En route to Bretagne....

Thursday morning we packed up the car and headed out for the long drive to Bretagne to visit JC's maman...we all call her Nini...she lives pretty far away in Pont l'Abbé and we decided we would do the drive with two stops along the way so it would not be so long for Maya.

Bye, bye Oscar...see you next week!!

First leg took us to the newly opened Caverne Chauvet in Vallon Pont d'Arc. We had tickets to visit the reconstruction of this huge cave. The original is not open to the public but like Lascaux this is a duplicate. It is located in the Ardèche and an interesting fact is that part of JC's ancestors come from this region of France not far from where the original grotte was discovered.

I wonder...could one of the ancestors have been an artist in the caverne????

On the way to Vallon Pont d'Arc we drove through Orange. I think it is pretty amazing to drive through downtown and around this Roman arch which has been standing here for centuries!!!

Seems almost crazy to have traffic going around it! Ahead on the national highway (we did not take the autoroute) we had plane trees overhead. Later we saw that they are trimmed differently in Ardèche.

And we passed by towns like Montdragon in the Rhone valley. The sky was blue and temperature was perfect!

The visit of the caverne was really very impressive. The center had just opened about five days before so there were some loose ends but we enjoyed the visit. We were given our visit time and then waited in line at the entrance to the site.

  We lined up against the wall to wait our turn....and just entertained ourselves.

This French lady dressed up for the visit...

Maya really liked the drawings of the lions and rhinos and the handprints.

 After we left the cavern visit the first stop for us was near Le Puy en Velay...home of the Le Puy green lentil and also a starting point for the walk along the Camino...La Route de St. Jacques.

Before we left Carpentras we went grocery shopping for the trip. This field of poppies was almost electric the red was so intense.

No poppies in Bretagne however!

A few days before we left there was a total downpour outside and I took a picture just to prove that it can rain hard in Provence too!!!

The forecast for Bretagne is for more of the same but we are prepared and have boots and umbrellas ready!

Our neighborhood horses came over to the fence to send us off.

I'll have more to tell you if I can get my photos to download!! I am writing this from our vacation bungalow in Benodet in Bretagne and just a hint...we have jackets, pants, socks and boots drying and sand swept up from the floor! I am sure you are waiting to see what we have been doing!! A bientôt!