Our first stop today were the Roman ruins at Vaison la Romaine.
A beautiful mosaic discovered here is preserved in the museum.
There is also a 6000 seat amphitheater.
And this Roman bridge which dates from the first century AD, has a 55 foot arch, and is still used today.
We then visited the 9000 seat amphitheater in Orange. This is the outside wall behind the stage.
This is the stage and the seating area.
Today was the long journey from peaks (Chamonix) to Provence (Vaison la Romaine), a 5 hour drive. We stopped off in Annecy for a few hours along the way. It was market day so there were beautiful stalls with all kinds of food.
Macarons ...
Vegetables ...
Olives ...
Sausages ....
Cheese ...
Ready to eat foods ...
We also took a boat ride on Lake Annecy. The weather was not ideal.
Some sights from around town.
We had a free day in Chamonix today. We started off with a nice walk on the pedestrian promonade that runs along the river l'Arve. The scenery was lovely.
And there were lots more paragliders
There are several cute buildings in town.
And this incredible trompe-l'œil. This really is a flat painting on the side of the building!
This is the restaurant where we had dinner last night. I love the flowers! The outside seats come with sheepskins and blankets for warmth. (We sat inside.) The dinner included a salad, a wonderful fondue, raclette (cheese is melted on a special grill and poured over cooked potatoes), and salted caramel ice cream for dessert. (Another low calorie meal!)
We window-shopped on the way back to the hotel. The French call it lèche-vitrine (literally window-licking) and I can certainly understand that when passing the pastry shops.
It was a rather long drive to Chamonix today but the weather was pretty much perfect when we arrived: sunny, clear and cool.
After dropping our luggage at the hotel we took the cable car to the summit of the Aiguille du Midi. The cable car was built in 1955 and held the title of the world's highest cable car for about two decades. It still holds the record as the highest vertical ascent cable car in the world, from 1,035 m (0.6 miles) to 3842 m (2.4 miles). There are two sections: from Chamonix to Plan de l'Aiguille at 2,317 m (1.4 miles) and then directly, without any support pillar, to the upper station at 3,777 m (2.3 miles) (the building contains an elevator to the summit). The cable car travels from Chamonix to the top of the Aiguille du Midi – an altitude gain of over 2,800 m (1.7 miles) – in 20 minutes. [thanks, Wikipedia]
This is a view from the midpoint, Plan de l'Aiguille. You can see the cables for the upper tramway on the right side of the picture.
And the Bossons Glacier (that is its 'foot' creeping down the mountain).
And this is what it looks like at the top.
Some people choose not to take the cable car back down.
We took a walk around town afterwards. This is an example of the kind of views available.
This is the view from our hotel room balcony.
This is the l'Arve river running just below our balcony. Its interesting color is due to glacial melt.
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