In the footsteps of Popes and Emperors

Today, we took a day tour around Provence. I like taking day tours of the countryside; for people like us who don't want to drive around it makes a lot of sense because we can cover a lot of ground in one day. But because we covered so much ground, there's so much to say that I'll have to divide this into two posts.

Our first stop that morning was in Orange, to see the Roman ruins there - the triumphal arch and the antique theatre. Orange was originally known as Arausio but over time, the name got corrupted to Orange. It has nothing to do with the fruit. Our guide, Caroline, told us that the title of the Dutch “Prince of Orange” was originally derived from Orange here in France. I was puzzled. But looking it up when I got home, it appears that the title was originally derived through inheritance – the cross-border marriages of state which took place in those days. Even though the Prince of Orange has not “ruled” over Orange for centuries, the title is still used today. It reminds one how deeply rooted in its history Europe is, that the origins of these ancient names and titles are still known today.

Anyway, the first stop was at the well-preserved Roman triumphal arch, erected to mark the site of a great victory (the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and other arches are copies of the Roman arches). The sculptures on the sides of the arch still visible, as are the bullet marks, evidence of a less peaceful past. This was essentially a photo stop and we moved on quickly.

The antique theatre was seriously impressive. It is actually a UNESCO heritage site. I’d seen Roman ampitheatres before (Rome, Verona, Fiesole for example) but this was an antique theatre, an open-air theatre with a huge stage wall and the tiers of seats in front. In its day, it could seat up to 10,000 spectators. There was even some light roof covering. From what we were told, it is apparently the best preserved Roman theatre in Europe. The most prominent point in the theatre was a statue of the Emperor right at the top of the stage wall. There was a good audio tour which took us from point to point, and from this I learnt that actually the Emperor’s head could be removed, and would be replaced whenever there was a change in Emperor.

The rest of the stage wall would have been beautifully decorated with more statues in the niches. But these were removed over time. The theatre fell into disuse at one point and there were houses and even churches built inside it. There are little cavities in the stage wall, created by the inhabitants when they tried to use the wall as a support for beams and such. These were cleared out eventually and the theatre restored.

We climbed to the top of the theatre and there found a long covered corridor which curved around the seats. I was walking slightly ahead when my friend said that she couldn’t see me. I turned around and indeed she was not there – the curve of the corridor hid us from each other. That was when I realised just how good the acoustics were. It was like a whispering corridor – say something at one end and someone on the other end can hear it too. These Romans really knew their stuff.

The good thing about going on guided tours is that they take you very quickly to some key sights; the problem is that we miss a lot of little things along the way. In this case, we did not have time to look at the ruins of the temple beside the theatre or to visit the museum across from the theatre.

We went next to Chateauneuf-du-Pape, so called because the Popes in Avignon built a summer residence here to get away from the big city. The chateau is now a complete ruin, with only two walls left but there is a good view of the surrounding region from the hill. The popes did, however, leave an enduring legacy. They started vineyards and making wine here (one assumes it was for religious purposes). Today, Chateauneuf-du-Pape is an appellation wine. In a village of some 1,000 souls, there are 300 wine makers. I presume some of the employees are from the surrounding areas. Our guide noted that the reason why the area was so good for grapes was because of the rocky ground. The stones soak up the sunshine during the day, and then slowly releases the heat at the night.

We visited a wine museum and did a little wine-tasting of the Chateauneuf-du-Pape at maison Brotte. We tried the white and the red; apparently only 5% of the wine produced in this area is white wine, and is wholly consumed within France. The red wine is exported. Because of strict standards, the grapes of this wine must include Syrah (Shiraz) and Granache grapes. Here I must proudly boast about my very little wine knowledge, gathered over a few wine lessons: I could detect the peppery taste of the Granache grape.

After our wine tasting, our tour driver drove us back to Avignon; she had more passengers to pick up for the afternoon session. We had picked up some lunch (I got a beef pie) in Orange, we munched it as we went along. It was a good morning, which promised much for the afternoon.

Provence photos are here.