10 days in the South of France (Part 2) Avignon to Marseille

After our 4 nights in Nice we hired a car and headed inland towards Avignon on route to a guest house in Pont du Gard in the Gardon area of the South of France.

It was a 3 hour drive to our guest house but we stopped on route in Avignon for  a look round. Avignon is a really pretty town.  The Avignon bridge is a strange sight with only four of it's arches remaining, after a siege in 1226 when three quarters of the bridge was destroyed.

All of the towns and villages we visited on our trip were so pretty.

We had a nice stroll round and an ice cream before heading off to Pont du Gard and our home for the next five nights.

We stayed at a nice guest house about a 15 minute stroll from the famous Pont du Gard aqueduct.

http://www.bastide-des-pins.com/en

There are only 5 rooms and lovely pool which we were lucky to get to ourselves on a couple of days of our stay.

Breakfast is taken on the terrace and all the produce is locally sourced with fresh fruit juice and jams served with bread and croissants.  On our first morning we were given fresh pancakes too.

It is a lovely relaxing place to stay but you need a car as there is nowhere to walk to on an evening for a meal.  However we found two lovely restaurants within a 5 minute drive.  Our room was spacious and very shabby chic.

We had a lovely terrace too which was nice to relax on with a glass of wine and a picnic lunch.

For our first night we opted for the guest house picnic which was presented nicely on the main terrace overlooking the gardens.  Again all locally sourced products with a bottle of local rose wine.

Would be rude not to taste the local "fruit" juice.

Our next day was a day of total relaxation by the pool.  After stocking up on nibbles from the local supermarket in Remoulins about a 5 min drive away.  The room had a fridge in so was great to be able to keep some supplies for picnics in.

We decided to head out and explore on the Friday.  The reason I had picked this particular area of France was after watching "First dates hotel" on TV last year.  Which was located in Castillon du Gard and the hotel Le Vieux Castillon. http://www.vieuxcastillon.com/home/.  This is one for a future trip for sure it looks amazing but quite pricey with a top room coming in at abour £420 a night, but is now on the bucket list for sure.

We drove up to the village only about 5 mins in the car and had a stroll around it was very quiet and had a lovely feel about the place.

There was a great viewing point over the valley and you could just make out the Pont du Gard aqueduct in the distance.

Lovely countryside all around.

Then we found the "First dates hotel"

The pool looked so inviting.

This was the view from the pool area.

Inside the hotel was lovely too.

We found a nice bakery before heading back to the car and had a cake and a coffee.

Such a lovely place for a relaxing wander round.

On the evening we headed back to Castillon du Gard to a restaurant we had booked earlier in the day.
http://www.leclosdesvignes30.fr/

We had a nice drink in a bar over the road first and sat and people watched for a while.

We had a lovely meal on the outdoor terrace and all the staff were so welcoming and friendly and food was first class.

On Saturday we headed to Uzes as it was market day.  The was my favourite town on our whole trip.

The market was spread across the various squares and up the little streets with everything you can imagine for sale.

The buzz about the place was lovely.

We had a nice coffee in a pretty square.

We spent a good few hours just wandering the streets and soaking up the atmosphere.

Before heading back to our guest house to relax.

We ended up taking a gorgeous pork curry home with us after stumbling across a charity that had been doing cooking demonstrations.  Gary had a great chat with the Indian chef and they gave us some curry and rice to take home. It was really tasty and very unexpected.

On the Sunday morning we walked along to the Pont du Gard aqueduct that was featured a lot on the "First dates hotel" programme.  It was an amazing site.  You have to pay to get into the grounds but it is worth it to see the bridge.

You can swim and canoe in the river.  These guys below were just folding up their inflatable canoes.

Beautiful scenery all around.

Definitely worth a visit if you are in the area. "Smoggies" on tour.

We had another lovely meal on the Sunday evening in a pretty courtyard restaurant about 5 mins in the car from our guest house.  http://la-begude-poulon.chez-alice.fr/. We both had a really nice steak and some nice local wine.

On the Monday it was time to head for our last night and a stay in Nimes.  I found this little traditional apartment on booking.com https://www.booking.com/hotel/fr/chambre-d-39-hotes-de-la-carriere-romaine.en-gb.html.  What a find, the owner could not have been more welcoming.  She was called Abigail and she made us feel right at home.

The apartment was lovely and the courtyard was an added bonus.  She made us a nice coffee once we had got settled and we had a lovely chat with her.

Abigail told us the best way to walk into the town so we headed off to explore.  We walked in via the park and headed towards La Tour Magne to get a view of the town from above.

The views were fantastic.

Then we continued our walk into the town through the park.  It was a gorgeous day.

There were some huge fish in the waters.

This was such a lovely walk into the town.

Once in the town we stopped for tasty lunch at a cafe with a lovely outdoor terrace.

Before having a wander round the town.

As you can see there were some amazing buildings.

Then we headed back to our apartment for the night.  Abigail had told us about a butchers round the corner that sold nice nibbles so we had a "picnic" and a bottle of wine in the courtyard for our last night.  It was a lovely relaxing last evening in France.

In the morning Abigail had laid out a lovely breakfast for us in the courtyard the presentation was so nice and it really made our last part of our holiday special.  Nothing was too much trouble for her, and we had another lovely chat before heading off to the airport.

After breakfast we had a short drive of about 90 mins to Marseille airport and it was a great run through some nice countryside.

All in all our 10 night road trip in the South of France was fab and we have made lots of special memories, and we look forward to going back to the South of France in the future.

xx