aquaducts and is still intact and beautiful. We drive up to St. Remy and reach the market just in time to find olives, cheese, bread, and siamin from a chinese man selling spring rolls. Hannah is in debt to me since she hasn't had a good meal in "Days". She finally cherishes a fully cooked bacon cheese burger later that night in St. Remy. Near the town is the old cloister which was also the asylum in which Van Gogh created some of his most enduring paintings.  We all walked in his bedroom and looked out the window from where he painted a few of his paintings. The view of the fields, sheds and one house are still the same. The monostary  sits a walk away from beautiful Roman  town which was unearthed in the 20's. The next town, Le Beaux has an old castle ruin perched on a cliff with the medieval town just below. We arrived just in time for the launching of rocks in the trebucher or catapult used for siege warfare. I volunteered to pull one of the ropes, but the French instructions were a bit sticky for me to follow. The rock plopped down a few feet from it's base. A good laugh.

Another day took us to Barbara and her 

beautiful home where we took a fun cooking class of Provencal cuisine. We gathered fruits 

and herbs from her garden and created 7 wonderful dishes. 

The kids loved 

getting their h

ands in some bowls and using the knives. Th

e lunch and wine on her terrace was a beautiful ending. 

After that, a drive up Mount Venout where the Tour de France regularly climbs. It's tall peak with a cold and windy view point where we see most of Provence. Down again to Seurat another small town with a cute tea shop with a gorgeous view.

End of St Tropez

Relaxing. Cote d'Azure is almost over as we'll be moving further into Provence and away from the beach. There's not much time in our little oasis, but we try not to think about it. We sunk our forks into the Tropezienne, the custard bread that is St. Tropez's own. A drive up the coast, towards the west filled one day,  since we haven't gone that way yet. It was just an hour. 

Mountains and blue water and beautiful drives up the valley. We eat at another hill top town, veal and steak and Ava sees the German's next to us smoking during dinner. "How can they do that!". We finish up with more beach days. I keep trying to get Nicole and the kids out to see the sights.

Gabriella and St. Tropez

Ray's niece Gabriella is working as a pastry chef in Aix en Provence. We invited her over for a little r and r from the hect

ic life of the restaurant. Since she has been trying to travel on her weekends, it was a fun opportunity for her to get out and about.

The fountain was in Aix, another 12 century piece just sitting in the middle of a neighborhood. Aix  was where Gabriella was working. We saw a picasso and Cezane show at the museum that was focused Picasso's love and following of Cezane's ideas. I think even the kids enjoyed it.

Back in St. Tropez, we took Gabriella to the Tuesday market for cheese, vegies, fish and people watching and went on up to Ramatuell for an ice cream and view of the old town. Then it was back down to Gassin, where Hannah and I had to buy a cappucino in order to use the toilette. 

That night we ate up the fish out on the terrace and drank our rose. The next day was a hike around the cape of St. Tropez, the coast and a view of all the sights.