How do you buy a suit of armor?

Pont du Gard
Great day, started off with a visit to an amazing roman aqueduct at Pont du Gard (the most complete still in existence). The thing was massive, and the museum was one of the better ones we’ve seen. Really amazing their water facilities were so advanced, and we decided to forget about things like plumbing for another 1000 years.

Orange
Swung through the town of Orange for a tour through another of the most complete Roman ruins in existence, this time a theater. Again a massive structure, the crazy part is when they describe the amount of punishment this thing went through. It was so huge, it was used as a castle and had a town within during the Dark Ages. Also of note is that the town was the original location of the House of Orange, who are the current monarchs of the Netherlands (if you wonder why their teams wear orange when their national colors are red, white and blue).

Avignon
Avignon was next on the route (these are all very close together, we’re not as crazy as these schedules seem). Pretty interesting history, as it was the home of the Vatican when a French pope was elected. The fact he moved the Vatican to this town created the two-pope situation. The crazy part is they owned this whole town in the middle of France for 400 years, and the inhabitants spoke Italian until the 1700s. Nothing special, but a nice part of history to see.

Castle Baux
Before we settled in for the nights in Arles, we made it to Castle Baux. This thing was cool, I haven’t wanted a suit of armor so bad since I was 8! It’s a fairly small plateau which at one point held a castle and town with 4,000 people. It’s very weird since the land around is a nature preserve and completely barren. You pull up to the bottom of another plateau and wonder where the heck this place is. Following a few signs, you get to something out of a movie – an entire little village, still living on top of this plateau.

The castle was destroyed by one of the French Kings, but the town was left intact (and billed for the destruction). The rulers of the area were famous warriors, from the oldest line of kings in existence. They were ruthless, one guy taking joy in making his prisoners jump off the cliff when he was bored.

Anyway – I digress, but suffice to say I completely geeked out over this place. They bored out the entire plateau for their structures, and at one point you could spy a massive stone hall through a crack in the bottom of the plateau – looked like something from Lord of the Rings.

So…moving on, nice campsite outside Arles – actually slept in our tent this time!

Trip Map