Séguret and Vaison la Romaine

After our visit to Séguret by car yesterday, Marco decided an early morning hike over there was in order. Our village of Sablet is about 2 miles from Séguret by road, and maybe a bit shorter by the trail that goes through the vineyards surrounding both villages. He set off about 8:30 in the beautiful sunshine. The rest of us were enjoying our coffee and tea at the house, still in our pajamas. Marco is a serious walker, having done the Camino de Santiago a few years ago. At his normal pace, he could have done it in a week, but in order to have anyone to talk to along the way he had to slow down to the pace of normal humans, and completed the entire walk in 5 weeks. Over 450 miles! He couldn't have really done it in a week, of course, but he does have a pretty fast pace.

Séguret, the next hill town over 

He walked over to the village, through the streets, and up the hill to the castle ruins at the top. The view was beautiful, but we could have seen the same thing using the drone I carry in my purse. Remember how I got through security at that castle? It's my old-lady act that lets me get away with carrying that drone around. Anyway, Marco returned to the house after his hike refreshed and happy. The only other people he had seen on the trail were the guys working in the vineyards, and they seemed surprised to see him hiking through.

Our sightseeing trip today was Vaison la Romaine, not far from our home base of Sablet. It's a bigger town than Sablet, and has some amazing Roman ruins. The Romans loved Provence as much as I do, I think. We stuck to the more modern part of town, the lower part, which contains the ruins. The car-free medieval hill town is quite an uphill hike, so we'll save that for another visit. We parked on the banks of the Ouvèze River, within sight of the old Roman bridge.

Marco looking at the old Roman bridge over the River Ouvèze

The car-free upper part of Vaison seemed like too much of a hike today

The Roman ruins were extensive. Vaison had a prosperous farming economy during Roman times, and the population was estimated to be about 6,000 then.  The current population is back up to about the same, Vaison having gone through a tough time when the barbarians blew into town and scared everyone else away many centuries ago.

Part of the extensive Roman ruins in Vaison la Romaine. That must be the public lavatory.

I'm surprised the pillars weren't all re-purposed by the locals

The highlight of the Roman ruins was the theater, which seats 6,000. It's been refurbished, and is still in use. The old forum is still buried under the city.

They've done lots of restoration of the theater

We stopped for lunch at a cafe on the central plane-tree-shaded Place Montfort, and had a good meal. I notice on our bill that my Coca Zero cost 3,30 euros, and Caterina's glass of rosé cost 1,60 euros. Jeez.

After lunch we headed to the Notre-Dame de Nazareth Cathedral, walking past the other half of the Roman ruins. We elected not to go into this other part of the exhibit and saw almost everything from outside of the fence that we would have seen inside. The cathedral dates from the 12th century, with later additions.  It's built in the Provençal Romanesque style and included a beautiful cloister. Thick stone walls made the inside of the cathedral nice and cool, and there was definitely a feeling of an ancient building in the church. We noticed pieces or blocks of Roman columns used in the foundation of the cathedral.

Inside the 12th century church. This part was probably the baptistry

The cloister next to the church

I guess the locals did indeed re-purpose some of the Roman columns

We headed back to Sablet for our last night in our house. We had leftover spaghetti, garlic bread and salad for dinner. We needed to pack for our early departure the next morning, but couldn't resist one more walk around the village as the sun went down.