Long Weekend to the West

SINCE WE HAVE a two week break we decided to take a long weekend to the western part of Provence. So last Thursday we loaded up the car and headed west to begin our trip in the Avignon region. (A friend asked us why we were going to Avignon and I simply responded that our family is really, really into Pope Clement V.). Our goal for the weekend was quite simple:

• visit the vinyards of Chateauneuf-du-Pape -- they are beautiful.
• visit Avignon and teach the kids a bit of medieval/roman/papal history.
• visit Arles -- the ancient Roman city that dates to the 1st century b.c. and has a spectacular coliseum that was started in A.D. 90 (actually, Patrick and Julia knew more about Arles than we did because they have been studying this period in their history class).
• Visit some really cool castles and fortresses (we found a fantastic one in Les Baux)
• Try not to spend too much money.

Let's see how we did: check, check, check, check, not-so-much-a-check.

We have video footage coming, which is a good thing because our digital camera battery ran out after day 1, but here are a few photos of our trip.

Some of the 'stone' vinyards in Chateauneuf-du-Pape; with a nice Maison in the background.

Looking out from Chateauneuf toward Avignon

Oh look, mommy and daddy think they're cute.

Daddy with the kids in a 12th century castle. Mommy with P & J at the same ruins.

Another fun thing you can do with Google Earth is track a trip you have taken. Here's our general route -- and the fun things is that this map should be interactive so you can zoom in or out.

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CJS