Day 7
Today is Sunday, and after the exhausting day we had yesterday, we decide to stay close to the hotel. We start off the day with a trip to Isle Sur La Sorgue’s locally famous market—on Sunday practically the entire town is overrun with street vendors selling everything from spices to fruits to dresses to paintings. Amber bought a summer dress, along with our hummus, some amazing peaches, and a couple cold drinks (a rarity in France, especially if you don’t want to pay double the price).
After our time in the market, we went back to the room and swam in the hotel pool, did some laundry, took a nap, and entertained ourselves by watching Emerson run around the room.
In the evening, its back out on the town to get a good dinner (as long as Emerson can make it through the meal without crashing…). Since most places don’t open until 7:30 (the French eat late!), we went to the park and started dinner off with an ice cream cone :). And once again, Emerson was entertaining the locals, stole an older kids soccer ball, and all and all made us laugh out loud on a regular basis.
For dinner, we had a bottle of rosé wine (which is popular in the Provence region), along with our meals: mine was melon and slices of meat for my entrée and filet mignon and French fries for the plat, while Amber had escargot and salmon. Emerson was so thirsty when we first sat down that he immediately pointed at my glass of wine and was asking for it. Me thinking he wouldn't like it after the initial sip, let him try it only to have him start chugging it down! Sad to say, Emerson just couldn’t sit still and was really tired, so one of us wound up walking around town with him while the other ate dinner.
Day 8
This morning, we checked out of our hotel and are slated to drive a rental car to Les Baux in the evening. Before getting the car (let’s not even talk about how much it cost to have it for just one day!!!), we walked around Avignon to see the famous sites—the Palace of the Popes and St Benezet Bridge most of all. If you look at some of our photos from Avignon, you’ll see tons of posters hung up everywhere. That’s because we were in Avignon during the time of their famous theatre festival they’ve been having for over sixty years that attracts an extra 100,000 people to the city.
In the rental car, after our sleep deprived son had finally fallen asleep and I had figured out how to get out of the cit
y, we were off to the Dentelles de Montmirail mountain region (not without stopping in a little tiny town to ask for directions!) where the air is electricfied with the sound of cicadas (its so loud I thought something was wrong with our rental car) We visited some wineries that were in the middle of nowhere but well worth the trip. The little Chevy Spark (a car so small you won’t find in the States!) we rented had a rough time getting up the mountainside, but it was fun driving the 5-speed manual through the winding roads. The scenery was fantastic and the wine lovely (and cheap!), both of which reminded us of the Tuscany region in Italy.
Now, it was off to find Les Baux (again, I only had to stop and ask for directions once!), a little town on the top of a hill in the Alpilles mountains that was once a powerful defensive location in the middle ages (and long before then actually). There, we stayed in a little B&B and found a nice little (and quiet) restaurant to try out some more French cuisine. Nothing really notable to mention here but it was at this moment that it occurred to us that Emerson had lived off of little more than the inside of French baguettes for a week! 
Today is Sunday, and after the exhausting day we had yesterday, we decide to stay close to the hotel. We start off the day with a trip to Isle Sur La Sorgue’s locally famous market—on Sunday practically the entire town is overrun with street vendors selling everything from spices to fruits to dresses to paintings. Amber bought a summer dress, along with our hummus, some amazing peaches, and a couple cold drinks (a rarity in France, especially if you don’t want to pay double the price).After our time in the market, we went back to the room and swam in the hotel pool, did some laundry, took a nap, and entertained ourselves by watching Emerson run around the room.
In the evening, its back out on the town to get a good dinner (as long as Emerson can make it through the meal without crashing…). Since most places don’t open until 7:30 (the French eat late!), we went to the park and started dinner off with an ice cream cone :). And once again, Emerson was entertaining the locals, stole an older kids soccer ball, and all and all made us laugh out loud on a regular basis.
For dinner, we had a bottle of rosé wine (which is popular in the Provence region), along with our meals: mine was melon and slices of meat for my entrée and filet mignon and French fries for the plat, while Amber had escargot and salmon. Emerson was so thirsty when we first sat down that he immediately pointed at my glass of wine and was asking for it. Me thinking he wouldn't like it after the initial sip, let him try it only to have him start chugging it down! Sad to say, Emerson just couldn’t sit still and was really tired, so one of us wound up walking around town with him while the other ate dinner.
Day 8
This morning, we checked out of our hotel and are slated to drive a rental car to Les Baux in the evening. Before getting the car (let’s not even talk about how much it cost to have it for just one day!!!), we walked around Avignon to see the famous sites—the Palace of the Popes and St Benezet Bridge most of all. If you look at some of our photos from Avignon, you’ll see tons of posters hung up everywhere. That’s because we were in Avignon during the time of their famous theatre festival they’ve been having for over sixty years that attracts an extra 100,000 people to the city.
In the rental car, after our sleep deprived son had finally fallen asleep and I had figured out how to get out of the cit
y, we were off to the Dentelles de Montmirail mountain region (not without stopping in a little tiny town to ask for directions!) where the air is electricfied with the sound of cicadas (its so loud I thought something was wrong with our rental car) We visited some wineries that were in the middle of nowhere but well worth the trip. The little Chevy Spark (a car so small you won’t find in the States!) we rented had a rough time getting up the mountainside, but it was fun driving the 5-speed manual through the winding roads. The scenery was fantastic and the wine lovely (and cheap!), both of which reminded us of the Tuscany region in Italy.
Now, it was off to find Les Baux (again, I only had to stop and ask for directions once!), a little town on the top of a hill in the Alpilles mountains that was once a powerful defensive location in the middle ages (and long before then actually). There, we stayed in a little B&B and found a nice little (and quiet) restaurant to try out some more French cuisine. Nothing really notable to mention here but it was at this moment that it occurred to us that Emerson had lived off of little more than the inside of French baguettes for a week! 
