Day 59, Thursday, October 26, 2023
Nîmes is a pretty city. It the most Roman city outside of Italy, and it was the regional capital during the Roman Empire. Today it has a population of about 150,000.
On our way to the center of town I peek inside this open window and I am surprised to see a boxing ring!
I love this door knocker and it even looks a bit ‘Halloweenish’.
We turn the corner and there it is. The Amphitheater of Nîmes, or the Arènes de Nîmes. It held over 20,000 spectators and is the best preserved Roman Amphitheater in the World. It is so well preserved because it has been in constant use since it was built. In the 6th century it was turned into a fortress, and in the 14th century it was filled with houses, workshops and warehouses. In 1809 this was all demolished and work was done to restore it to its original state.
Today, the amphitheater hosts bullfights, concerts and sporting events. It host many cultural and festive shows all summer long. We will come back and visit the interior another day…today we are just strolling.
Today it is also offering shelter for this homeless person. 
The Maison Carrée is a very well preserved white limestone Roman temple that is about 2,000 years old.
Here is another view of the the Maison Carrée from the street opposite to it. It is impressive. Both the Amphitheater and the Maison Carée are UNESCO World Heritage sites.
In the 1700’s canals were built to supply a better source of drinking water and to power textile mills. These mills made ‘serge de Nimes’ or as we know it today ‘denim’ (‘de’ or ‘from’ Nimes)! Today it is a beautiful park with exotic plants, statues and walkways.
We walk along the canals and find some Pétanque players. This is a popular pastime everywhere in France, although we have only seen one female player. It is more common to see elderly men playing when we are out and about in the afternoon. We noticed this extraordinarily tall man on his bicycle which Bob says is the tallest bike he has ever seen. The men around him barely come up to his armpits!
A Pétanque game in progress, with observers and critics! The players are incredibly skilled and can knock an opponent’s ball out of the game with one throw. 
On the way home we pass St. Paul Church and go inside. I really liked the sculpture right by the entrance and the dome is beautiful.
One more view of the amphitheater on the way home. This is only a couple blocks from our Airbnb.
As we were waiting to cross the road two vehicles with fully armed military drive by. There were four soldiers in each vehicle and they were scanning the surroundings as they drive by. The sign on the side of their cars says Vigipirate Operation Sentinelle. They are part of the 10,000 soldiers that are currently active in this operation to defend and protect the French. As France is currently on high alert the Vigipirate Security Alert System has been at its highest ‘Emergency Attack’ level since October 15th. This means that our bags are searched when we enter tourist sites, museums and other places where there are lots of people. We stay aware of our surroundings and we certainly avoid anything that looks like a protest, or large gathering of people. So not to worry, we are safe.
I wanted a photo of this pretty bush covered with orange berries, and Bob hams it up by giving himself an orange moustache.
This is one of the entrance gates to the old city of Carcassone.
This is mostly an opportunity to see the fortifications that make this citadel so unique.
Carcassonne is now considered to be the largest and best conserved medieval fortress in Europe. It is impressive with its set of double walls and ramparts. Both sets of walls and the area between them can be seen in this photo.
There are more than 200 painted and engraved figures in Fonte de Gaume organized into compositions in the four main sections of this 120 meter long cave. We visited all but the narrowest section in the Diverticule teminal and the short cave on the right of the entrance.
The first artworks we see are engravings…some of them were made by the artist using his fingers to mark the soft stone. Rouffignac is famous for its Mammoths. 158 mammoths that have been found on the walls of this cave, this is 30% of all mammoth representations in prehistoric cave art. Yet, curiously, there have been few mammoth bones found in this area. We also see cave bear claw marks all over the walls. The parallel vertical lines below this mammoth are from a cave bear scratching his claws on the cave walls.
I was surprised to see that almost everyone in the group turned towards our guide when he started talking and they stopped looking at the drawings! Really? Couldn’t they have listened but keep looking a the artwork above our heads? It seemed such a waste to be standing here and ignoring these ancient drawings. One very interesting drawing of a mammoth showed its anal flap. Sorry, no photo of that one. Yes, this is a flap that covers the mammoth’s anus to keep it warm. Only someone who had very close contact with a mammoth would know about this detail. This fact was used to help authenticate these drawings, as they were thought to be modern fakes when they were first discovered..
Once we are inside the cave there are even more stairs…
The displays here shows some pictures of cave exploration…not for me..it looks cold, wet and exhausting and rather frightening as well. In all, 42 kilometres of galleries have been mapped by speleologists but there are still more areas that have not yet been explored.
And there is another lake, twenty metres above the river! Mind boggling! Lake Superior (Upper Lake), is crystal clear and an incredible aqua colour. The round tan shaped formations on the right hand of the photo form a dam that holds the water in this lake.
“A remarkable stalagmite lies above the lake. It is nicknamed the Pile d’Assiettes (Pile of Plates) because of its surprising resemblance to stacked-up china. It is a typical high-roof stalagmite formed when such a structure exceeds several tens of metres in height. Drops of water fall to the ground at great speed and explode, depositing limestone in circles and giving rise to very flattened formations.” ~ 
I am quite relieved that we do not have to climb these steps!
One last photo in the cave.
In 2016, a new replica, Lascaux IV, was opened to replace Lascaux II. It is adjacent to the original cave and offers an even more authentic experience than Lascaux II, with changes in air pressure, along with a series of atmospheric cave scents and sounds. 
Once again no photos allowed however there is an interpretive area that has more replica displays and we can take photos there.
The last room we entered had huge animations which travels across three walls and sometimes over the floor and ceiling as well. I particularly liked this one which shows mammoths from the Rouffignac Cave, which we hope to visit later this week. 
There are usually 5 monks and 7 nuns who live at the abbey and there are only 25-30 people who actually live on Mont Saint Michel. We sat and listened to part of the mass, from the side of the church. The singing was really lovely and I found it interesting that the nuns and the priest sat on the floor of the church during the service.
There are so many interesting doors in this abbey.
There are so many smaller rooms and interesting spaces to be explored. This one is off the side of the crypt.
When the Abbey was used solely as a prison in the 1800’s, this huge wheel was was used to haul supplies up to the abbey. Prisoners walking inside the wheel were able to raise and lower a cart along a stone ladder inclined along the rock wall. 
We hear shrieks and peals of laughter and realize that is is coming from the people out walking on the sands now that the tide is out. Some of them are thigh deep in the water! There are a lot of people out there, some of them way off in the distance. Thanks, but I am happy to pass walking in mud and cold water.
Bob took interesting photos of the inside and outside view of these two stained glass windows.
…interesting details…
…crooked roof lines…
Finally after asking several people for directions a delivery man tells me that we need to go upstairs and cross the street. Voila! Success. They do have our reservation but we have to wait 45 minutes for them to clean the car. Once in the car we discover that our Peugeot does not have plug ins for USB’s, only some other strange looking plug. Luckily a Hertz employee was walking by and I asked him for help. Another 15 minute wait and he brings us a device that plugs in to the cigarette lighter that has two USB ports. We are finally on our way, heading to Chartres to visit the cathedral. We do amazingly well getting out of Paris and to Chartres, My navigation skills are still pretty good and Bob did a great job driving.
The view towards the altar. We took several photos of the stained glass but it kept looking very washed out…
The wall of the sanctuary is absolutely amazing. The detail of the carving is incredible. The screen has forty niches along the ambulatory filled with statues telling the life of Christ. I particularly love the donkey.
One more view of this enormous cathedral, before we head back to Paris.
And although some of them are in really bad shape, I have no doubt that they will be repaired rather than demolished.
As we leave I notice another example of street art. I saw another walking back to the car and I thought it looked like a Banksy, and this one could be too? Turns out there is an exhibit of Banksy’s work here in Chartres. We missed that too. 
It is busy when it takes 11 minutes to go just over 2 1/2 kilometres! We are both happy to get home and glad our first day with the car went so well.
We pass many little farms and villages on the way.
The Dachstein Krigppenstein area has t
There is the base, way down there, and we aren’t even at the top of the first cable car.
The second cable car takes us higher…
and even higher.
We walk from the second cable car to a viewpoint high above the valley lake below. 
There are several arrows showing the distances to places around the world. We have visited Stonehenge (1200 km away) and the Drakenberg Mountains in South Africa (8,800 kms away). We are surprised that Stonehenge is that close. Here is 
We have tea and rest on these curvy benches to enjoy the fantastic views and sunshine.
This is called the Five Fingers. Five viewing platforms at the very top of the mountain! Bob goes ahead so I can get this photo. This area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Then I head out on one of the platforms. It isn’t too bad…as long as I don’t look down!
Bob has another turn on one of the fingers.
A nice young man takes a photo of the two of us. You could stand behind the picture frame but to do so your heels hang over the edge!
There are sinkholes all over the mountain top. These are formed by the collapse of underground caves. There must be a lot of caves in this area because there are lots and lots of sinkholes.
As we take the third cable car down into a valley, our shadow follows us.
We are headed way down to the building you can just see on the right side of the tower, about 2/3 of the way up. The wind has picked up so we decided to eat our lunch down here where it isn’t quite so windy.
Back at the top of the mountain I notice what looks like ghostly faces peering down at us from the cable car building! So, are they ghosts?
Here is a photo of the five fingers taken from a photo in the cable car building. I realize that I forgot to look down when I was up there… I can’t believe I forgot to do that!
On the way down from the mountain top we can see far up the valley. 
We drive to Hallstätt, a town which exists because of the nearby salt mInes. The town is squeezed between the mountain and the lake. There is only room for espaliered trees, which are grown against the sides of houses.
The setting sun lights up the yellow trees on the side of the lake. 
Notice the middle mountain in the distance. Then take a look at the top of that mountain…and the close up of the top of the mountain. That is where we stood on the five fingers! Maybe it is a good thing I forgot to look down!
There are swans on the lake who are happy to share some of my dried fruit and nuts. I give most of it to a young boy so he can feed them and I take photos. I would have liked to sit and draw these beautiful birds but the sun is setting…and we are still far from home.
The houses are piled one on top of the other, as there is not much land available between the lake and the mountain. The flowers in the window boxes grow so big and lush. I think it must be that the growing season here is so much longer than ours at home.
I see this mask in a window and wonder out loud what it is. A lady walking by stops to tell us it is a Krampus. 
and one last view of the lake… 
before we walk back to our car, parked way on the edge of the town, and head home.
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