July 10 - Arles market & Pont du Gard, France

It is just so hard to pick only one favorite day. Today was FULL of adventures!!

For Jeff and Jennifer - their adventure started with doctors appointments (this actually started the evening before) when it was discovered that Jennifer was not having a reaction to the gnat bites - but had shingles! Try to find a doctor in a foreign country and communicate that to them. Just finding them in these ridiculously narrow streets and hair pin turns was an adventure! But, the doctors were so kind and accommodating. But she had them in her eye - as well as her face and head. So, today she had an appointment with an ophthalmologist to make sure there wasn't any damage to her cornea and for more pain killers and ointments. Poor thing! She was such a trooper and even participated in the canoe trip. But I am getting a head...

So while Jeff, Jennifer & Ted went to the doctors, the folks, Curt and I explored the Arles market - which was around the walls of the old city. There was everything you can imagine! I loved the lavendar, olives (and olive oils), spices & vanilla, fantastically sweet fresh fruits, melt in your mouth pastries and breads and, of course, cheese! I did get a little carried away (the 35 Euro cheese block is still a sore spot for Curtis ;-)

Choosing fruit for our picnic lunch that afternoon

lots of beautiful vegetables (not Curtis! although he is beautiful)

lavendar, soap and vanilla

buying chicken and potatoes for our lunch

lots of dried fruits and nuts

who knew there were so many different types of olives!! I even found one I liked

honey

Our cheese guy who sold me our provencale block to bring home (along with some cheeses for lunch)

walking back by the Colosseum with our treasures

Curtis and I took a tour of the Roman ruins BELOW the city of Arles - really cool!

parts of columns from the Roman era

Once the city was built on top, people bricked them up and used these areas (once store fronts) as cellars to their private homes. The city has been buying up the cellars, tearing down the brick walls and restoring the site. 

Curtis - holding up the arc as it separates - good thing he was there!

After the market - we drove down the road and found a field near some lavendar fields, laid out a blanket and ate our lunch.  The cicadas were SO loud in the trees around us. Fortunately, I didn't see any ;-)  Then we drove down the road to a company who we hired to rent us canoes and we took a "three hour tour". A canoe tour - to be exact - that took us under Pont du Gard (which is an old 3 story Roman aqueduct). The weather was hot and the water was cold - so it was perfect. There were tons of people playing in the river, enjoying the afternoon (some clothed - some not). We stopped to swim and enjoyed a lazy paddle. But, just before Pont du Gard - a storm moved in. Suddenly it was a downpour. The canoes all took refuge under Pont du Gard. We formed kind of a canoe barge - with Mom and Dad anchoring everyone on the side. The french woman attached to us kept thanking the Romans ;-)  There was spectacular lightning and thunder. After 15 minutes or so,  it didn't seem to be letting up - so we decided to power on. Ted had told us we still had about 30 minutes to go before the canoe return location. But, if we let go - everyone else had to move on, too. Ironically, just as we all let go and got about 100 feet from the shelter - it came down even harder - so hard we couldn't even see. With the wind - it was so cold!!! Mom and Dad took us all to task - they paddled like a fine-tuned machine. They beat us all to the stopping point by about 15 minutes!!! Paddling did help you stay warm, though. We were never so grateful to see those orange canoes lined up on the shore and a warm bus awaiting us to return us to our cars. BUT - it was a very memorable adventure. Since we got home later than we thought, every place to eat had closed. So... we ate at McDonald's. Some things ARE universal ;-)

We didn't get to take any pictures (it was too wet) - but this is Pont du Gard. Besides the weather - this is a pretty accurate picture of what we experienced.