Work Hard to Play Hard!!!!!

We have been working 10-hour days and decided to take a couple days off, rent a car and see Provence. Kathryn loves cars and was very excited to see what we would be driving around for two days. It was a Panda, made by Fiat. It was nice, but going up a couple hills on the Auto route,we slowed down a bit.

Seeing Provence was strongly recommended (thanks Dave), and we thoroughly enjoyed it! 

We visited Arles, Avignon, Orange, Les Beau and admired the views of Gordes built on the side of a large steep hill/mountainside. We saw some really, really old stuff and also visited an enormous Roman aqueduct, perfectly preserved, called Pont du Gard (the 5^th most popular tourist site in all of France) as well as visiting the Abbey at Senanque. Except for the Abbey, this entire region is known for the Roman Ruins; Orange

being one of the most noteable for the ancient Roman theatre being the best preserved in existence, and the only one in Europe with its acoustical wall still standing. (Thank you Rick Steve’s Tour Book for teaching us about what we all saw!)

 And what would a trip around Provence be without touring a few of the many, many vineyards. Even though everything is dormant right now, it was a beautiful day, the vinyards were open for tasting and it felt like springs as we drove along and saw farmers and tractors working in the rolling fields.

It is very cold in southern France!  The cold seems to cut right through, so you rarely see man or woman without a scarf wrapped around their necks. The first day on our outing was windy, but not a cloud in the sky. The  second was absolutely gorgeous, we actually took off our coats; which was first day since we left Colorado that we haven’t needed them – along with hat, gloves and a scarf!

Now it is back to the salt mine – working day and  night it seems. With less than two weeks to go, we are on a time crunch and we have one last excursion. We will keep it a secret and show pictures on our next blog. Where has the time gone? We are making good time after some grueling sections of books that required a lot of attention!!!!!!  It’s actually starting to look like a library! Good thing eh?

Thank you for tuning in! Salut!