“Le Petit Pompei”
Provence’s proximity to Italy has meant that, even before Julius Caesar conquered Gaul and added it to the young Roman Empire in 58 to 51BC, it had already come under Roman influence.
Today we visited Vaison La Romaine, a beautiful Provencal town with oodles of interesting Gallo-Roman history.
There are two major sites that have been uncovered by Archaeologists with entire villas, roads, shops, Roman baths and an amphitheatre on display. We were able to walk down collonaded avenues and roads complete with pavements, statues, frescos and mosaics just as they were nearly two thousand years ago!
Just the idea of people living, working and going about daily life within the same walls and avenues we were able to walk down and touch was thrilling!
Vaison La Romaine also has a well preserved medieval centre including castle and cathedral which we didn’t get to see as we were so absorbed in the Roman quarter …. I think we might go back ! 😀
By the way there’s a prize if you can guess what I’m sitting on in the picture below ….. I’ll give you a clue : They were communal and wouldn’t have smelled too sweet back when the Romans used them.
