Fall 2019 Day 20

Our final day in Provence!  It’s always sad to leave Avignon. We really love this place. It’s become very special to us. I think for two years in a row Emily and I have conveyed that love to our guests and they now love it too. We had a very special day planned. We went to the showstopper of all Roman sights in France, in our opinion, the Pont du Gard. A huge aqueduct that spans a river and is in just a gorgeous setting. The Romans were masters of building arches. If you look at the Roman Colosseum you’ll see that it’s just a row of arches with a row of arches on top of that one and another row on top of that one. That’s how they built the amazing things they built. It always amazes me to think, the arch that spans the river here in Provence is the largest arch the Romans ever built!  It was built 2000 years ago and is so sturdy and perfect looking still. It’s hard not to be amazed by what they were able to accomplish with no computers and now heavy machinery. We think we are so smart and that we have come so far, yet they did things we would have a hard time duplicating. Provence is probably the best place to see Roman ruins because they aren’t over crowded and they are better preserved than anywhere. We only scratched the surface this year. Even so, we still saw amazing stuff. We spent a long time at Pont du Gard and then drove back to Avignon and dropped off our Renault van rental. We loved it!  We have had Renault’s a few times here in France and they make a really nice driving automobile!  I always hate dropping off rental cars. Cars signify freedom to me and when we return it it’s like we are putting restrictions back on. But, tomorrow we get to go back to Paris which never sucks!  We saved probably our best meal in Provence for our last night.  And they didn’t disappoint!!  Emily had a scallop appetizer and a beet root risotto. I had a pumpkin and butternut squash soup and an Iberian pork dish with an apple jus. Everything was amazing!!!  For dessert we had a chocolate flourless cake with pistachio ice cream that was very rich and was our favorite chocolate dessert we have had so far in the trip but our favorite dessert of the whole trip is the banoffy pie!  Bananas and toffee on a delicious biscuit crust with fresh made whipped cream on top!  I wish I could take a dozen home with us!!  We have the recipe so if anyone wants one, we can make it by special order!  😁it’s crazy good!!!  Pictures don’t do it justice!  Anyways, we need to pack for our train ride tomorrow morning and prepare for our last day with our guests. We have our best meal planned for tomorrow night. We will see how it goes!  We are excited. As much as having our guests leave is sad, we worked very hard to give them an amazing experience they will never forget and we feel we have done an amazing job. Sometimes we have to push a little to see all the things we want to show everyone and sometimes we know it’s just not the day, but our goal is always to make our guests know that they are in good hands letting us handle everything so you can just sit back and enjoy. Turn off your mind and let us show you the world!  I promise it’ll be amazing. Our adventure will continue well past tomorrow so don’t worry, more amazing pictures to come and more amazing experiences to share with all of you!  Thanks so much for caring!!!