My Travel Blog
Today we thought it would be prudent to actually spend time in the town we lay our heads… Beaucaire. Why not explore our own backyard? This is actually literal, as the castle is only 10 steps behind our house. As we have only two days before we leave this town, we wanted to make sure that we actually explored the castle and surrounding grounds before leaving and having to read about it in a guidebook.
First though, was the market. We went on Sunday (the first morning we were here) and caught it right at the tail end. The kids wanted to go back and, as it’s only on Sundays and Thursdays, it was now or never. The Rainbow Loom phase seems to be hitting Europe hard right now – as it did in North America last fall. Our kids were hot and heavy in to those bracelets back then and had all but forgotten about it, but these market stalls have the most interesting elastic colours and they were sucked right back in. Chloë used some of her souvenir money to buy some very cool elastics; they’ve been busy using embroidery thread to make the (old fashioned) style friendship bracelets of the 80’s, and I think we now may have an elastic band bracelet resurgence on our hands.
The market was shutting down, and today seemed hotter than other days so we quickly got the elastics and headed back home. Needing to use up some of the food in our fridge, we made a lunch of sandwiches and salad and ate it up on our veranda. We were all feeling a little lazy, but we rallied and went up to the castle and its accompanying museum. The museum was cute, but they were out of English brochures and so we didn’t get as much out of it as we could have. Luckily our French is decent enough to make some sense of the placards, but an English translation would’ve been very helpful. One thing is for sure, people in the 1700’s had beautiful penmanship.
As mentioned earlier, it seemed hotter today than other days regardless of the actual temperature on the thermometer. The air was stagnant and there were very few clouds in the sky. The small walk up to the castle, and then the steps up to the top, seemed harder than usual. I used my usual tactic of throwing capfuls of water at the kids, but I think we all would have welcomed a monsoon rain. The castle was really interesting, and if you bother to read the history of it on Wikipedia it’s pretty interesting. Suffice it to say that a lot of drama occurred here in the 1100’s. To add extra excitement to its history Napoleon ate lunch here in 1793 after staying overnight at a pharmacist’s house in Beaucaire. Random? In any case, it’s a claim to fame.
After all of that physical excursion a Popsicle was in order. We were also running low on water so we went to the supermarket. Of course we came out with much more than those two items… we added on a bottle of scotch, some peaches, and a cucumber. Instead of popsicles we got an awesome bag of freezies that were in the flavours of bubble gum, cola, and ‘American style gum’. (I realize now that freezies is a Canadian term. They are those plastic tubes of frozen sugar water that you have to cut the top off of. I’m not sure what other people call them…) It turns out that “American style gum’ is mint gum – like Trident or something similar. Very refreshing actually!
The rest of the afternoon was spent playing Rummy (errrr…. Jeff won), having our usual snacks and drinks, and jostling for the right to the hammock. The bells of the church tolled (as usual) at 7 pm which indicated it was time to get in and clean ourselves up for dinner.
Dinner tonight was so fun. We tried to get in to this tiny restaurant a few days ago but it was booked, and so we made a reservation for tonight. The evening a few days ago had maybe 10 tables out on the square, but tonight there was a huge long table that sat at least 50 people at it. Plus there was a stage set up for a band called The Gypsy Kings. We sat down, and without asking they brought the adults a fancy pink drink in a champagne flute, and the kids were given fresh pressed peach juice. That was the last we saw of the waitresses for at least 30 minutes (aside from quickly dropping off a basket of bread). It looked as though it was going to be a ‘you get what you get’ kind of meal – and we were up for it! (Well, the adults were and the kids didn’t have a choice!).
First course – who knows what! It had arugula with a balsamic reduction sitting on top of a mixture of… ricotta blended with goat cheese and crème fraiche? Who knows, but it was delicious. The kids weren’t fans, but the adults loved it. We waited quite a while (the band was good, the weather perfect, the company excellent), and they eventually brought an amazing chicken and potato dish. It had a pesto/tapenade of black olives and pine nuts cooked under the skin and served with potatoes and grilled tomatoes. It was amazingly delicious! Simple, but not simple – and the kids devoured it.
During the course of the evening we befriended the single man sitting alone with his dog at the table next to us. His name was Klaus, and he is German but lives on a sailboat in Beaucaire under the Dutch flag and speaks pretty decent English. Man of the world! The evening ended and he invited us back to his houseboat for ice cream and wine. The kids were excited because the delivered pecan pie wasn’t their desert of choice, and so off we went on an adventure. After arriving at the boat Klaus hastily cleaned up his tools and other stuff so that there was enough seating for the five of us. The kids were pleased with their ice cream bars, and he surprised us with a beer for Jeff and some kind of fizzy piña colada drink for me. He drank rosé wine. What an interesting evening! We had to call it a night before the kids formed a mutiny on the boat, and so we bid farewell to Klaus and his little dog Typhoon. These are experiences you can never re-create.
It’s late and time to call it a night. I hope you all had something interesting happen today that caused you to view the world in a slightly different way. Humans are humans no matter the language or the country, or even the place they decide to call home. Beat to your own drum – it makes you more interesting. :)
We are still having a bit of trouble dragging the kids out of bed before 10 am, so after may snooze buttons (a.k.a parents tickling their feet) they finally got up and begrudgingly ate a few bites of a delicious melon that Jeff had cut up. He had also made some super-strong coffee in one of those fancy pots that you very rarely see in North America. We didn’t have any cream so I winced as I drank it, but it was still delicious and very fortifying!
Today’s destination: Nîmes. We did a basic overview of this city 5 years ago and it was on our to-do list for returning to this area. We used the very handy GPS in our rental car combined with a map found in a basket in our apartment and, fairly easily, found a parking spot. Before hitting any of the tourist spots we found a delightful café in a shaded square and had a really delicious Greek lunch. Chloë was the one who really wanted Greek, but after sitting down she was disappointed to realize that they didn’t have souvlaki on the menu. Instead the kids had the menu d’enfant which was Greek meatballs (they were delicious with cinnamon and nutmeg in them) and some fancy rice with mint. I think the highlight for them was the homemade ice cream terrine which had layers of vanilla, rose, pistachio, and mango ice cream. I had the appetizer plate which was delicious but made a garlic bulb grown out of my tongue for the rest of the afternoon. No vampires came my way today!!
We left the restaurant, and instead of finding Roman ruins we found ourselves in a shoe store. All the girls were excited, and Jeff didn’t seem to be having the worst time of his life so we spent a good 20 minutes in there. Julia came out with hot pink sandals (disclaimer – they eventually caused a blister on her heel) and I almost bought a really cute pair of black and beige heels with a bow. They were the last pair in my size and unfortunately had a mark (looked like from a Sharpie) on the beige part, and so I sadly left them behind. Wasn’t meant to be. They were super cute though, such a pity.
Onwards we went, and I realized that I had the unfortunate problem of a full bladder. So annoying! Thankfully I spotted the entrance to a mall (hmm, accidental or intentional?) where I knew there must be a public bathroom. In we went, and I must say it was a nice mall regardless of the lack of Roman ruins. Another 40 cents later and I was good to go. (Paying for the bathroom is strange, but it ensures they are large, clean, and have toilet paper. All a plus in my book.) 
We did not enter any other stores in the mall aside from a very exciting candy store – yes we had to get some. I like candy. Actually, I like looking at it and having it in my purse, and knowing it’s there but very rarely eating it. There must be a name for this affliction?
It had been about 2 hours and we still hadn’t reached any of the places that we had intended on seeing. So far the kids thought this was the best day yet. (Ice Cream! Shoe Shopping! Candy!) We eventually got to the (slightly) underwhelming Maison Carrée which was in a sunbaked plaza with people lined up to enter it. I’m glad to have seen it, but I don’t need to make a special trip for it if I ever go there again. It is actually considered one of the best preserved Roman temples to be found anywhere in the territory of the Roman Empire! This shows just how jaded I have become…
Next up, the Arena. Now that is something to see! It’s a Roman amphitheatre built around 70 AD. The engineering is remarkable – they had the ability to use poles and ropes to cover many sections in shade and had very easy access to the seats through a series of tunnels and stairways. It could/can hold 24000 people! That’s a lot of togas. We intended on going inside but we got confused by the line we were standing in. It felt like a line for a museum so we left, and after walking around the perimeter of the arena in crazy hot sun we gave up. Who knows, we feel a little unsatisfied and may go back there again before we leave this area. (**Note - that is Jeff and Chloe in the picture walking around the Arena as if they own the place!)
Feeling like our day was complete we made our way back to the car and headed for home. Small detour for coffee cream and a fresh baguette for tomorrow, and next thing we knew it was snack and drink time on the veranda. We are getting pretty good at this routine and see no reason to change.
Dinner was at a lovely place in a square with 3 waiters who looked like they just played a game of basketball, lost track of time, and then hurried in to work. Jeff volunteered to take a picture of me with one of them but I was too chicken. He (the waiter, not Jeff) was wearing bright (glow in the dark!) green high tops, skinny green jean shorts, and a tight shirt that had a pattern of multi-colored roses on it. And a baseball cap angled up high on his head. They were very professional, despite their attire, and it added a certain ‘je ne said quoi’ to the evening. And my salad was enormous.
Bon soir!
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PS - This is a shout out to Tracie! She asked about the toilet paper and so I'd like to include a little something I found today in the grocery store. This is the colored section (and does not include the cartoon/random drawing section). I thought you may enjoy this variety of colors and smells! Apparently you have to make a choice - either solid color with 'parfum', or white with a fancy pattern. Life is full of decisions! :)
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