Vacation 2009! Southern France and Italy

We have recently returned from our big trip to southern France and northern Italy. It was a great trip. Great weather and beautiful places. Soon I will put up the album from the trip, but we took so many pictures there will be no duplicates between the blog posts and the photo album.

We picked up Eliot from his school and headed south for our first night on the road in Beaune, just south of Dijon where we took our Valentine's Day trip a few months ago. Our hotel was an old postal facility from the 17th century (center building in photo) just like in Dijon.



The next day we made it into lunch in Provence in Vienne. We ate near some roman ruins and took a walk along the river. Here are Chris and Eliot near an old wall by the river.


By dinner we were in Orange, France. We parked right by a park so Eliot played a while. This fountain is in the park. We were starting to feel the relaxed Provence atmosphere already, watching the families enjoying this park.


Dinner was just outside a large Roman amphitheater. (Eliot displays his fork!) Then we drove to Avingnon, where we stayed for three days. We got a little bit lost on the way to the B&B which was on a rural island across the river from Avingnon.