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Sunday 8 June 2014

... summer in Provence ...











                            


Day 50-53  Engravies - -> Carcassonne --> Uzés

Photos
1.  A much older and cuter Citroen than the one we are driving 
2.  A breakfast to rival the best breakfast - at Domaine Thomson Engravies
3.  Too many good choices
4.  Mirepoix on market day
5.  Chateau Lastours
6.  Breakfast baskets at Carcasonne
7.  Carcassonne by evening light - we stayed within the walls
8.  Summery kids
9, 10, 11.  Pont du Gard

On Thursday  after a lovely breakfast of berries at Sarah's b&b we sadly said goodbye and started off for Carcassonne. We stopped at Mirepoix to have a last look. We didn't do very much but Mummy accidentally stepped in dog poo and her shoes smelt. 
On the way we stopped at a couple of ruins. Climbing up lots of stairs in the heat we finally made it to the top. One of the spiral staircases was pitch black so you had to feel your way around. There were four ruins in total and I don't know how we got through them all in the heat. 
After a long car ride and a few stops, we found ourselves at a sort of castle. But inside the castle it was like a mini town, with more than a couple of restaurants, shops, and apartments. The place we were staying was hard to find at first but we found it ok in the end. We set off looking for dinner after making ourselves feel at home in the apartment. There were a lot to choose from but in the end we found somewhere ok. We all shared a couple of things- they were average. Mummy said the most exciting thing about Carcassonne was the pigeon guts ( we saw a dead pigeon).  Jack wouldn't stop talking about guts after that. It was really quite disgusting. 
After bread and butter for breakfast we set off for Uzes, or as daddy pronounced it oozies. Today it was the hottest day of my life! We drove to Pont du Gard, to see what Grace calls an amazing roman bridge. It was quite amazing actually and because it was so hot we changed out of our clothes to bathers and slowly got used to the cold water. Grace and Daddy went out first while Jack and I splashed each other. Then when Jack got out Grace and I swam out quote far. We almost got to the other side but we didn't. After getting changed we had and ice cream. I had raspberry. 
Lily

Today we drove to Pont du Gard.  It was 33 degrees - the car said so.  Before we went down to the river we had an icecream.  In the river were loads of tiny fish and lots of slimy moss.  Lily and Grace had a competition to see who got the most slimy stuff and Grace won.
After we left Sarah's B&B we had a look round Mirepoix.  Then we went to some ruins.  We had to climb a mountain.  At the first ruin we climbed the tower.  It was really dark.
Jack.

Summer in Europe started officially on June 1 but everyone in the south of France know it started yesterday, June 7. Two days over 30 degrees and at least 5 more to come!
All adventures this week will involve at least some swimming in a river, pool or waterpark -  so if I can find a swimming pool (piscine) close by I hope to see Nimes' amphitheatre which is the best preserved in the world.
Pont du Gard today, the tallest Roman aqueduct ever made at 48 m and provided water for Nimes for 500 years. The Romans were impressive builders.
I have a major dilemma at moment as I am loving France but my family are trying to stop me uttering any words or sentences in French. They say I am committing some sort of crime against the language and if Mitterand was still President I would  be in gaol. I think they love me?
DK 4003km AT 0km
David

On Thursday we left Sarah's house (the B&B).  We stopped at Mirepoix to have a last look around because the market was on.  We bought some fruit and mummy went to the post office.  
Then we headed to Lastours.  There were four ruins on top of the hill.  My favourite one was the 4th one ... it had a lovely view.  Finally after a few more hours of driving we found Carcassonne.  From the outside it looked like we were staying in a huge castle.  When we actually got inside it was a small town.  It took us a few minutes to find our hotel.  We had two separate rooms... daddy, Lily, Jack and I slept in one and mummy slept in the other one.  
In the morning mummy collected baskets of bread and croissants from downstairs.  I had 1 1/2 croissants ... they were delicious (they weren't as good as Sarah's though).  Just before we left we saw a dead bird on the road, you could see its guts (I thought they were worms at first).
Friday was a really boring day in the car (except I got to play on my iPad mini a lot).
On Friday (in Uzes) we went out to dinner.  I had lots of different things.
Today we drove to Pont du Gard.  We were there to look at a great big bridge built by the romans.  We got to swim in the river under it.  In the river were little fish and green slime.  Lily and I had a competition to see who could get the most slime in their hands...I won.   Lily and I swam almost across to the other side of the river.  When we got back to shore my hands felt really weird and sore.  After that we got another icecream - I had mandarin for the 2nd time in a day!
Grace








4 comments:

  1. We really needed to know about the bird guts! (Not)
    :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Al - now I know why you needed so many pairs of shoes. But I'm not planning to step in any dog poo!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I like the Citroen!

    ReplyDelete