Romans, Impressionists and a blummin' great big mountain!

Always listen to your headmistress - they're always right! Thanks to mine, who happens to know Provence and beyond like the back of her hand, we have been treated to some fabulous experiences over the last few days. Thank you Jeannette (aka Mrs Hebbert)! 

First up... The Haribo Museum in Uzes (one for the kids). Willy Wonka eat your heart out. Sweets with your tickets, more sweets packaged on demand at the end and a whopping great sweet shop to finish. Very interesting to see how they were made and to learn the origin of the name: HAns RIegel (the founder) from BOnn. 

With enough sweets to keep us going till Christmas we staggered a few miles down the road to the formidable Roman bridge... The Pont-du-Gard. Spanning the river Gardon this mighty aqueduct was a jewel in the crown of Roman endeavour. The aqueduct as a whole carried water over 50kms from Uzes to Nimes somehow keeping it moving over no more than a drop of 25cms per km...talking about it with the kids our minds wandered to the famous  Monty Python sketch of 'What have the Romans ever done for us?' This of course led to watching it on YouTube and no surprise the first chip in was 'aqueducts!' 

Another - 'Sanitation!' - cropped up yesterday visiting Vaison-la-Romaine. After visiting the impressive 6,000 capacity amphitheatre we found ourselves walking round the 'House of the Arbor' where you could sit on a very well preserved communal latrine...perfectly proportioned and surprisingly comfy. Clever lot those Romans. 

In between Roman sites we had an art day. For my Art A-level I had travelled to Provence to follow in the footsteps of Cezanne and Van Gogh. Jeannette had somehow remembered this (I'm not sure how!!) She recommended visiting The Monastery St Paul de Mausole in St Remy de Provence and this was where Vincent Van Gogh had spent a year just before he died and where he produced many of his greatest works.

Almond blossom - a personal favourite

 You can visit a reconstruction of his room and tour the gardens that inspired him. One end of the building is still a working psychiatric hospital and it couldn't be in a more tranquil and beautiful location. Very poignant, partly due to how eerily quiet it was... As we are regularly finding, out of season we are often the only ones at sites which in summer would be teeming. Result! Hoping they don't all shut for winter tho!

Inspired, we stopped by the roadside and sat out in the windy countryside after lunch to do some art. Definitely befuddled a few passing locals...

We then went down the road towards Les Baux-de-Provence where an old limestone quarry has been turned into caves used for digital cultural performances. Now showing Cezanne & Kandinsky we were blown away by enormous projections of their work set to music. A real game changer, I felt, for how art can be seen and enjoyed. 

One for you Mrs Best! They remembered you ntroducing the boys to this art aged 4 👌

And finally...the blummin' great big mountain...a few miles outside Vaison looms the iconic Mt Ventoux. A Tour de France highlight, we thought it'd be rude not to give it a go. 21kms from Malocene to the top we drove the first 16kms, parked up, saddled up and pedalled. Full respect to the pros, and indeed the amateurs who flock to conquer it all (including my brother a number of years back). Even the last 5km was hard going. The boys were incredible. We passed icicles and a touch of snow along the way and with several stops, a couple of hours later, we reached the top. We were so lucky to have a stunning day for it... Not a breath of wind, far reaching views to the Alpes and Pyrenees and as per usual we virtually had it to ourselves! We were told that there were up to 6,000 people cycling it per day in summer!! It got quickly chilly at the top so we didn't linger and, after checking our brakes, we headed down. A lot quicker but we needed almost an equal number of stops just to warm our hands!! 

We all felt a glow of achievement...it was great to do some proper exercise and to share it together. The boys' unforgettable experience was topped off by a treat from Jeannette who wanted to buy them a Mt Ventoux t-shirt. Very lucky chaps. 

As an aside...one final dream-like experience, which Mrs H didn't organise (as far as we know) was our second stop over in the van after leaving Matt & Ali's. Having declared a wine detox we lasted less than 48 hours when we rather foolishly parked up at a little vineyard outside St Remy. Once again the only ones there, we were drawn to the very inviting red tent lit up in the corner of the field. As we approached, a beautiful woman, the spit of Julia Roberts, appeared and started serving us samples of wine and her mother's wine jam...all delicious. 30 mins later and 30 euros lighter we returned to the van! 

(The pic doesn't do her justice!) 

Thank you Jeannette and thank you Julia!