This is probably the closest margin of time between entries EVER! So, if you haven’t seen my Lyon entry (France Part 4) be sure to read that one too.
After returning from Lyon, we had a field trip in Treasures of Provence the next morning. This one took us to the Musee d’Archaeologie in Apt. Apt is a town we’ve become familiar with, as it is our destination for running errands and enjoying the open-air markets on Saturday mornings. However, we haven’t really looked at it much in its historical context until now. Apt is actually quite an extensive site dating back to the Gauls and Romans, and quite a lot of artifacts have been found there. The museum has a large collection of these, but unfortunately is not open to the public due to funding and theft issues. We were lucky enough to get a look at what few parts of the collection are not stored away.
As we wandered through the museum, there were a few displays, but most of the larger items were strewn rather haphazardly. There were boxes and crates everywhere with the capitals of Roman columns and stelae sticking out. It was a somewhat surreal experience to see all these things ‘displayed’ in such a bizarre fashion. My particular favorite item in the museum was a stelae carved by a former slave of Rome thanking the god Mercury for granting him his freedom. The text on it (and many of the other stelae) was so well-preserved! It really helped to humanize the people of the Roman Empire.
Perhaps the highlight of the visit was venturing underneath the museum (more Roman ruins underground!) to see the remains of Apt’s theater. Although this was not nearly as extensive or impressive as the underground ruins in Barcelona, it was still unexpected and very cool to see.
Wednesday also featured a field trip, this time to our maintenance man, Jean-Pierre’s mosaic studio in nearby Casaneuve. Casaneuve is even smaller than Lacoste, but Jean-Pierre (in addition to being our maintenance man and a world-renowned mosaicist) is the town’s mayor. He has done mosaics for the likes of U2, Sandra Bullock, and Carnegie Hall, so getting to see his studio was quite a treat.
We were greeted at the studio by his friendly (but filthy) sheepdog Pomme (Apple in English). She helped Jean-Pierre show us around the studio. He explained his process and showed us his wide variety of works, from Roman-style images to figures to pop-art. His tiles are mostly gathered from Roman sites in Provence, so essentially he is recreating Roman mosaics with the same materials they would have used.
Following the tour of the studio, he invited us to his house, which was small but incredible. Here, he served us tea and chocolate croissants and showed us the many artifacts he has collected from Roman sites. These ranged from coins to axe heads to belt buckles and even a fully intact human skull. He let us handle most of them, which was quite the rare opportunity. After visiting with him for a bit, it was time to return to Lacoste for lunch.
After lunch, I had quite a bit of free time, so I decided to explore the area around the town. I went into some caves down by the lavoirs (where the residents of Lacoste would have washed their clothes in the days before running water). I also went to the cemetery and just enjoyed the peace and quiet and the beautiful weather. After trekking back up the hill into town, I decided to go up to the Chateau de Sade.
I explored it quite a bit (probably more than is allowed) and also went into the woods behind it overlooking one of the quarries. As I was peering over quite a steep cliff, a man jumped out from behind a rock and said “Hi, I’m Gabriel!” Needless to say, I jumped out of my skin and nearly fell off the cliff. I told him he had scared me and he apologized and wandered off. Very strange. I took a different road down from the chateau than the one I took up, and it turned out to be a bit treacherous, but my Doc Martens and I managed. I was just happy the weather was nice enough for me to go exploring and take some good photos.
The rest of the weekend was a huge series of events all its own, deserving of a separate post which I will add sometime tomorrow or Tuesday.
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