France day 6

Outside the Roman theater in Orange

            We were up early again today (does this sound like a broken record?) and drove up to the village of Orange in the morning to see one of the three most complete (and likely the most impressive) Roman theaters still in existence.  In 36 B.C., 8 years after the death of Julius Caesar, the Romans founded this city and built the nearly 10,000-seat stadium, which still stands and is used periodically for concerts.  We spent a couple of hours marveling at the front wall of the theater and the many passageways through which the patrons and actors passed.  When Constantine converted to Christianity and the church took over the theater, the entertainment stopped, as such things were considered vulgar; but this is one of the few such places that weren’t destroyed by those with either religious or political agendas.

Inside the theater

            Orange, like so many European cities, has a history of changing hands among various factions, tribes, and nationalities, although the latter term is used loosely in this case.  The Romans had taken over from the Celtics in 105 B.C. and ran the place for many years.  The Visigoths sacked it in 412 A.D. but seem to have moved on, so the Christians took back control.  The Carolingean Counts of Orange took over sometime in the 700’s, followed by The Baux Counts in 1033.  It became the Principality of Orange in the twelfth century, a fief of the Holy Roman Empire.  When William the Silent (remember those nicknames?) took over as the Prince of Orange in 1544, he took the Protestant side in the Wars of Religion, which left the city badly damaged.  As if this were not enough, William in the Eighty Years’ War, begun in1868, helped lead the charge for independence from Spain which somehow had gained control of the area.  Someone apparently grew tired of all the fighting, so William was assassinated in 1584.  His son, William, became King William III of England.  He also happened to be Dutch, and after Louis XIV captured the town in 1673, it was won back in the Franco-Dutch War in 1682.  But the French kept their eyes on it and in 1713 it was finally ceded to France in the Treaty of Utrecht.   Isn’t this interesting?

Hillside vineyards in Hermitage

            While you have been absorbed in this fascinating history of the village of Orange, we have been stuck in traffic on the way to the town of Tain l'Hermitage, where there are even more wineries to explore, as well as the Cite de Chocolate, where a person can buy a hundred varieties of chocolate concoctions, as well as a few flavors of ice cream.  After the two-hour drive here, ice cream seemed in order, so Charlie ordered one scoop of the chestnut flavor.  The flavor must have been named for the wood rather than the nut, because the taste was far closer to what one might expect when eating a creamy batch of chestnut wood.   This was the third flavor of ice cream tested in five days in France—the second did not deserve a mention—which brings us to another matter which has been discussed in our group.  One of the members, who prefers to remain nameless, has been complaining regularly about the complete lack of tasteful ice cream in this country.  In fact, the complaints have become louder and more constant, until a majority of the group has requested this person to enjoy the scenery, the history, the wine, the food, and the cheese.  It remains to be seen whether the complaining will cease, but your scribe feels the complaints are fully justified, and therefore was not in the majority who joined in the request.

            After another few hours drive in traffic on narrow roads back to Châteauneuf-du-Pape (did we mention the 6-speed manual transmission that saved us money on our rental car?), we opted for pizza, wine, and bed.  Before we leave for the night, a photo from the chateau ruins, where the Popes once spent their summers, atop the hill in our little village, with the Rhone river in the distance:

Charlie and Tricia

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