Bastille Day en Provence

Happy Bastille Day... the French 4th of July... remembering the start of the French Revolution and the beginning of the First Republic in 1789. There was a small ceremony in the town center this morning, followed by a very short parade. Last night there were some fireworks around.
The weather is hot and muggy here, the kind that saps energy after a short time. Like most Mediterranean cultures, an afternoon siesta is the custom here; things close between 2:30 and 5 each afternoon. Liz wisely chose our hotels to have air conditioning; not many do.
You can see (left) the view from our room over the hotel grounds to the Alpilles Mountains... foothills to the Alps.
Yesterday we took a circle tour of this part of Provence, passing through small, beautiful villages on the way to Nimes. There we visited the amazing Pont du Gard (Gard River Bridge--pictured right), built by the Romans in 20 B.C.! It is the best-preserved Roman aqueduct anywhere, designed to carry water to the then-thriving Roman city of Nimes. It is three levels, standing about 150 feet from the river bed. Across its 30+ miles the total descent is only 17 inches... talk about engineering.
We also drove into Avignon, but finding a place to park was hopeless.
St. Remy is a bustling village (pictured left), with shops and restaurants everywhere. We have found a couple of bistros that we like, and a "glacier" (ice cream parlor) that made this afternoon a bit cooler.
Onward.