Montpellier, Bridges & Beyond: Southern France (Provence)

***WARNING: If you don't like lots of pictures of bridges and the like, this post is not for you.***

Departing from Avignon, it was a short distance to Montpellier, but before our arrival there, we wanted to see a few things along the way.

The first stop was Matt's choice, to Pont du Gard, which is the highest Roman aqueduct bridge and one of the best preserved. They made the thing in the 1st century and it's still hanging in there!

Here I am walking up to it after we went through the museum. The whole thing is cool because when you drive in, your parking lot ticket is the ticket to everything. Too bad we didn't have a fuller car, it would have been even cheaper to split.

 (One of many shots that Matt got, part of his "Through the Trees" series. He's artsy like that.)

 You get to walk on it!!

 Matt inspecting things...

 More through the trees...

 We also decided we had to take pictures on the other side, too...

 This is me. Thumbs down for walking up this hike "path" - we opted to walk around and up to get some more pictures instead.

 ... and I asked Matt to take a picture of me in this cave thing.

 Gosh, what awful weather we had, huh?

 I spy a castle in the distance....

 Here's me, holding the thing up. You're welcome.

 Matt doing his part. By the time we left (I think we spent a good 2+ hours there?), it was getting windy and crowded, so on to the next fun!

 But first we crossed over another bridge, so I took a picture.

Our second stop was my idea, the Carrieres de Lumieres. This place was so neat!

It's essentially an art gallery inside of a cave. But the art changes because it's projected onto the walls and set to music. It's a music-art show!

I like museums as much as the next guy, but sometimes I feel like I don't "get" some of the art. This place, though, I got. In fact, I found it very moving being immersed in the show.

A bit difficult to see, but here is what it's like inside. The caves are huge so you are really a part of the art, and the projections run ceiling to floor.

(If you check out the website, you can get an even better idea.) I'm so glad we went!

After our artscapade (hee!), we headed over to an abbey but didn't feel like spending more cash to peek inside. We opted instead to sit outside and have some lunch before making our way to our hotel out the outskirts of Montpellier and checked in just in time for a nice afternoon nap.

At night, we had reservations at L'Oracle, which I think was one of my favorite meals of the trip. I was able to communicate the entire thing in French, which was awesome for me. We split a carafe of wine, and I started with foie gras, followed by a calf fillet with risotto and a super tasty Tea Gourmand (which is tea with a bunch of little desserts on a tray).

For our second day in the Montpellier area, we hopped back into the car to see the Millau viaduct, the tallest bridge in the world. It did not disappoint. Here's a short video we took on the drive up to it.

From a distance...

And then some shots upon arrival underneath, looking up at its awesomeness. Through trees, of course.

 Here we are from the parking lot, next to the tiny visitor's center.

 We had fully prepared for this day with copious amounts of car snacks to keep us going. We hit the grocery store and had yogurt and yummy wraps in the car for lunch, mmm....

Oh - we also drove to Roquefort. It's a town. And a cheese. Hence, it's a cheese town. They only make this kind of cheese there, and so of course we had to check out the cheese caves.

That's right, CAVES filled with cheese. A cheese lover's dream. Or worst nightmare if you don't like caves, I suppose.

We arrived a little early before they re-opened for the afternoon, so we walked around to take in the views. We also checked out the remains of an old church.

 Here's Matt in what once was a church.

 Such a cute town!

 Really was too bad the weather was so, ugh....

But yes, into the caves we went! We didn't take pictures inside, but what we did do was go on a guided tour. In French.

Completely in French. Matt was lost. I was half-lost. But I knew enough to laugh along when someone made a joke, and nobody suspected we didn't speak French since I'm the one who bought the tickets. Take that, France! We fooled you!

As any good food-related tour has, there were free samples at the end. Matt was a little bummed we didn't get some to take with us, but we did find some in our big grocery bonanza on the drive back to Germany on our last day.

And thus endeth a weekend filled with bridges and sunshine. My next post will cover our final city on the journey, Beaune, which is on the way back home to Germany.