Destination Orange

Day 4. Sunny.

The plan today was to do the Roman theatre and the other roman sites in Orange.

So after breakfast we were out just after 9.30am for the short walk round to the theatre.

The main wall facade can only be seen in photographs as France 2 TV station has lined the entire wall with portababins to house the crew and entertainers at the many concerts, both opera and musical that take place during the summer.

The €9 entry fee gets the free audioguide and entry into the theatre and also to the museum across the road.

We spent a good few hours going from one audioguide spot to the next as it took us up rows and rows of steps to the top.

The main wall is the original as is the upper where it is built into the hillside, but much of the seating was replaced by the Victorians as it had been looted over the 1500 years since the Roman empire had failed.

The job has been done very well as it looked to fit right in. In fast, only the first three rows are Roman originals.

In the "caves" off the "vomitariums" are some audio visual displays to highlight the ways that the theatre has been used since it was built 2000 years ago.

By the time we had finished we need a coffee and we had a short walk into the centre of the city for a cafe creme. Next stop was the museum. For me the most interesting bits were the mosaics that have been find across Orange over the years. One in particular only in 1988. Most aren't complete as building and work in less enlightened times has seems the small marble stones lost forever.

Once museumed out we walked back to the hotel to get the car and got to the second town of the day; Avignon, some 35kms away.

On the way back to La Cigaliere we stopped at a bakery for lunch. After the Michelin guide mentioned Forum yesterday we needed to save a few quid! In the end we had a potato quiche, a tomato and Gruyere quiche and flan (a sort of custard tart).

The car had been giving a message to say it was low on oil and so I dipped it. It was between the high and low marks. It had been higher before we left when I checked it and also topped up the washer bottle. So the next stop would be a car shop to get some.

Somehow TomTom seemed to have forgotten about the N7 and took us on a series of back roads through villages to Avignon. We stopped at a Norauto and I invested in some GTX. Putting a litre or so in the engine.

Avignon was full of traffic, we had a tour around a few car-parks with no spaces and then decided to pay. If you do it everyday you will want to park free, but as a tourist, a few quid isn't that much of a problem.

We walked out of the walled city to take the view of the walls and the famous Pont d'Avignon. But baulked at €9 each to walk on it. We then took in the Pope's Palace. An extravagent building and by this time we were a bit touristed out.

The final stop was to be the Pont de Garde. TomTom took us to the left bank and the car-park. As soon as I saw that to take the ticket would cost me €19 to park, I reversed. Not the only ones either. All we wanted was a quick look at the double decker bridge. WOW!!!!

From there we shot off back to the hotel and a swim.