Day 12, 29 May 2008, St. Remy, Glanum, Les Baux

Route

We trekked back to St. Remy this morning to hit the shops. I think that Angela has been pretty disappointed so far this trip that she hasn't been able to really "get her shop on" but there's really nothing I can do about that. It's not like we haven't found a ton of shops.

Before that, however, we went to the architectural site of the ancient city of Glanum. It was very impressive, but there really wasn't anything left intact with the exception of a couple columns. The two sort of marquee items of interest (a mausoleum and an arch) were covered in scaffolding and thus were not easily appreciated. After a not so subtle hint from the girls that they were "through with ruins," we headed back to St. Remy for some lunch and to see what sort of trinkets we could find. We had some yummy Croque Monsieurs for lunch, but Angela was noticeably disappointed at the relative lack of shopping.

The drive down to Les Baux was pretty easy. Les Baux is a very small, pedestrian-only, town that deserved way more time than we allowed it. There is a ruined castle towards which Adam and I went like moths to a flame, and the girls meandered through the small streets looking for ways to spend money. The castle ruins were very exensive, and we got there just in time to watch them shoot a trebuchet. Turns out that I volunteered Adam and me to help cock and load the weapon, so our tour of the castle ruins were really cut short. Good God it was hard work to get that thing ready to shoot! It took 4 pretty strapping guys to crank the armature down to put it in a position where the projectile could be loaded into the sling. The results were very rewarding, though, as we got to see the ball sail downrange about 300 yards before exploding on the rocks.

We left Les Baux just as the rain started. We committed to our hosts that we would join them for a sort of happy hour back at the mas, but traffic was so bad that we were about 30 minutes late. We still had a great time chatting it up with the other guests (a couple from Bruge, Belgium) and our hosts. We had dinner at a somewhat fancy place called L'Arome in the small town of Bonnieux. Hopefully tomorrow we will finally get to take our balloon ride. The pilot said to meet at 6am. Tomorrow is also our last full day in Europe. We will have to pack up and head back to Nice to drop the car off.