Last days in France and onto Italia!

We seem to have done quite a lot in the last couple of weeks!  After Arles, we explored Avignon, Orange and Aix en Provence with various Roman ruins here and there to wonder at and realised yet again that there is nothing new under the sun, the Romans and those who came before them were pretty good engineers! 

Pont du Gard, roman viaduct

The Roman Theatre, Orange - still used for theatre and music events

Note from some unhappy community members!  Orange

We spent a good few hours exploring the Chateauneuf des Papes at Avignon.  The Popes were present there for over 100 years and each one made changes and additions.  Avignon is a great example of a walled city, one of several in southern France and Italy.  We stayed at Les Angles in a great AirBnB which was just outside the city and got the bus in to explore.

Chateauneuf des Papes, Avignon

 The famous 'pont d'Avignon' only goes three quarters of the way across the river and it was a bit windy for singing and dancing that day!

In Aix en Provence we went to see a Turner exhibition which was very illuminating as it covered a large part of his life's work, from sketches to larger paintings.  We had lunch in the gallery's fabulous dining rooms - very fancy indeed!

Marseilles was a revelation - not somewhere I was especially wanting to see from its reputation, but it turned out to be very interesting and worth the detour.   The old port fort buildings have been revitalised and integrated into the new MuCEM museum.  The new building is covered with a concrete web with open walkways all around each floor within the structure and bridges across to the old port.

MuCEM the roof

 Our next stop was Nice and some inner city living in a massive old flat which was a bit noisy and hot after the country places we have stayed in.  It is a vibrant town with lots of tourists and, disappointingly a pebble beach!  We fitted in a trip to nearby MonteCarlo just to do it!

Monte Carlo and some boys' toy's

Monte Carlo

 In a complete change we then drove an hour up to the Alpilles and stayed with friends in their lovely old house in a picturesque hill top village.

Puget Rostang

 Life in France is pretty attractive!  We have seen so much over the past five weeks and are already thinking about when we can come back again to housesit for a few weeks.