Day 12: Driving through Provence...

 We have a driver (Thierry) picking us up at 9am at the hotel, and our agenda today is as follows:

We see lavendar fields and visit a shop around 10am - we'll be in Bellegarde which is about a half an hour drive from Avignon.

Then we drive another 15 minutes to Arles where we can explore all around walking in Van Gogh's footsteps.  

Then a stop in Saint-Remy to shop and walk and explore. Lunch will be there.

Finally we drive another 45 minutes or so to visit the infamous winery in Provence (Chateauneuf de Pape) or "new chateau of the Pope"). We tasted one of the wines aboard Alouette and it was amazing!  So looking forward to this visit.

Then back to the hotel to rest up before a casual bistro dinner our final night in Avignon.

So another rough day ahead...

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We began at a small lavender producer.  It was a fascinating tour and visit.  Gorgeous fields of lavender, sunflowers, rosemary and lemon verbena among other plants.  The smell was intoxicating as soon as we left our car.

We arrived at MP: un MAS en PROVENCE in Bellegarde France

And we heard the way lavendar and other essential oils are made:

Sunflowers at full peak:

Lavender fields were about a week away from being at full peak:

We then left for Arles where Vincent Van Gogh spent his last few years and created some of his greatest masterpieces. Below is where he lived and what the area looks like now.  The image below is his painting of the home.

Thierry our fabulous driver and guide.

Exploring around Arles:

Map of Arles:

The colosseum in Arles was intact and beautiful. The Arènes d’Arles is one of seven UNESCO World Heritage Sites in town. With a capacity of 25,000 people, it is a smaller version of Rome’s Colosseum, completed about ten years earlier. During the Middle Ages the amphitheater was actually used for housing.

Who needs Versailles?

Another famous painting of Van Gogh's was of this building. It's one of the most beautiful spots in town, with a recognizable café that was immortalized by van Gogh in one of his most well-known paintings, which is commonly called the Night Café. The real name of the painting is Café Terrace At Night.

A copy of that famous painting:

Van Gogh lived in Arles and nearby St Remy during the final 2 1/2 years of his life and nearly all of the works were created during that time period. 

Arles is a beautiful walkable city with so many cafes and boutiques.  You could easily spend days here and have fun.

We then drove to gorgeous Saint-Remy de Provence for lunch. Saint Rémy de Provence is where the artist Vincent van Gogh painted his famous masterpiece “The Starry Night”. Vincent van Gogh was in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence in a troubled period of his life, the previous year he had cut off his own left ear.

The time he spent here during May 1889 and May 1890, was at Saint-Paul-de-Mausole -  an asylum, which was once a monastery. He lived in two barred cells one of which he converted into a studio, but the raw conditions were very austere.

It's a beautiful quaint smallish town.  We'd love to go back and stay.  Very very pretty town.  We had a ridiculously quintessential French Bistro lunch and then shopped a bit before having to head on...

Another out of this world local Rose:

Escargot

Salmon gravlax

Veau

Cod

A wonderful "caramel custard" which was basically flan without the burnt sugar. SO GOOD:

Flourless chocolate cake was wonderful!

Fabulous soaps:

After Saint-Remy we drove to the winery Chateauneuf du Papes.  So magical and beautiful!

Our winery within Chateauneuf du Papes - Chateau La Nerthe

Absolutely incredible winery!  Thomas our guide just relocated from being in LA for a year or so, and he was so much fun to spend time with.

The wines we tasted with Thomas (who just relocated back to France from LA - we had lots to discuss about that...)

Yes, we loved the wine!  Home run!  Fortunately they can ship, so we already are looking forward to an arrival of some magnificent whites and reds...

THE famous bridge in Avignon: You might know it from the well-known song “sous la Pont d’Avignon” about dancing on the bridge. The river crossing came about after, in 1177, a 12-year-old shepherd boy claimed divine voices told him the bridge needed building in Avignon.

Structure in Saint-Remy:

We returned to Avignon and walked the city more and again first thing Monday morning before boarding our train back to Paris.  A few highlights below:

How cute is this pig sculpture outside an art gallery?

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POSTSCRIPT:

We checked out of our hotel in Avignon and got to the TGV train station on time.  It was an uneventful 4 1/2 hour fast train directly to the Paris Charles de Gaulle airport.  

We exited the train and literally walked 5 minutes to get to the Marriott hotel at the airport where we're staying tonight.  They upgraded our room and gave us the concierge floor, so we are set.  The stress is gone.  And we're already in our terminal for tomorrow's flight, so no stress about tomorrow morning. 

Can't recommend spending the night right by the airport here enough.  We were really expecting the hotel to be awful and "hotel by the airport" bad.  Huge room, clean, robes, slippers, coffee and they start room service at 5am.  

We're actually heading out shortly to shop at the airport (Lauderee anyone?) and find where we want to have dinner.

9am flight is over 9 hours, but we'll be back in Atlanta by around 12:30pm or so.

It's been a fabulous trip!  Soon to say Au Revoir to France...