Florida Coalcracker Chronicles: Spending A Week In St Remy FRANCE - We Climbed Mont Ventoux - And Crossed The Roman Aqueduct

Monday, August 16, 2021

Spending A Week In St Remy FRANCE - We Climbed Mont Ventoux - And Crossed The Roman Aqueduct - Pont De Gard

World Heritage Site - Roman Aqueduct

The Summit of Mont Ventoux

Saturday night we spent at our Airbnb apartment in Avignon. We got up Sunday morning - packed all our belongings - and got two cabs to take us to the train station and our rental car. It took us quite a time to get 8 bags - 6 people - 1 stroller - and 2 car seats into our Renault Scenic 7 passenger touring sedan. After we were all in - my son took the wheel of the little van with a 6 speed transmission. Although our new home in St Remy was only 15 miles away - he took the long way home over Mont Ventoux.

MONT VENTOUX - is a 6000 foot high mountain famous for two things. First - it is very windy there - they have recorded winds of over 200 miles per hour. Second - the Tour de France bicycle race goes up the mountain. It happened just a couple of weeks ago. Since it was 100 degrees yesterday at the base - it was a relief enjoying the 75 degree air at the top. Not only is the air cool - it is very dry. We had lunch in Beduin on the way up - and stopped in another village on the other side with many attractions for the kids. We eventually got to our new home in Mt Remy before sundown.

SAINT REMY DE PROVENCE - is a historic town of about 9000 people. They were just finishing up a festival that included a parade and a stampede of wild horses - that passed right in front of our house. Lulu and I turned in early - and we missed the action. But the kids stayed up and went outside to see the parade. I am sorry I missed it and the wonderful pictures.

OUR HOME IN ST REMY - I will do a whole feature on this home. It is downtown - right near the main square. It is all stone - it must be hundreds of years old. In the yard are fireplaces - 3 wells - real working wells. The courtyard is surrounded by stone walls that must be 15 feet high. We have 3 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. The ceiling downstairs is really the logs and boards from the upstairs floors. The interior is a mix of rustic furniture and old Edison light bulbs. Since it can get windy here - I am guessing the stone walls are to protect you from the high winds.

ROMAN AQUADUCT PONT DE GARD - About 20 miles west of town is this famous World Heritage Site. Monday morning the 6 of us drove across the Rhone River. Around the birth of Christ - Rome ruled this area of France. The City of Nimes was a Roman city. To bring spring water to the city for its fountains - pools - and plumbing they constructed an aquaduct - a stone tube - to carry the fresh water from about 30 miles away. The aqueduct had to keep a perfect pitch of about 1 inch per 1000 feet - to keep the water run-in smoothly. It had to be nearly level - so when passing over rivers - they built these magnificent bridges with the stone tube at the top. The aqueducts were built out of the local limestone.

The Pont De Gard simply means a bridge over the Gardon River. It was all built by hand - using just inclined planes - pulleys - and man power. Some of the stones weigh 6 tons. What is truly amazing is that the structure was made of fitted stones - only gravity and interlocking cuts hold it together. This particular bridge is 1000 feet long - 150 feet high - and 20 feet thick. One end is just one inch lower than the other end. Here is the kicker - they used this aqueduct system for 400 years! After that the vandals that attacked Rome destroyed sections of the system - but they let this main bridge stand.

I am typing this outside in the courtyard - the town is super quiet. We have 5 more nights here. The moon just peeked its head out above the wall. It reminds me that I am living on the same planet as back home. Life goes on - pretty soon we will be leaving our family in Paris for another year. The worst part of having two educated and successful sons - is that they must follow the work. With covid - it has made visits less frequent. We are. try to get through this together.