More France

Our time in France has been wonderful. The second day we were in Arles we picked up our rental car and headed to Nimes to see the Roman ruins. We got a little lost on the way there and ended up on the country road route, but it was great because we got to see all of the wineries along the way. The ruins were awesome. Our favorite was a park that was the first built for the public in this area. There is an old building called the Temple of Diana that they think was annold library. It had some of the most amazing stone work and it was so crazy to walk through and think about how old it really was. After Nimes we went to the Pont du Gard, a Roman aquaduct that spans across a river. This was by far my favorite part of our time in this area. The aquaduct is huge...some 300 feet high and 400 feet across . The river that runs underneath it is pretty warm and is so clear you can see all of the fish. I didn't like being able to see all of the fish so much, but it was really fun to wade across it. All of the local people came to swim in it too. It was the most relaxing thing we have done in France. We spent an hour just sitting on the banks. 

The next day we were off the Gordes. We started off the trip by getting on the toll road going in the wrong direction. They don't label their road here with north, south, east, west or even with the road/highway name either. Here they only label them with cities in either direction. This is fine if you are going to the next big city, but if you aren't, and you don't know the big cities in between you and where your final destination is, you are screwed! The side trip was fun though and at the end of the toll road we got off, paid our toll, got back on going the other way and paid our toll again! It was all worth it because the drive was amazing. We drove through vineyards and small towns and a hundred fruit stands.   When we finally got to Gordes we couldn't beleive the view. Our hotel was right across from the town center, which is perched on the top of a bluff. Below were all of the vineards we had passed. The town was adorable and we spent our first evening eating dinner and drinking wine looking out across the most beautiful valley. The next day we went off to taste wine. Our hotel owner recommended a few so we took our map and set off. When we got to the first one we realized that they all close between 12 and 2! So we had a picnic, looked at a crazy old bridge on the side of the road and took in the beautiful surroundings. We met some interesting winery owners, and we named all of our wine after them so we can keep it straight. First we had 'bald guy with the dog'. He strolled up about 2:15 with his crazy old yeller type dog and let us taste amazing wine. Then we have 'bat man'. We tasted wine in a cave (literally) off the side if the road. The man had a crazy eye and there was a bat stuck to a fly strip hanging from the ceiling. The wine was the best we have had!

Our time at the coast has been very relaxing, but there us not much Internet here. We are on our way to Paris and I will try to write about it more there.