幾鬼秘的部落格

For the last day of our trip, we’d planned to arrive in Paris as early as possible, in the morning, so Chris can see a different side of France.  But as a result of us moving base from Avignon to Arles, I thought that we’d have to take a regular long-distance train which wouldn’t get us to Paris until the afternoon.  Of course the solution was simple - we’d take a train from Arles to Avignon to catch a TGV from there.  I only wish that I was the one coming up with that solution

We arrived at our hotel in front of the Gare de l’Est before noon.  After lunch, we started our day of shopping.  I’d wanted to start at La Samaritaine, which was centrally-located in the first arrondissement close to many tourist attractions.  But unfortunately it’s closed indefinitely for renovation.  So we went to the Galeries Lafayette instead.  This was on a Friday afternoon and I couldn’t believe how crowded the store was.  It felt like boxing day at home!  Are these people all tourists?  Well, judging from our observation that there was at least one salesperson who spoke Mandarin at almost every department, I’d say that’s a good guess.

While we didn’t really have a shopping list, we thought that it’d be nice if we could get our wedding bands here in Paris.  We didn’t see anything that piqued our interests so we walked over to Le Printemps nearby.  At this point I really didn’t think we could pick out something in such a short timeframe, as both department stores looked the same to me.  Soon after, we casually walked into a Cartier store where a Japanese sales lady greeted us.  She showed us the collection and even though we were quickly attracted to the Love collection, we didn’t stay for long.  We got a couple of quotes and left the store to continue our search.

Eventually we did return to the store, since we didn’t see anything else that remotely
came close to our liking elsewhere.  We were in the store for more than one hour, mostly trying to decide whether to get the rings in white gold or platinum.  Or rather, to get them in white gold or not, since they didn’t have the platinum in our sizes.  The sales lady, who’s been living in Paris for 10 years, was very patient and helpful.  With a little help from her we finally decided to get them.  It was now close to 6pm so we hurried out the department store to search for a post office to mail home the packaging.  Then we went back to finish up our shopping, applied for our VAT refund and headed for Place de la Concorde, where we rode the ferris wheel before finishing our day with a Japaneses dinner.

So, although this was my 3rd time in Paris, it was very much a completely different experience for me.  We told ourselves that we’d come back to Provence to celebrate our 10-yr anniversary.  Since we completely missed the lavender and truffles season this time, I can totally see ourselves coming back to catch Provence at a different time of the year.  Au revoir!

Today was a logistically challenging day as we had 3 destinations in our plan, all to be done by trains and buses.  We arrived early at Nimes.  The first thing we did was to get the timetable for buses to Pont du Gard and Uzes.  After studying the schedules, we decided to aim for the 11am bus to Pont du Gard first, and see how the day would go from there.  Before then we’d be strolling around Nimes for 2+ hours.  The first sight we saw was the arena.  But since it wasn’t yet open, and we’d already visited one in Arles, we did not go inside.  At this point we really should’ve taken a side street towards the old town center.  But instead I led us on to the first main boulevard that I saw, took a wrong turn and got us off the map, literally (well, at least off OUR map).  We must’ve walked for half an hour before I got us back to the old town.

After breakfast, we visited the cathedral, the Maison Carree, and the Fountain Garden, where we finally saw a game of Petanque being played for the first time.  Before we knew it, it was almost 11am, so on we went to the bus station heading to the Pont du Gard.  Even though we arrived there before noon, we didn’t actually see the aqueduct until after 1pm because we spent so much time at the museum.  The
museum is so big and has so much on display that one can easily spend a few good hours in it.  Since it was now after 1pm, there was no way we could catch the 1:35pm bus to Uzes.  We would now have 2+ hours to kill before the following bus at 4pm, so we took it easy, had a picnic lunch, and walked down to the Gard River away from the tourists.

I’d been carrying around the engagement ring for almost a week now at this point.  At the back of my mind I probably had always planned to propose in Paris, perhaps on top of the Eiffel Tower.  But since I know that Chris doesn’t like big cities in general, and touristy places in particular, I thought the peaceful and private place that we were now enjoying would be perfect.  So after I nervously popped the question, and she pretended to have to think about it :), we were engaged!

The next couple of uneventful hours flew by quickly.  We arrived at Uzes after a short bus ride.  Uzes was never a must-see destination on our itinerary, but I was very glad to have made it there.  It’s not so big to feel touristy, and not so small to feel like a dead town.  Unfortunately we only had 2 hours before the last 6:30pm bus back to Nimes.  The town is definitely worth a longer stay.

It was probably around 5am this morning that I felt a sting on my left ankle.  It quickly became so itchy that I couldn’t go back to sleep.  I got up to check on it and saw that it was a little swollen.  Chris was previously a little annoyed that our towels weren’t changed after 3 nights and that the garbage wasn’t cleaned out, which seemed tolerable, until this.  Since we couldn’t go back to sleep we decided to head out to check out other hotels.  We rung the bells on four hotels of which only one had a free room, which wasn’t available until after noon.  We then considered moving base to Arles, so I started calling some hotels, most of which didn’t have 24 hr reception.  At the end we felt confident that we should be able to find a hotel when we get to Arles, so we went back to our hotel, packed up and headed to the train station.

When we were planning for the trip we’d actually considered staying at Arles as our base.  But we eventually chose Avignon because it is a more convenient transportation hub.  When we arrived at Arles, I was so happy with our spontaneous move.  We both liked the feel of Arles much better than Avignon.  The walk from the train station to the town wall was short.  We walked into the first hotel we saw inside the wall.  It had a free room, at even a better price than our last hotel.  I didn’t feel like looking around to compare, so we decided to settle there.  We dropped our backpacks at the reception and went out to check out Arles’ market.

Of all the markets we’ve been to, this one felt the most "local" - we didn’t see many tourists around at all.  After a short stroll we walked back inside the city wall to the back of the Roman Arena.  We sat down at the nearby Place Voltaire to have breakfast before going inside the Arena.  It’s funny that of all things, the first thing that came to my mind upon entering the arena is the movie Ronin.  The place was very quiet with few visitors.  It’d be nice to see what the atmosphere is like when the place is filled with spectators.

We continued our sightseeing to the classical theatre nearby, which allowed us to
better appreciate how incredible it is for the theatre in Orange to remain standing as it does today, when most other similar structures are left only with mere columns, like this one in Arles.  We then walked by the Jardin d’Ete, where Van Gogh spent many days on his paintings, onto the St. Trophime church at the large Place de la Republique square.  The intricate carvings on the church facade illustrated biblical stories to the illiterates of the medieval world.  I went inside just before the church closed for lunch while Chris stayed outside to eavesdrop on a tour guide explaining the stories.

As most of the sights in town were now closed for lunch, we decided to go to a local supermarket to buy lunch before going back to the hotel, as our room was to be ready by now.  We went out after lunch only for a short while, visiting the Roman bath and Place du Forum, before returning to the hotel for a 2+ hr nap, as both of us woke up so early in the morning.  We woke up after 7pm, just in time to catch a few blue-sky photos of the arena at dusk.

I was really looking forward to today’s itinerary.  From my guidebook’s description the drive around the Dentelles de Montmirail would be quite pleasant.  Our first stop was Vaison la Romaine to catch its morning market.  Vaison la Romaine consists of an
upper town and a lower town.  On today’s market day almost all streets of the lower town were filled with market stalls.  We walked around for an hour before going into a supermarket to buy breakfast.  But right after we came out, we passed by a couple of restaurants and saw their reasonably-priced breakfasts.  And since we were craving for something hot anyway, we decided to sit down and eat.  Afterwards we headed up the much quieter upper town, which didn’t have any sights to see per se, but offered a good leisurely stroll. 

Our next stop was Le Crestet, a hill town about 10-min drive away.  Before leaving

Vaison we’d bought some raw ham and croissant for lunch, so we sat down to eat at the bottom of the town, enjoying a great view of the Rhone valley below.  Next stop was Gigondas, famous for its wines.  But before we got there, we made numerous stops along the road to enjoy the views, including one at Beaumes de Venise, just because I thought the little town looked nice, and there was a conveniently-located empty parking spot

When planning our itinerary I almost wanted to skip Gigondas because I’ve read that it can get crowded and touristy.  I guess I should know by now that most advice regarding crowds don’t apply to us at this time of the year.  When we arrived at the main square the parking lot was almost full, but the streets were quiet.  I guess all the tourists were inside the wineries.  When we walked up into the town, it was completely quiet.  We saw one other couple at the church on top of the village, that’s it.

Our next destination was Seguret, which surprisingly had more tourists than Gigondas.  While wandering through its streets, I saw a sign directing to the town’s old chateau so we decided to follow it.  I probably should have read my guidebook before starting the 20-minute uphill hike because it wasn’t at all rewarding.  Our time could’ve been better spent at Orange, where we stopped for dinner on our way back to Avignon.  Orange is famous for its Roman theatre, the only one in Europe with its wall still standing.  After struggling with a parking meter and finding out that parking was free after 7pm, we walked towards the theatre.  Since it was already closed we decided to walk up to the park behind the theatre to get a free sneak peek at its interior.

I was at first a little perplexed by the lack of restaurant recommendations in my guidebook for Orange.  But as we started searching for a place to dine, it became apparent that there really was nothing recommendable!  We finished dinner around 8:30pm, leaving us plenty of time to return our rental car at Avignon before 10pm.  And now began our most eventful night.

After getting into Avignon, we headed to the closest gas station that we know of, to find it closed.  So we decided to head towards the TGV station, where the car was to be returned, hoping that the gas station near there would be open.  Not soon after Chris praised ourselves for not getting lost in the past 3 days, I got us lost on our way there.  We were now on a highway heading to Nimes.  I got out at the first exit to find complete darkness.  At one point I was looking backwards to read road signs, until Chris told me that we were probably driving the wrong way in a one way street We quickly got back onto the highway.  Luckily we soon encountered a roundabout and were able to turn around back towards Avignon.  We found the gas station close to the TGV station, which was open 24 hours but with no attendants, thank god?  Ahh, not so fast.  The machine wouldn’t take our credit cards.  Instead of reading magnetic strips, it likes smart chips.  We drove to a Holiday Inn for help and was directed to try our luck at another gas station close by.  Same story.  Just before we were about to give up, a car drove into the gas station.  The driver was kind enough to pay for our gas with his card and have us pay him the cash.  Problem solved, finally.

By the time we dropped off the car it was way past 10pm.  We had to take a bus back to the city center from the TGV station.  As Chris saw many commuters rushing to the bus stop, she followed.  It turned out that we’d caught the last bus of the night by mere minutes.  I guess our night could’ve gone worse after all

I had no recollection of having turned off my cell phone alarm this morning.  I knew that we’d slept in when I saw light through our window when I opened my eyes.  I’d planned to be at Les Baux before 8:30 so we could walk around the lower town before entering the upper town when it opens at 9am.  We were now about one hour behind schedule.

The drive towards Les Baux-de-Provence was fun.  There was a parking lot near the town that offered a great view of the hill top ruined castle, but unfortunately it was completely backlit.  My Rick Steves guidebook suggests that we arrive before 9 to avoid the crowds.  But when we arrived at the parking lot at the base of the town, it was almost empty.  The walk up this beautiful medieval town reminds me very much of Mont St-Michel.  The upper town in contrast, was probably not worth the time or the 7 euro entrance fee.  It consists of a very ruined castle and a lot of open spaces.  Combined with strong winds and a lack of adequate clothing, it wasn’t an enjoyable experience.  But still, due to its large size, we still managed to spend the whole morning there.

Our next stop was St-Remy-de-Provence.  It was a short drive and we managed to
arrive at the town’s tourist office to grab a map just before it closed for lunch.  We walked around and sat down for a light lunch before heading to St-Paul-de-Mausole, where van Gogh stayed as a patient for a year.  Interestingly there were quite a number of art students doing drawings in the lavender garden of the hospital.

Having finished the 2 main stops on our planned itinerary early, we decided to drive back to the Luberon to visit a few more hill towns that were on our list, that we wanted to visit yesterday.  We drove through Coustellet up to the Senanque Abbey. 
Unfortunately the lavender season is over, otherwise the immensely long fields of lavender leading up to the abbey would’ve been quite a sight.  After a short stop at its gift shop, we got back on the road, driving through Gordes, onto Roussillon, a town famous for its ochre deposits  We parked near the ochre hiking trail, only to find it closed.

Back in Avignon, we decided to try a Vietnamese restaurant for dinner, since they seemed to be everywhere.  Unfortunately that wasn’t such a wise decision as the food was mediocre at best

Day 2 started out with more surprises.  I found out that my battery-operated shaver was broken, and the electrical adapter that I brought was not of the correct type. 

We took an early bus to the Avignon TGV station to take our rental car.  Today was market day at L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue so we wanted to get there as early as possible before parking became an issue.  We were getting cold and annoyed standing in front of the rental office as the staff came in a little late.  While at home we’d arranged for a rental car with me as the driver, but paid with Chris’ credit card as she has a gold card that allows the CDW insurance to be waived.  But now we were told that the primary driver and payer had to be the same person.  I paid with my non-gold VISA and added $50 to the cost of our trip because of the CDW :(  The good news is that they didn’t have the Citroen C1 that we’d rented, and got a free upgrade to the C3.  We were actually offered an even large Peugeot, but I opted for the smaller car thinking that it’d make my life easier.

I was a little nervous at first trying to maneuver through rush hour traffic and looking out for road signs to exit out of Avignon.  But I thought, if I could manage Phuket, this should be a piece of cake :)  We quickly confirmed the uselessness of the regional map that we bought at home - we couldn’t find the local map that we should’ve bought.  The trick, it turned out, was to familiarize ourselves with the towns between us and our destination, and follow the signs to those towns.  The next thing to get used to was roundabouts.  That didn’t take too long, but the thick A-pillar on the C3 didn’t help as it made reading the road signs up ahead difficult.  The car was otherwise not bad to drive, especially with its forgiving clutch.  Driving actually became enjoyable once we reached the narrow, twisty, hilly roads that hug the Luberon.

Our first destination was L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue.  By the time we arrived (after 9am) we had to park just outside of the main tourist area, by the side of a road.  Just after we parked and got out of our car, we heard a loud bang.  The driver who was trying to park behind our car backed into a concrete post!  Ouch!

As we walked towards the town center, I was glad to see that some merchants were still in the process of setting up their market stalls.  We weren’t late after all.  Around the fringe of the town center were mostly antique items.  As we approached the main square, food items became more prevalent.  We sat down for our first breakfast in Provence, and learned that "cafe" means "expresso".  Oops.  We bought some jarred foie gras and honey from the market.  We also visited the local supermarket to stock up on water and snacks for lunch, as well as some razors and face cream so I wouldn’t go unshaven for a week

By the time we arrived at our next planned destination, the Lavender Museum at Coustellet, it was lunch time so it was closed.  After having some bread with our jarred foie gras for lunch, we decided to drive to Oppede-le-Vieux and come back after.  The village did not look far from where we were on the map, but it took us a good half hour of "feeling" lost before arriving at the base of the village.  Another good half-hour hike up the hill got us to the typical small provencal main square, which had 2 restaurants and a fountain.  A final 10-minute hike and we were on top of the mountain.  Despite the lack of attractions (a simple church and a ruined castle), we somehow spent a good hour walking around.  We took a short ice-cream break back at the main square before heading back to Coustellet.  We arrived at the Lavender Museum at around 5pm and caught up with a group of international students.  There, we learned about the difference between fine lavender and lavandin, as well as the extraction and distillation process.  We were there up until they closed at 6pm.

We weren’t sure if we should squeeze one more town into our day at this point, and decided against it to avoid driving back to Avignon in the dark on our first day.  Back in Avignon we had a nice dinner where we discovered how much better "real" foie gras taste like

The first day of our trip to Provence deviated from our plan right from the start.  After landing at CDG we were hoping to get on the train to Avignon before noon and arrive there 2ish.  But instead we were told that there were no seats available with our France Saverpass.  We’d have to go to Gare de Lyon to catch the 14:20 train and arrive there at 5pm!

So for the few hours we had before our 2+ hour train ride, we had lunch and walked around the 12th arrondissement (local street market and the Viaduc des Arts) near Gare de Lyon.  By the time we arrived and settled at our hotel in Avignon, it was
close to 6pm.  We grabbed a map from the tourism office and started exploring the town until dark.  The best thing that happened today was the serendipitous discovery of a very local restaurant while searching for one recommended in our guidebook, which seemed to no longer exist.  We were the first ones in the restaurant, but by the time we finished, it was full of French-speaking people.  The food was good and the price most reasonable compared to other restaurants we saw.

As we ended the day we wondered if/how we would shuffle our planned itinerary to make up for the sightseeing that was "lost" today.