The day that we arrvied in Rochefort-du-Gard, I wrote about our hosts Ce’lestine and Gautier, and how Gautier was studying to become a baker. One of the services Gautier offers here is a breakfast of pastries that he makes himself. We decided to order the breakfast for this morning. We were expecting a couple of pastries and perhaps a beverage. At 8:30am Ce’lestine arrived outside our door with a box. “Good morning. Be careful, it’s heavy. Everything is homemade. Enjoy”.

Home made bread, crepes, sweet almond and cashew nut spread, plum jam, chocolate spread, honey, fresh apple and orange juices, strawberries, croissants and pain au chocolat.

I’m very glad Gautier has decided to move from engineering to baking. I cannot begin to explain how good his pastries were. But I will say this, they were certainly the best pastries I have eaten in France – and I’ve eaten a fair few!

I could have sat there and done nothing else all day, and that would have been a wonderful way to end our time here. But Clive was interested to see some of what the Romans had got up to awhile back, so we drove to Pont du Gard to see the aqueduct. Clive has educated me on this . It was built to transport water fifty kilometers from a spring to the Roman colony now known as the city of Nimes. It is the tallest of all Roman aqueduct bridges (and they built a lot). Can you believe the main part of this was built in 50AD? What a feat of engineering that was when you think of the equipment they didn’t have.

We then drove to said city of Nimes to visit the Roman amphitheatre, or “Arenes de Nimes”. Built around 100AD, it is one of best preserved Roman amphitheatres in the world. In Roman times it could hold around twenty-four thousand spectators. Best not to think too much about what went on here back in those times, but it is still used today for two annual bull fights and various concerts and public events.

I want to stop and say how beautiful the city of Nimes is. We had only really planned a quick stop at the pantheon, but our walk around the city streets from the amphitheatre to the pantheon was a real treat. I would love to come back.

Clive, being the history enthusiast he is, was also keen to finish our time with a quick look at the papal palace in Avignon. I will just add that the city centre of Avignon is surrounded by remarkedly intact walls built to protect the city in the thirteen hundreds, when the town was puchased by the pope. The walls run for over four kilometres.

Back to the pope’s palace. This (Clive tells me) “was the seat of papal power during the thirteen hundreds. Nine popes ruled from this city, which is remarkable as Rome is usually considered the seat of papal authority”.

Unfortunately it was about to close, so we didn’t have a look inside but the outside was certainly impressive.

We then had dinner at a local outdoor restaurant watching the people of Avignon go by. It was a lovely way to finish not only our day, but also our time as just us two on this trip. Tomorrow we will be heading to Nice to meet up with four crazy people whom we adore.