The Town of Tarascon

After our heat debacle yesterday, we've opted to opt out of the tour today and stay close to the ship.  The plan is to have an early morning wander around the town of Tarascon, then chillax.

This is the view from the river of the castle which was built about 21 thousand years ago or something like that.  Things seem to be getting older and older the more south we go.

This is the street view.  It used to have a moat, but it's not there anymore and there is a bridge that looks like it would have crossed the moat..... which, I think defeats the purpose of having a moat, but I'm not a medieval war strategist, so maybe there was a reason?

Here is a picture of what if would have looked like back in the day and it appears that there was a bridge, but it looks like a wooden drawbridge rather than the cobblestone/stone bridge that is there today, so clearly some modifications were made somewhere along the line.  Note: There's no water in the moat.  Confused.com!

It still baffles me at how these monstrous buildings were erected back then.  I mean, look at this perfectly round tower...... how? 

Well apparently, you can't just park anywhere you like in France.  The people parking anywhere all the way through France would beg to argue that fact, but it seems - according to the traffic ticket out giver here in this picture - you can't just go around willy nilly parking where and how ever you want.  There are rules.  Nobody knows or cares what they are, but they're there..... somewhere!

This little village had a maze of streets that looked pretty much like this.  Some were prettier than others with lovely window boxes or cool old doors, 

but they were pretty much the same - windy, stone, narrow and cool!

Some even had hidden secret gardens...

And some had gardens growing right over their front door.

And speaking of doors...... check out this beauty!  It's a door within a door within a doorway!

There were knobs shaped like hands...

And doors with matching symmetrical window covers.

Doors that were so old, it was amazing that they still opened...

And doors that had clearly been opened too much or too hard and needed a second layer of roller door for privacy and security!

There were lovely looking bookshops...

 And pieces of wall that looked like a map of Australia..... if you turned your head to the side and squinted really hard.

There were tunnel streets that you thought no car could get through.....

Until peak hour happens and a car actually goes through it.  There's no way my car could have fit under there!

There was an antique shop that sold actual antiques...

But it turns out that his shop was just somewhere to hoard things, as you couldn't get past the front door to have a look...

Although if you looked up, he did have some funky chandeliers.  Not easy packing!

We wandered past bars who had hired lazy sign writers...

And past the School of Fashion where each window - identical to this one had a different swatch of material hanging as a curtain.

 Outside the walls and arches there seemed to be a more modern world that didn't  interest us at all.  I'm much more in love with the older architecture and, let's face it..... I've got a problem with doors.

 But after walking up and down most of the streets in the old town, we found the archway that would lead us back to the ship..... and with the barometer rising, we though it best to hightail it home.

And that's our final village, and our final night on the ship.  Tomorrow we say goodbye to the staff and people we've met and journey by bus to Nice.  

Adieu mes amis!