On to Avignon

Our  next stop in the car is Avignon, which is further south, in the Provence region of France. On our way we stopped at some little villages on the way, such as Pont St Esprit. Provence is known for lavender and we passed some lavender fields on the way. I love the scent of lavender! We also did a side trip to the Ardeche Gorges, which is a very scenic national park. We only saw a tiny part of it as we were pressed for time, but we managed to get in a swim, which was lovely considering the temperature is in the thirties.
Arriving at Avignon late afternoon, we decided to see if we could make it to the Palace of the Popes , which had a last entry at 6pm. It was a 20 minute walk from our hotel and we made it with a minute to spare! Quite an interesting place - apparently there was a period when the Popes made Avignon their home. We then walked around old Avignon, which has a lovely park, cobblestone streets (which are murder on blistered feet, by the way!) and the ruins of a Roman bridge, Pont d'Avignon.
We did a day trip to Arles and Pont du Gard. Arles is where Vincent Van Gogh spent the last years of his life and was greatly inspired by the scenery. It's a very beautiful village and it's easy to see how he was able to create hist masterpieces. Alos in Arles are some Roman ruins - ozne that we looked at was an amphitheatre, similar to the Colosseum in Rome but not quite as big (this area of France has many Roman ruins). Pont du Gard was another place we went to and is a Roman aquaduct which was fascinating to see close up.
The last photo here is outside our hotel window this evening.