Day 6- Provence

Our Hotel in Provence was as bright and airy as the hotel in Bourg d'Oisans was dark and dreary. We loved the colors of the walls and furniture, and decided to decorate our main-floor bathroom (formerly the "gray" bathroom) and our utility room at home in colors from Provence. I took this picture so we could try and match the colors.
Our day began with a search for a Mormon Church. In Arles, we didn't even find an address of a church. So, I wrote down the address of the church in the next nearest city, Salon de Provence. We drove to Salon, arriving right around nine o'clock. Unhappily, no one in the town had heard of the street we were looking for. After searching for forty minutes, we drove another thirty kilometers to Aix en Provence, looked up the address of the church, and asked directions. We arrived at the one-year old chapel just before the start of Sacrament Meeting. The Ward had a great spirit, and after the meeting, we visited with the bishop and the members.
After church we walked through downtown Aix. We visited an open-air antique market where I could not resist buying six out-of-print Asterix & Obelisk books. We stopped in this wonderful pastry shop for one of our favorite French pastries. I hope we will be forgiven for shopping on Sunday.
Katherine and Spencer walking through one of the narrow streets of Aix enProvence.
From Aix, we returned to the Hotel, where Spencer decided to rest and try to get over his cold. Katherine and I chose to see more of sunny Provence. Our first stop was Les Beaux de Provence. Les Beaux is an ancient, ruined castle and small community atop a large prominence in Provence. Ruled from the tenth to the fifteenth century by the Beaux Family, the Lord of Les Beaux would attack surrounding vilages, take hostages, and if the ransom was not paid, force them to walk the plank off of the cliff. Finally the surrounding leaders attacked and laid seige to Les Beaux. When they surrendered, the castle was destroyed.
This large Trebuchet represents some of the large medievel war engines that are displayed at Les Beaux.
From Les Beaux one can view the olive groves, and the dry mountains of Provence. It reminds me of the movies "My Mother's Castle" and "My Father's Glory".
FromLes Beaux,we drove to some Roman ruins. Just outside of Arles is this Roman Aqueduct that carried water to a mill.
As the sun set, we explored it. It was surounded by quiet green fields. We were the only ones there, which allowed us peace, and tranquility. It was a perfect way to end the day.
Next: "Arles"