Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Day 11, 28 May 2008, Pont du Gard, Arles, St. Remy

Route

This morning was a disaster. We got to the balloon field at the appointed time (6:30am) and there was one other gentleman there. We waited for about 45 minutes wondering where the hell was the balloon. We got wise and called the balloon pilot and were informed that our flight this morning had been cancelled due to high winds. Awesome. Admittedly, the clouds were motoring across the sky, but the surface winds were actually quite calm, so I'm not real sure why they had to cancel. They had left a message on my cell phone, but I had turned my phone off overnight. Our french compatriot was very confused about the whole situation and I finally gave him our cell phone so he could get the word straight from the horse's mouth. He was understandably dejected, but what are you gonna do?

Heidi, our trusty steed, was way low on gas, so we plugged in the nearest gas station into the NAV system. It took us to the lovely town of Roussillon where the station was closed until 8:30am. We decided to park in one of the lots and while Adam and Carlisle tried to get a cat nap, Angela and I walked around taking pictures of the very colorful buildings. Roussillon is notable for the huge vein of Ochre that runs right underneath it and so all of the buildings were these beautiful rich shades of red, orange, and yellow. Of course, in the French tradition, opening times are just suggestions and not to be taken seriously. I was afraid of not having enough gas to get to the next closest station (in Apt), but we weren't really having any fun sitting in the truck waiting for this station to open. Turns out we did have enough to get to Apt (just barely) and were able to fill up. It was at this point that we all had the craving for an Egg McMuffin, and we had passed a McD's on the way to the gas station. Unfortunately, this particular McD's didn't open until 10:30, and didn't serve breakfast. Plan B was to pick up something from the LeClerc next door and eat brunch back at the mas. This turned out pretty well and we all retired for a quick nap.

Our afternoon was way more enjoyable. We trekked west to the Pont du Gard, a 2000 year old, almost completely in tact, Roman aqueduct spanning the Gard river. It was just spectacular; moreso than even the Collosseum in Rome. We had an awesome lunch of sweet and savory crepes. After having our fill of crepes, we headed to Arles, site of a very well preserved Roman ampitheater. Arles was really nice. The ampitheater is still used for bullfighting and concerts, which is pretty cool. It is remarkably well preserved and is undergoing an extensive cleaning and restoration process to return it to its classical glory. There were several very nice galleries and other shops, but Angela couldn't bring herself to buy anything.

We ate dinner in St. Remy. By the time we got there, nothing was open but restaurants, so we didn't really do much more than eat. It really started raining hard during dinner, but even though we were eating outside, we stayed pretty much dry thanks to the awnings.

No Balloon flight tomorrow; but Friday is looking good.

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