We had read and heard many amazing stories about the region of Provence in Southern France, and our expectations were totally met. We spent three nights there sampling the beaches, the wineries, the ruins and rivers.
We began with a stop at the beach on the drive in from Carcasonne. It was a sunny, but very windy day out on the beach. We managed to still have a good time even though the water was extremely chilly from the wind (in August?). It didn't stop the kids from having a blast playing in the surf and sand.
We made it to our Airbnb in a small village in an arid foothills region near Avignon. The owner was extremely kind and took a liking to Claire right away. His little kitten received plenty of attention as Claire followed her around the yard constantly. The house even had a pool with a domed solar cover that turned it into a greenhouse with much warmer water than it would otherwise have. It was perfect.
Claire really wanted to ride a horse while we were on the vacation, so our host found a place nearby and even drove us over and introduced us personally to the stable owners and helped translate.
Our first day trip was to Avignon, famous for its song (which Laura knew by heart and Tyler had never heard of). We had visited on a big August holiday, so all the shops were closed and the city was fairly deserted, but we still enjoyed a wander around the Pope's Palace from when the Catholic church had moved its Pope's temporarily while Rome was unsafe.
The next day we took a tip from Rick Steves and brought our swim gear out to the Pont du Gard, one of the most famous and impressive monuments of Ancient Rome. This aqueduct helped transport fresh water dozens of miles to the city of Nimes and was still functioning into the 1800s. It is actually higher than the Colosseum in Rome.
We arrived early and claimed a nice place on the beach and spent the entire day playing, swimming and exploring around the valley. The kids had a great time catching frogs and tadpoles in the puddles on the beach while Mom and Dad just took in the grandeur.
Everyone swam across the river several times to jump off the large rocks on the opposite side. We were especially proud of Callum as he swam across the whole river next to Dad. Claire got in on the action too and jumped off some big rocks for a 4 year old!
Tyler later hiked off to explore crossing the bridge built along the bottom span of the aqueduct by the French and climbing the hill opposite to get a look inside the top of the aqueduct were the water flowed. It was amazing to the see the structure still standing, without mortar, and the brute force engineering the tunneled through hills to keep the perfect inclination for the water to keep flowing.
If we had to pick, this was probably our favorite day of the whole trip. What a fantastic day.
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