Sara Crompton Meade: We have just enjoyed a week poking around the Gard and Provence

School holidays, the first of the year after the start of school again. The children were quite ready for a break after the long school days (9am-5pm, four days a week, with a two-hour lunch break) and extra-curricula activities each Wednesday (swimming, soccer – called football here – tennis, art, dancing, gymnastics, etc). We stayed in a gite (a holiday house) booked through Gites de France, www.gites-de-france.com. You can change the language to English on the site too.

We have seen:

· the Pont du Gard – the three-tiered Roman aqueduct over the River Gard. Lordy what a sight. We saw graffiti etched into the stone from 1839 (Dylan woz here, or something like that...).

· in Nimes - the Roman arena (spectacularly still intact and functioning as an arena and concert venue but with a horrible history with all the bloodshed and gruesomeness and not so appealing to the children or me), the Roman temple (with a funny 3D movie about Roman heros), the Roman tower that used to form part of the city wall in Nimes and is a part of the beautiful public gardens of the city (which is a wicked walk up a spiral staircase to a stunning view over the city and the countryside, especially after the long walk through the gardens and up the hill to get to the tower), and the lovely tree-lined streets of Nimes with the added fun of walking by the canal.

· the magnificent Roman theatre in Orange, where we engaged for an hour or so in a very pleasant children’s activity making small square Roman style floor mosaics. (We all loved it.) After which we wandered up and down and around and about ‘til we had all had our fill of the majesty.

· the bridge over the Rhone River at Avignon (yes, the one from the song, ‘Sur le pont d’Avignon...’, well, a later one anyway as the first ones were wooden and are down river somewhere now, well-rotted), the Palace of the Popes, and we enjoyed a French meal in a French restaurant, without needing to resort to using English to order our meals with the French waiter, and feeling very happy about that indeed.

· Aigue-Mortes (which means something like ‘dead waters’, Lonely Planet, or ‘stagnant waters’, local town guide) where we found the best exhibition of minerals and fossils of all things. This walled town is definitely more attractive than its name.

· finally, a small-ish town called Agde, not far from the Mediterranean Coast. It is also the start of the Canal du Midi which flows not far from our house here in Ramonville St-Agne, and then all the way on to the west coast of France (Bordeaux I think). We enjoyed a particularly delicious fresh seafood lunch there, on a covered jetty on the river.

We have walked and walked and walked, and climbed and climbed and walked some more, and have had mostly uncomplaining children along with us, as long as we kept them well fed and watered, and off the tether for a while. I can testify that it’s better for everyone’s spirits and well-being if you keep one eye on the sights and the other eye on the ground watching out for dog poop.

For me the highlight has been a bit of a surprise. I didn’t know I could get so excited about bubbling water, but we went to the Perrier plant, where we went underground to see a great cavern of bubbling water, to the very spring where Dr Perrier thought that this water might be a bit of a money-spinning venture with a therapeutic spa at the chateau. In fact he was not the one to make the fortune; rather an Irishman with a keen sense of merchandising, and a future focused firmly on lively and risqué advertising. The chateau Perrier now has a museum, an art gallery, a 3D educational film, and a very funny overview of various advertisements throughout the years.

I’m ready for a bit of a holiday now. Our tour guide (lovely husband) is determined to wring the best experiences out of our time in France, and he has the itinerary to match. Phew.