DAY 6: Quiet day in Uzes

 Tuesday April 11, 2023 (Today - I am catching up!)

I decided to take some photos of our stairs, since I understand these were also built by the Romans in the first century. They were designed to tire out the slaves before doing battle in the Arena.  We enjoy 15 steps up to the living area from the street, and another 31 between the living area and the only toilet. 

You can see Kylie hiding on the right

Looking down from the toilet to the living area. 

We started our "quiet day" with breakfast at home. Not much to report, except that I am very disappointed with French muesli. Unfortunately I bought a big bag.

Then we headed of to have a look at the Cathedral (Saint-Theodont), the Ducal Palace and the river park. I am not much of a Cathedral looker, so I sat outside in the sun (trying to sort out my phone) and the girls went in to have a look  Not much to report except that the "12 stations of something" were all gold.

The Ducal Palace has been around for about 1,000 years and has been the fortified home of the Dukes of Uzes since then until now. There is a tour available, but unfortunately the door was locked without explanation when we arrived (after a 30 minute uphill walk!) So we went and had lunch. I had a "Galette" (which is a folded buckwheat crepe that is folded over with savory goodies inside.) and it was OK, but not great. 

Deidre headed of home, Kylie and I went for a walk in the park down by the Alzon River. 

Smelling the roses

Geoff: Please tell me what this says

My girl

 

DAY 5: Off to Nimes

 Monday April 10, 2023

Breakfast out - just for a change.

Poor Ky is currently suffering from an "attack" of canker sores. They hurt!

We need new sim cards for our devices but there are no cell phone stores in Uzes, so we headed off to Nimes for the day. Because Monday was still an Easter holiday we checked to see that some cell phone stores would be open before we headed off. Next step was to find the car. (To avoid this worry in future I took a Tile tag and tossed it in the glove compartment.) 

The first couple of stores we located - that Google said were open - were closed. Finally we found a little shop run by a couple of Middle eastern types that was open. Unfortunately they could not speak English, American or Australian and I could not speak French or Arabic and so our "technical phone communication" was a bit limited and so I ended up buying whatever they put in the phones - which turned out not being much. The bottom line is that we do not have a French phone number - so no inbound calls or SMS messages. We do seem to have email and data. I am not sure how long it will work. (And we do have Wi-Fi at homes in Uzes.) To celebrate/commiserate we had a coffee and bun, then continued with our day.

The Roman Arena (Its not a Coliseum because it has a sand surface) was built in the first century and could hold 20K people! It has a sandy floor so that they could rake over the blood between acts. Quite amazing.

It seems in amazing shape, 2,000 years old!

Can you see Deidre? In the middle of the second row, white pants.

Did you know that denim originated in Nimes? The material was shipped to the USA in the 1800's from France and was stamped "de Nimes" and hence developed the name.

On the way back to the car we peeked in on the Maison Carree ("square house"). This temple was modeled on the temple of "Apollo" in Rome and is one of the most notable surviving structures of Roman civilization (per the guide book). 

We did not go in. I took a few photos and moved on.

Geoff - Please tell me what the numbers add up to.

We stopped at a supermarket on the way home. Deidre bought stuff to make dinner, plus a frozen pizza for an emergency.  When we got home we (meaning Deidre and Kylie) were too tired to start cooking so we heated up the pizza and opened a bottle of the $3 vino.

DAY 4: Exploring Uzes and Finding the Pont de Gard

 Sunday April 9, 2023

It was Easter Sunday so we did not know what would be open. Kylie does not drink Decaf so we headed 100 steps to the "square" at the end of our street. It was bustling with several bar/restaurants and lots of street seating. It looked like fun to me. 

We chose a place and ordered coffee and asked for a menu. Turns out we were too late for breakfast and the kitchen did not reopen until 2:30PM. So we sent Kylie running and she came back with three hot crepes.

We decided over breakfast that is was time to start exploring (Kylie leaves on Thursday). Pont de Gard was the closest feature of note (its only 14 km away) so with Kylie's help we found the car, gave up our precious parking spot and headed south east. The drive was charming and we stopped for some photos.

The countryside is really amazing

Pont de Gard turned out to be a bust - at least initially. We expected a small half empty parking lot but we found completely the opposite, and filled with cars. We did manage to find a spot, but found out it was a big walk to the aqueduct, and Deidre is not a big walker. So we decided "Maybe another day" and headed out. But Ky could see the river on the Google map and suggested approaching from another angle on a few dirt roads, and that's what we did. We got as close as we could to the river, and started to walk on a trail. Very soon thereafter ......... we started hearing the sounds of a big festival and found ourselves at the "back gate" and so wandered in.

Seems like it was a large and well attended "performance" fair. Bit like a farmers market for want-be performers. Strange but interesting. We wandered through and found the aqueduct.

DAY 3: AVIGNON and UZES

 Saturday April 8, 2023

We all slept well, I managed 11 hours straight! 

We wandered back into Avignon for breakfast ("petit dejeuner") and for a walk through town. Avignon is a walled city and amazingly beautiful. It was a cool but sunny day. What a charming place. We were all totally enamored. We will go back.

I had promised our Uzes landlord that we would present ourselves outside our new home at 2:00 PM to be shown around and get the keys. He seemed to be a bit of a stickler, so I felt we needed to get going and be on time. Our wanderings in Avignon had taken us quite a way from the hotel, so we found a seat in the sun for the ladies and I trotted back to the hotel and picked up the car.  

The drive to Uzes was just as charming. But as we neared the center of town the streets got smaller and the car grew larger. Kylie was navigating on Google, who thinks that a street is plenty wide for a car and the people and the shops, but in Uzes that is not necessarily the case. Things go so hectic that Kylie got out of the car and cleared the way ahead of us and warned me front door steps, merchandise and people sitting on the "road" drinking coffee. Some of the "roads" were so narrow I had to fold in my side mirrors to avoid downspouts..

The landlord had appointed a young lady to greet us - Sabrina. It was a a bit hectic, but me made it (15 minutes late) and Sabrina was waiting for us on the stoop.  We are delighted with the house. 

Turns out I have to park the car "on the street". Sabrina directed me a few blocks "north" and we found a vacant spot. We walked back to the house thru the narrow streets. I have to wonder if I will ever be able to find the car again!

The "apartment" is about 15' wide, two rooms and the stairwell deep, with 5 levels. (I will call them G (Ground) 1. 2, 3, and 4.) In total there are 4 bedrooms, one bathroom, kitchen and living room. There are two patios - one on level 1 and one on level 4. Good roof views. Its ancient but in good shape. 

Our "street" is about 12' wide (less any downspouts or door steps.)

We planned to go out to eat, but we definitely needed coffee and supplies so Kylie and I headed off to visit the nearest supermarket (Aldi) about 2 miles away. We could have driven, but a) where was the car? and b) even if we found it, I was unsure I could ever find another parking spot as they were rather sparse, and c) I needed the steps. So we walked. It was an Aldi, but it would not make it in the USA, but they did have decaf coffee. 

Our next door neighbor is a Thai restaurant. So that is where we went for dinner.

That is our door on the RHS with two front steps

DAYS 1 and 2: Charleston to Uzes, France

 Thursday and Friday, April 6 and 7, 2023

Deidre and I were up at 8:00AM and on our way to Kylie's house at about 11:00 AM where we parked the Jeep and called Uber for a ride to the airport. (Its hard to get Uber on the IOP) The flight to Washington was on time, our connection to Paris was a bit tight but we managed to get to the departure lounge just as boarding was announced. All good.

We decided to upgrade this flight to the next level - "Premium Economy". (For our last international flight in October, 2022 to Australia we tried "Economy Plus" and that was unimpressive. But we were both very happy with our new seats. Way more space, bigger seats and better food seems to sum it up. 

The 7 hour flight arrived right on time, just before 7 AM. (When Thursday became Friday per our body clocks.) Immigration, baggage and customs were fast and easy. Kylie was due to arrive on a different flight about 30 minutes after us, and we had arranged to meet at McDonalds located near the subway station. But we could not find McD's but did eventually found a Starbucks, so we SMS'd the new plan to Kylie. She got the message but did not turn up for quite a while because the delay in Immigration etc. had expanded.

After a coffee we headed for the subway and found the right platform and train. The carriages loaded up as we headed towards the city and by the time we reached Chatelet-des-Halles it was packed solid. All the suitcases did not help. After asking a few people "Parlez-vous Anglais?" we found the right platform. It was a busy place.

We had time for some lunch at Gare dfe Lyon before catching the TGV. The TGV was very long, so we had quite a walk to find our assigned carriage and seats. The seating was 2 by 2 and the carriage seemed quite narrow. And yes, it did go fast.

Unfortunately we needed to change trains in Lyon, and we only had 8 minutes to make the transfer. We came across an Anglophile on board who was able to tell us the new platform. We all ran - I made it,  asked the Conductor to hold the door, but he would not. Deidre and Kylie were just in view when the door was closed.

In anticipation of the short changing time, I had also lined up a "just in case" car in Lyon. All the trains to Avignon were fully booked, so we headed of to Alamo and picked up the car. It was only another 230 km to Avignon, with freeway just about all the way,  so I expected to arrive in a couple of hours. But the traffic was so bad it took us 4 hours! Other than the traffic it was easy driving, but we had all been awake for about 30 hours so we were ready to arrive. The country side approaching Avignon was well cared for and really attractive. 

Our hotel was just outside on of the main gates of this walled city. After cleaning up a bit we walked into the city. Dinner was pretty ordinary. We went back to the hotel and to bed. 

Visits to Phoenix, Los Angeles and Cleveland

 

From the left: Bob, Deidre, Ruby, Adam, Indy (in Deidre's Coat) and Kathy

Thanksgiving 2021

 David and family flew into Charleston late on Sunday November 21st and flew out  very early on Friday November 26th. 

On Tuesday we went for a "black water swamp" Kayak tour, on Tuesday we took the ferry ride to Fort Sumter, we celebrated Thanksgiving on Wednesday (because Kylie had to work on Thursday) and on Thursday we went for a hike along the Awendor Creek and finished up with a picnic. We all had to get up at 4:30 AM Friday morning to get them to the airport.