Tuesday, April 19, 2011

CARPENTRAS

Saturday, October 28th, 2000 Provence

Slept in a bit and enjoyed a lazy Saturday morning. On the road about 9:30 in the morning we headed for Carpentras, the local large city, and the Internet. There is also a Laundromat there but decided to wait until after Barcelona to do laundry. Spent an hour and a half on the Internet. Had one problem with AOL message regarding billing problems. Things went wacky for a while. Called them later in the day and they said it was probably a Trojan horse looking to attach to my billing information. They said that our account did not show any problems. Tom’s Baptism is set for January 21st. Neighbors are planning a group party in Newport Beach on Dec. 28th. Do hope we’ve RSVP’d early enough. Otherwise things looked good.

Afterwards we drove over and checked out the Roman Aqueduct in town. We found another piece of it later in the day at Fontaine de Vancluse. Jim wanted to climb on top but fortunately they had done a good job blocking access and he was unable to get on top of it and had to settle for photos from the ground! About 1 pm we went back to the hotel to put things away and pick up some food for lunch to add to our stop at the grocery store in Carpentras. Then we were on our way by really back, back, back roads to Fontaine de Vancluse. In doing so we found St. Didler, which was another remarkable town that we almost didn’t go to.

Fontaine de Vancluse is a very quaint town famous for it’s waterfalls. Walked about half mile to the Source. At the base of a very high, shear mountainside; the water at the source is absolutely still and then the water races out of it down a set of rapids. Water is green which indicates that there are glaciers somewhere under the mountain that are feeding springs that keep the pond full at the source. Really different! Also, walked through a paper mill located near the base of the rapids. Watched paper being made. Beautiful, but expensive. Then found a shop that was selling Provence yardage! But instead we purchased eight sets of different place mats for a total of sixteen. Then eight napkins for bread baskets. Preparation for our Provence party when we return. Jim found a good buy on perfumed soaps also.

Started home and remembered we were supposed to call my office regarding an offer on one of my listings... opps, we were an hour from the hotel. Jim made good time and we made it back to the hotel just after 5 pm and I managed to reach the office in time. Also called AOL regarding the billing question plus calls to the family.

Cleaned up and had a wonderful dinner in the hotel restaurant. Full house tonight, good thing we made reservations this morning. They were turning people away! I think they must drive here from Carpentras for dinner! Hard to believe that we’ve only got one more night! We have been writing post cards at dinnertime to make the meal last longer! We’ve mailed over one hundred cards to people on the trip. But since it’s my “shopping”, Jim doesn’t mind! Talked to Christoph tonight about the herbs. He said that they go into the countryside every two days and collect their own. There are plenty of herbs growing wild he said. Time to say good night. We changed our clocks in Europe tonight so I’m trying to stay up a little later as we have an extra hour tomorrow.

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