Womens Travel Network.ca

What a day we had! We started off with a great breakfast and to celebrate the birthday girls' special day by crowning them Queen for the Day with a tiara and a special birthday button. It is a Dutch tradition to decorate the birthday person's chair, so we did that too!
We walked to our bus but made a quick stop to take photos of the famous Pont d'Avignon over the Rhone river. We will have to dance on it later this week..
Avignon is a walled city and they actually closed it in 2002 for the first time since the Middle Ages - to keep the water out!
The Mistral was blowing hard. It can go up to 130 kms/hr and blow 260 days out of the year. The advantage is that it blows away all the clouds, so we had a beautiful sunny day.
There are 22 regions in France and we visited Languedoc and the Provence today.
We discovered the limestone peaks and roads lined with pine and cypress trees, olive orchards and vineyards. We investigated the castle ruins at the medieval village of Les Beaux perched high on a rocky plateau. It was beautiful and windy!
Afterwards we visited the olive oil mill "Le Mas des Barres" where we tasted delicious olive oil and were told how the olive extraction process works.
There are 60 different types of olive oil. Who knew?
It was very interesting and we finished our visit in the shop - of course! We also picked some fresh figs off the trees. It doesn't get much better than that!
The birthday girls were given some handcream as a present. How special.
Our next stop was to visit the Insane Asylum, Saint Paul de Mausole. No, we didn't leave anyone behind. It was just to see the mental hospital where Vincent van Gogh was treated.
He painted over 350 paintings while he was there which represents 95% of his total work.
It was fascinating to see where he painted and to recognize some of the scenery from his paintings. I taught our guide, Valerie, how to pronounce Vincent van Gogh's name properly - with the deep Dutch gutteral sound :-)
We made quick stop in the town of Saint Remy. It was lovely and I'd like to go back there some time on a Wednesday when they have their local market.
It was a great day and much fun was had by all and many beautiful souvenirs were purchased by all.
Dinner tonight is at 8:00 pm at Restaurant Piedoie with a pink shrimp grapefruit appetizer and saddle of rabbit stuffed and roasted wih creamy polenta as the main course. We will drink lots of wine, and finish with homemade nougat and red fruit coulis. Delicieuse!
Nougat is made with egg whites, almonds and honey.