Vaison la Romaine - France - Retirement On Tour

We departed the Park Ridelle Poit Aires parking area near Avignon to join the morning traffic flow. We could hear a metal chinking like chain sound coming from under the Hymermobile. Pulling over in the small village of Aubignan,

Steven looked all over and under the motor home and found no obvious lose parts. On the road again, we were surprised when an object was propelled from under the motor home into the bushes out of sight into a field. This fixed the noise and we still do not know what it was.

We drove through the French country side past fields of grape vines full of grapes, on roads used by farm machinery, picking machines and trailer loads of grapes going to the wineries before comming to the town of Vaison la Romaine.

Vaison la Romaine is located in the Haut-Vaucluse region, in the Rhone river area between the Alps and the Mediterranean.

The town has one motorhome parking area that was full when we arrived, we were not planning to spend the night here so we looked for a place to park in town. The parking signs in town seemed to be focused on forcing motor homes to the designated parking area, which was to small and full.

So we drove 3km out of town to a parking area next to some stone circles in a field. There are ancient writings and pictures inscribed on some of the stones.

We put some water bottles in the backpack and hiked off beside the River Ouvèze toward the old town. The temp was now up around 27 C warm for this time of year.

Our reason for stopping here is that Vaison-La-Romaine is a Roman, Medieval and Modern town all in one place.

We walked through the local streets and across a new bridge to the medieval town on the side of the hill and up to the ruins of the fortified chateau at the top which is well protected on one side by a cliff.

Strolling back down Medieval toward the Roman ruins in the new town we have to cross over an old Roman bridge.The two parts of the town are joined by a single span Roman bridge that was built in the 1st century AD.

This bridge has survived flood waters of the Ouvèze when modern bridges have collapsed.

Two areas of the Roman city have been so well excavated that Vaison-La-Romaine is described on the net as the Pompeii of Provence.

The centre of the Roman city and its forum remain buried, but those parts that have been uncovered provide an insight into Roman city life in this area of the Empire, in particular the urban houses.

We walked through the new town tasting nougat and buying some to keep our sugar levels up for the 3k+ walk back to the Hymermobile.

We moved on and stopped around 7pm near Bourg Saint Maurice staying overnight at the Charmes-sur-Rhone Municipality Camping grounds not far from the Rhone River.

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