St Guilhem le Desert, a small medieval town in a mountain gorge less than an hour from us, was stunning – or as Ross waxing lyrical commented, ‘the cream on the crepes’. Doreen thought it was mindblowing to be so perfect and so old, Bruce marvelled at the isolation and the ability of people to get through such rugged terrain, Lee was lost for words and Nez said ‘ditto to all of the above’.
Ross, Lee and Birgit also explored the local area on foot. In the spirit of ‘Lee’ Burke and ‘Ross’ Wills along with Ludwig ‘B’ Leichhardt, we forsook maps and ventured to the neighbouring town of Lodeve (5 mins by car) via the wrong side of the autoroute and discovered a beautiful narrow road, exquisite real estate and a myriad of dry rock walls for which this area is famous. Our entry to Lodeve after 2 hours of walking was, quote ‘just where we thought it would be Birg’.
Oct 4th was Bruce’s 55th birthday and Bruce and Doreen’s wedding anniversary. Lee cooked a special breakfast of eggs, stewed tomato and sausages complete with birthday candle. We decided to take him to Nimes for lunch and to pay our respects to the Pont du Gard and the Roman arena.
The Pont du Gard was easy to reach, stunning, a French national treasure and such an awesome structure as the pictures show. We spent quite a while there, taking in the history and amazing engineering of this aqueduct. Lee discovered that the mortar was made from figs, pig fat and red wine…. how would you stumble on that bizarre combination unless you had been drinking lots of the latter?? Fortunately for us the day was drizzling rain so there were not as many tourists as there would be on busy summer days. But, wait for it, we did meet some Aussies from Brisbane who had recently been to Mudgee to visit an old school-mate and ‘do you know Lucy White?’
We decided to duck into the centre of Nimes to see the Roman arena and treat Bruce to a fine birthday lunch there. We followed the signs to a parking station only to find that we were in a one-way street heading the wrong way, the overhead rail on the station entry indicated 1.8m height and we were 1.9m, and the traffic was like Cleveland St in the peak hour. Ross, in the way of the French drivers, threw his hands in the air and said ‘Peu’, did a neat three-point turn with Bruce out of the car guiding, and calmly drove out of there potentially heading for home. Again the travel gods were with us, when just around the corner on a busy main road Ross skidded into the only vacant spot for miles.
Despite Lee’s suggestions to the contrary, we headed into the arena first rather than having lunch. This 2nd century AD Roman arena is a national monument visited by loads of people every year. The audio guide gave an excellent commentary and provided a realistic atmosphere, so much so that Lee and Nez felt the vibes inside were bad, despite loving the outside. Again the cameras did a lot of work, especially the new one that Doreen gave Bruce for his birthday.
We finished the tour to find that every restaurant outside was closed. Even our usual food stand-by, the restaurant attached to the auto-route service centre, was not operating when we stopped to get fuel. We still have not got the hang of this afternoon break stuff, but we’ve all decided that this long 2 hour lunch break does have a lot going for it, so watch out Mudgee, Rylstone and Gulgong when we get home.
So, we had a few birthday drinks at our local (the boys had several more) then a yummy dinner of our favourite sausages at home followed by a few hands of rummy. Next we prepare for the journey to Marseilles for the Quarter Finals against the English.
Joyeaux anniversaire, Bruce.
But seriously, you sound as though you are having a ball and cramming so much in. The photos are fabulous. I hope you have mastered Sandy's photoshop. We'll be waiting for it.
Go the Wallabies !!