Day Twelve: Provence in Ruins

First of all: the luggage has arrived. My dad managed to communicate directions to the taxi driver in French (go Dad) and the bag was delivered. So yay.

Meanwhile, we visited two sites of ancient ruins, the first of which was Glanum, right down the street from our villa. This is the site of a Gaul settlement from around 700 B.C. that was taken over by the Greeks around the time of Christ, then finally by the Romans around the year 100. This is a fascinating place to visit. Even more so since it was discovered and excavated in 1921. Before that people were just looking at an olive orchard. Check it out now:




The Hellenic influence was significant here. They believed their spring held special powers and worshiped Hercules, among other gods, as a healer:





The Romans worshiped the Imperial family. Here is what is left of their shrine (the sky makes it look like Zeus is about to go ballistic):




The detail on these ruins was amazing:






Here is proof for Marlena that her husband can, in fact, smile for a picture:



Later that day we visited a small town called Lamanon where we hiked up to the Grottes des Cales where people lived in caves about 7000 years ago.