The following day, we grabbed breakfast at Maison Nosh in Aix en Provence (Aix is where we had decided to station ourselves for the trip). Maison Nosh offered a decent amount of gluten free breakfast options, so we ended up there for breakfast each morning. Not to mention, the offerings were wholesome and filling--perfect for the long stints in the car. After breakfast, we stopped at a market stall to gather up some goodies for the picnic we'd be having later. What caught our eye were the strawberries in wooden cartons. They were especially radiant, plump and scarlet. They were so sweet we came back for seconds.
Our picnic spot was the Pont du Gard, an hour and a half's drive from Aix. The Pont du Gard is an ancient Roman aqueduct built around the year 50 AD which carried water over the river Gardon to the city of Nimes for 5 centuries. It is the highest Roman aqueduct (48 meters high and over 275 meters long) and one of the best preserved. With its gradual slope and no need for mortar, the aqueduct is an example of the Roman's masterful engineering.
The site was overwhelming, a statement amidst a serene, yet enveloping, scrubland otherwise free of human development. The river below the classical monument was partly dried up, revealing its rough underbelly, perhaps a testament to its beastly nature. It's a rare moment where nature appears tame, even tired, which is so often not the case next to the ruins of mankind.
However, it must be safer to be all the way out here, away from civilization, in some sense, away from more immediate danger. Lonely, sure, without a doubt. But safe. Tucked away. No chance of being pillaged, repurposed, or used for target practice.
There's an agelessness about the site, a wisdom, that perhaps lies in the bridges purpose, its having fulfilled a basic need and having been so useful in its lifetime.
We spent so much time at the Pont du Gard that we did not make it to the wineries we had on our itinerary before they closed. We therefore skipped to Avignon, a commune in the southeastern part of Provence set on the Rhone river and once the seat of the Catholic popes.
We spent the few hours mostly in the forum of Avenio, the city's name under the Romans in the first century BC, or, now, the Place de l'Horage, which is still considered the city center and a popular rendez-vous point as it is lined with spirited cafes and restaurants. We found a place selling pretty macarons nearby, bought a dozen, and shared them on a bench with a view of the nightlife until we had to slip away for our dinner reservation at a place, coincidentally, also called Avenio.
Avenio, a Michelin starred restaurant not far from the Palais du Papes, boasts a very reasonably priced set menu (33 euros for three courses) in harmony with the seasons and an undeniably warm staff. The space itself is cozy, easy to settle into after a long day of sightseeing.
To start, I had the crab meat with lemon, avocado, and herring caviar, and Tyler had the salmon tartare with prawns, julienne of crunchy vegetables, soy vinaigrette and ginger. While both refreshing and textured, we found them slightly too fishy for our tastes. Tyler also had a glass of the white Cote du Rhone, and I tried a rosé made just fifteen minutes away. Tyler's was definitely the smoother of the two and therefore we enjoyed that one more than the rosé which left a slightly bitter aftertaste. The main dishes, homemade gluten free bread straight from the oven, and dessert, however, were not to be missed. For the mains, Tyler had the creamy risotto with wild shrimp and Iberian chorizo sausage, and I had scallops, mussels, and mushrooms in a seafood sauce. The risotto was like eating elevated comfort food and the seafood sauce from my dish was generous and rich in flavor, adding to the more mild scallops and mussels. For dessert, we had the assortment of cheeses with chutney. It is hard to go wrong with cheese, but I have had a great many cheese boards, which while delicious, were not paired half as well as these were.
We lingered at dinner--I, milking the endless amounts of gluten free bread at my disposal--until we were pretty much asleep at our table and the thought of leaving and driving back to Aix seemed dismal. But we emerged from the restaurant, the cold slapping us awake, allowing us to take in the now towering yellow walls of the city.
