Travelling with MM: Orange Provence France

04 July 2022

Orange Provence France

Day 56/France 41

Travelled: 108km to Orange (€10pp Theatre and Museum), Camaret sur Aigues, Seguret (Pretty Village) to parking area at Mount Serein (6km from Mt Ventoux summit).

About 9:30 last night we pulled up stumps from our spot on the Rhône as we spotted road working trucks beginning to set up just to add to the expected noise from the train and road bridge. We drove 15mins to a peaceful spot on the outskirts of Bourg St Andeol only to have the garbage truck come around at 4:30 and then the lawn mowers starting at 6:30am… we chatted with Claire over coffee and then went to the service point. It was about a 30min drive to Orange said to have been founded in 35BC and bears witness to the splendour of the Roman Age in Provence, in particular, the theatre and the triumphal arch. The town is also linked to the Netherlands (1530-1702) by the House of Nassau and the title of Prince Of Orange is still held today by the Royal Family there. Another piece of history is that William III of Orange (1650-1702), became King of England in 1689.

We began our visit at the foot of the Triumphal Arch built during the 1st Century and is dedicated to the founders of this Roman colony with depictions of captive Gauls symbolising Roman domination.

We entered the historic centre spotting a few points of interest indicated on our tourist map.

The statue of Raimbaud was a Count of Orange and participated in the Crusade of 1099 and the capture of Jerusalem.

The Town Hall was originally a private house built in the 17thC.

As we walked out of one of the streets we were greeted by a large wall, the external wall of the theatre. It is 103m long and 37m high and even Louis XIV declared it as the most beautiful wall in France.

We then bought our €10 tickets to visit the Roman Theatre and the museum. Our audio guides gave us an insight of the theatre, Romans and the town. It was built at the start of the Christian Era and like most monuments since then it has been pillaged and destroyed, used as a prison, housing etc until it came into favour again and restored to a useable state including its superb acoustics.
What it used to look like…

Before restoration..

And now…

And with a selfie…

View of the town from the top stalls.

Next to the theatre there are the remains of a temple that together would have been an Augusteum, dedicated to the Imperial Cult.

How the whole complex would have been like…quite impressive.

In the museum there was information about the history of the Provençal fabric illustrating different stages of the printing of Indian fabrics during the 18thC.

A painting of the workings of the factory. They would need to paint in the blue as its didn’t work with the printing plates. It appears that children did a lot of the work…

There was also some artefacts found of the theatre.

After all this very touristy activity we enjoyed a yummy kebab before hitting the road once again.

We had a brief stop in Camaret sur Aigues. The town has a circular plan with traces of its fortifications still visible.

We travelled through a thunder storm with heavy rain to Seguret, a classified pretty village of France.The charming village is nestled in the foot hills.

We had a cuppa waiting out the storm and before we finished the sun was out again. We entered via the medieval gate and wondered along the cobbled stones alleyways admiring the buildings and the picturesque Lavoir and fountain.

We popped out at the top of the village and admired the view.

And of course had to have a look inside the Romanesque church.

Then wondered back to Bluey. Now after the storm it was hot and steamy so we decided to seek shade or altitude…the later won as we ventured up towards Mt Ventoux, stopping at Mt Serein (approx 1400m alt.) with a cool breeze and amazing views. Not a bad spot to spend the night.

This is about 29km away…