Orange

Another ancient city that the Romans dominated for some time, Orange only became officially part of France in 1717! The name does not come from the fruit but rather from an evolution from a pre-Celtic name to the Latin Aurasio which is thought to be how it morphed to Orange. Aurasio was the name of the restaurant where we had dinner the night before, so history lives on.

The main sites here are the Roman theater and a mini Arc de Triumph. Since it was Sunday all sites were closed (poor planning) but I did manage a walking tour to see both and of course, found some old churches also, as always! Unfortunately I could only peek through the cracks at the church. It looked amazing inside.

I happened upon a small market and got some more fruit. I also found a boulangerie for some pastries. The ladies were really nice but one almost forgot one item. We laughed about it being early and not having coffee yet. They told me where I could get a coffee down the street. This all occurred in French, which was really fun.

The place down the street looked more like a bar, and it was already the happening place. A few people stared at me as I came in, but not in a mean way. More of a surprise to see a stranger. The bartender/barista was very nice and made me a delicious cafe a porter, or coffee to go. I apologized for only having a €20 euro bill for such a small purchase but he was cool about it. Again I managed this in french and was quite pleased with myself that I did not let myself get flustered by the staring. :).

After having my coffee and one pastry in a town square and looking at some shop windows, I headed back to the room to share my spoils with Amy and make another coffee in the fancy machine at the BnB.

Alas, even Amy who was a barista last summer could not get the coffee machine to work, so we punted and had earl grey tea instead. I was loathe to leave the deck, but this place had an 11 am Checkout and lot of other rules, so there was no lingering here.

At 10:55, the owner or a property manager showed up and just started firing questions at us even though it was clear we had a language barrier. It was made more confusing by her talking to someone who appeared to be the cleaner and not always knowing who she was addressing. She made Amy go back in and remove the duvet cover, which was NOT in the instructions. Amy was struggling to get her shoes off and keep up, because there was a leave the shoes at the door policy. Meanwhile this other lady was going all through the house with her shoes on.

Needless to say, it was not a great way to end the stay at a place that was quite elegant and high end in many ways, but also like a youth hostel with a shared toilet in the living area. I breathed a sigh of relief when we finally found out way out of town after a few wrong turns.

I thought I had routed us a slightly different way back through the mountains, but it was the same way we came. How different it looked without snow and heavy clouds bursting with rain. As neither one of really wanted this adventure to end, we found a small town with yes, another UNESCO heritage site, le pont de Diablo.

I wanted to hike down the trail to the bridge and waterfall. Amy walked into town. The hike was a little over a kilometer all downhill. I’m going to regret this on the way back, I told myself! But it was definitely worth it. I needed to stretch my legs after sitting in the car and the view was awesome. I loved the sign about how throwing away a plastics bag here, it could end up in the ocean and hurt sea turtles.

Of course, one again it was time to eat. There was a cafe on the main square that was open despite it approaching 2 pm when many places close for the afternoon and reopen in the evening. I went in and asked if we could get lunch for two. The server said she’d ask, and the directed us to a table on the porch.

It’s amazing how even in this small town a small cafe will start your meal with an “amuse bouche,” a small bite of a mini appetizer. I accidentally ordered something with meat, but I ate it anyway and it was quite good.

A woman at the table in front of us left and another couple moved over there. They noticed she had left her vest and alerted one of the servers, who grabbed it and ran after the woman. I guess she caught up with her because she came back without the vest!

Then our server arrived with the chalkboard listing all of the desserts. I chose a chesnut cake because chestnuts are used a lot in cooking in this region and I wanted to try it. Amy got a chocolate glazed poached pear. The cake was deliciously light and Amy’s pear was a work

of art.

While waiting for Amy to use the bathroom, I struck up a conversation with the gal who had run with the vest. Using my limited French, I said she was very fast today. She laughed and then asked us where we were from. We had a nice little chat.

On our way back to the car, Amy decided to take a spin on the little playground. Part way up the mountains, I stopped to take some photos of the mountains knowing they would not do them justice, but I had to try!

We got back to Le Puy before dark and got settled in our home away from home, Le Regina hotel. Sunday nights are tough for dining out, so we got take away pizza. I reluctantly allowed Amy to finish the red wine, and I got two beers to try. Unfortunately, neither was very great. Amy stayed up to work on her lesson plans for tomorrow. I put on my light blocking eye mask and went to bed.