Nimes is another one of those famous cities in France once inhabited by the Romans who built many famous architectural wonders, of which traces can still be found. The beautiful Pont du Gard aquaduct was built to carry water to Nimes. The city has a fantastic colleseum left in the center of town and another large building still standing. There was also a very large and lovely park to walk through and many of the streets were broad and tree lined. It was nice to make a stop here-it is too far from us to ever have visited before-but it is a huge city and it took us a while to get into and out of the center. (Something I find interesting is that the fabric, denim, originally came from Nimes-de Nimes- get it? Sometimes you go through years of living before you happen to notice certain words and their orgin and what they actually mean.)

The colleseum, truly massive. I didn’t have my wide angle lens with me so could only capture a portion of it.

The Maison Carre left by the Romans as well.

Before entering Nimes we saw this great field of sunflowers.

These are the double sunflowers that I’ve recently seen in markets.

One of the villages we visited in the Aveyron area was Roquefort, home of the famous cheese. Like champagne, only the cheese actually created in the caves of Roquefort can be called by that name. The others are simply blue cheese.

We did a little tour of the Societe company as this is the one we eat the most of. We were taken to a little mock-up of the valley in which Roquefort is set and it showed an earthquake happening with much settling of land creating the rocky cliffs in which the caves formed for the famous cheese to be made.

Here is a photo of the cliffs above the village

According to legend the cheese came to be when a shepherd boy was just about to have his lunch of regular cheese on a piece of bread. Suddenly he saw a beautiful maiden and stuffed his lunch into a cave and went off after her. He didn’t find her and forgot his lunch until some time later when he found his cheese transformed into something with blue lines and pockets and quite tasty. The cheese, in fact, becomes roquefort when the mold on the old bread transforms it.

Roquefort is called the cheese of Kings and the king of cheeses. Royalty once ate it and it has become world famous. Casanovo, that famous lover, said that a piece of roquefort cheese and a glass of burgundy wine were best for seducing a woman.

When I was in the States I never like Roquefort or any other blue cheese, or salad dressings containing it. I don’t remember exactly when I discovered how good it tastes, but it was here in France and I love to have a piece now with a glass of wine.

We came back from our trip with alot of Roquefort cheese as it is so affordable when bought on site. We bought some at another cheese maker in the village along with a huge slab at Societe. It is wonderfully fresh and creamy. I can probably manage to eat all of it plain-Maurice can even have a little. I did a search for recipes using Roquefort and think I will do a quiche using it, a sauce on some steak and try mixing it with stuffed potatoes. I tried with with some apples and pears the other night and it was good but, really, I can just munch it on its own.

We didn’t visit the place making this Roquefort even though it was free but I love the photo-papillon means butterfly.

I liked this sign on a side of building too. We did buy some of their cheese.

I am amazed by the many absolutely beautiful and unique areas there are to find in France. Averyron is one we recently discovered. Here are a few photos.

We were in the mountains following a river and saw many tiny villages hanging on the the edges of cliffs. I enjoy seeing different architecture in each region, like this church.

Note the Millau bridge in the background.

France has got to be one of the rockiest countries there is. Every village is built of the rocks and on many old buildings you will see the roof tiles are made of thin sections of rocks.

I just like this little shack in the middle of the garden.

More rocky roofs, this time formed into circles.

A typical street in an old village.

This flower was on an old building in a medieval village we visited. It was used, in olden times, to keep evil spirits away.

Gotta use up all of those rocks.

One great thing about having a blog is hearing from other people about various things you have written or taken photos of. One lady wrote me about a photo I took of an old advertisement painted on the side of a building in Aix so now I notice them more. They are a disappearing part of the world, slowly fading away. This is an old one advertising chocolate.

Maurice and I made a quick trip into the country west of Provence called Aveyron. The people from this region who settled in Paris opened many of the original bistros there. The whole area is very interesting and we could have spent much more time there just looking at old castles of the Knights Templar but we did the best we could. At one time it took several hours to cross a valley there so this incredible bridge called the Viaduc du Millau was built.The architect was English and an expert in building with metals. It can be seen all over the area from long distances away. We stopped at several places to take photos, above, below and while crossing it. Alot of it is made of metal and watching a film on how it was made was really interesting. The tallest support beam is higher than the Eiffel Tower!

Here it is from a village quite a ways away.

Underneath

Underneath but further away

What it looks like from the highway right before driving on it.

One more view

The area is full of quaint villages and incredible scenery and I’ll post more photos on that next time.

There is a delightful little village near Ansouis called Cucuron that isn’t visited by tourists very much. They have an interesting May festival each year which I keep missing but am determined to see next May. There are a few cute little shops there but it is mostly undeveloped for tourists, mainly just for locals. The best part, besides a gate left from when it was circled by walls, is an old basin surrounded by 200 year old plane trees which was installed when a local tannery did its thing. It is a lovely, peaceful setting. The photos below are all of the basin.

The reflection in the water.

There is a lovely little village not too far from our house that I like to visit. A chateau sits at the top and it is still inhabited-a flag flies when they are in residence.

I especially like the part of the chateau

The entry to the chateau

There is a small chapel attached to the chateau

Two busts inside the chapel underneath a painting of the same saints

I always take a photo of this gate

I like this steeple alongside the cedar trees.