10/9/12
Left Cassis and drove over Aix en Provence to Orange. The constant tool booths along the way really slowed the traffic down. Our Mastercard doesn’t work on all of them, so we had to queue up at the cash&card lanes.
Arrived at the pre-booked Logis hotel and seeing the rundown facade were presently surprised by the cleanliness and quality of the room.
Spent the afternoon strolling around the city and had a quite traditional dinner with view of the great and famous Amphitheater.
Dinner consisted of an aperitif (when in France…….) of Pernot (yum), then an entrée of baked cheese on a bed of salad, followed by traditional seafood dumplings in a creamy sauce with tagliatella and, of course, some local red wine.
11/9/12
This morning we climbed onto the central hill above the Amphitheatre. Once the Dutch Prince of Orange, yes you heard right, an ancestor of the current Dutch Royal Family, ruled the area and built his Castle there. Later under Louis XIV the castle was destroyed and now only a well and a few stones are left. Instead there is a lovely park area from where you have a great view over the theatre and the town.
We visited the inside of the Amphitheatre. It was built under Augustus and is the second largest and probably best- maintained Roman theatre in existence. The outer wall is 37 meters high. Inside operas and classical theatre is still being performed. Orange has its own Arc de Triomphe and Notre Dam Cathedral too.
In the afternoon we had a picnic lunch on the central hill and relaxed with a book. Austin nearly brought his lunch up again. He is allergic to my “French” driving. His fault! I told him to get an automatic!