France Part 2: Pont du Gard and Carcassonne

We woke up early in the morning to have one last breakfast in Provence.  We packed our suitcases and gave one last look to the lovely bed and breakfast.  Seriously, isn't beautiful?  Luckily we were going from one beautiful view to another.

Our french doors looking out over the country side

Pont du Gard

This was one of the highlights for us in choosing to go to Provence.  Pont du Gard is an ancient Roman aqueduct bridge that was built in the 1st century. It is the highest of all Roman aqueduct bridges and just slightly shorter than the Coliseum.  We started out in the museum. Trent loves museums and before you know it we had spent 1 1/2 hours there without even seeing the actual bridge.  The bridge is absolutely amazing to behold.  We walked along side it and was able to get in the water and wade around.  There are some parts of the bridge that are now gone after some monks took some of the stones off to build something else.  

Trent wading in after me.  I went fort he perfect shot and he went in after me.
 

 Carcassonne

We love board games and when we found out that we would be nearby Carcassonne (the name of a board game we play together) we had to make a stop over for the night.  I am so glad that we did.  We were warned that it was touristy.  It is touristy because it is an amazing castle.  We did not feel like the shops took away from the beauty of the castle.  We arrived in the afternoon and checked into our bed and breakfast with one of the best views in the world.  Just look at that castle outside of our window.

We started our tour by walking in between the walls and Trent yelled out to the world "You English Kniggits" in rememberance of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. We looked at all the defenses of the castle adn then made our way to the church. We walked inside and found a beautiful cathederal with stained glass windows and a quartet singing a mass. Their voices rang off the walls and it was perfect.  Outside of the church were some gargoyles that we enjoyed looking at. 

 

Next we went through a very posh hotel to get to their gardens. It had the loveliest view of the castle and this was where we decided to take a picture that a game nerd would only appreciate.

Nerdy game boarders picture

Close by is also where Trent made his mad dash up the stairs in order to storm the castle.  Nearby was a toy store that had the most perfect castle blocks.  Trent  and I both wanted to buy them for our little boy (yes we know that he would not be able to use them for a long time.)  We deliberated about getting them at the time and decided to wait and see if we could find them on the internet.  We could not and so we went back in the morning to get them.  We waited for the shop to open....it never did...even though were told the day before that it would open at 10.  We went away being very mad at the toy lady.

 We went back into the city for dinner.  It was romantic to walk around the light flooded walls. At dinner, Trent ordered a chocolate sphere.  The waiter poured hot chocolate sauce on top of the sphere in order to melt the chocolate ball.  Trent loved it.