Provence has a surprisingly rich heritage of Roman architecture. The Romans colonised the area in the end of the 2nd BC and continued to leave their marks there for several centuries. Nimes and Arles, two of the towns we visited, were the biggest cities in the Empire outside of Italy. We checked off three Roman amphitheaters and an ancient aqueduct while we were in Provence.
In Orange, the 2000-year old Theatre Antique d'Orange, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was one of the largest theaters of Imperial Rome, holding up to 7,000 spectators. Today, it is one of the best preserved Roman theaters in Europe, and - get this - still puts on performances in the summer. We were lucky to catch the opera Turandot by Puccini on one of the cool summer nights.
We visited the theater in the day of the performance, while preparations were under way for the opera at night. Here you can see the orchestra pit, and some props (the metal sphere on stage and the gong on the wall)
The theater was built against a hill. Here you can see the nose-bleed section just below the trees, a.k.a. our seats.
The facade of the theater
The entire town seemed to be dedicated to the performance. Restaurants offered fixed menus, designed to feed large groups of opera-goers in time before the performance at 9:30pm. Makeshift stalls cropped up everywhere around the theater selling cushions, portable seats, foldaway chairs, binoculars, etc.
This old lady was selling cushions covered with Provencal fabrics for EUR 10. Being the misers we are, we decided our butts can withstand concrete for 3 straight hours.
Waiting for the performance to start. This is around 9:20pm.
If you can work out the seating arrangement in the picture, you will understand that the walking space is basically the "seat" of the people one row below. There really isn't much room to move your feet without kicking the person sitting below you. Before the performance begun, when everyone were looking for their seats, entire rows of people had to get up and stand while someone passes to reach their seat on the other side of the row.
There were thousands of spectators that night, and despite that, during the performance, it was so quiet you can hear a pin drop.
Now, add these two elements together, plus the fact that the performance went on from 9:30pm to midnight, you will admire how remarkably well-behaved our two young children were. I had briefed Sophie on the story before the show, so she could at least guess at what was happening on stage. Other times, I would whisper very softly and slowly to her about the progress of the plot. She was very interested, and kept looking out for the princess and asking me whether the she had asked the first riddle yet.
Now, Ju, as you know, is a TWO year old, and a BOY at that. He cannot be expected to sit still for something that does not involve loud red cars who answers to the name McQueen. Well, he did. He cooperated and whispered his questions to YL, he did not cry to go to the bathroom once, and he did not attempt to see if he can jump from his concrete seat. YL and I held our breath when he started to fidget around 11pm, when he was really desperate for sleep. We rocked him slowly and that was it. No fuss. Regardless, YL said that the guy sitting next to him was not impressed and shussed them once. Shame on him!
(p/s. it's debatable whether we should have brought a two year old to a late night opera, but give us a break, OK??)
Turandot is a story about a Chinese princess who, in order to avoid marriage, promise to marry only the man who can answer three riddles correctly. The opera was written at a time when chinoiserie was the rage in Europe.
On another day, we visited the amphitheater in Arles. It is one of the largest Roman buildings in Gaul (the old name for France). This particular amphitheater has a strong heritage of Spanish bullfights. We caught a "bull race" where young men dressed in white from top to toe would tease and taunt the bull, and then with some very nifty quick legwork, jump over the fence once the bull starts at them. The point is to see how close they could get to the bull without being hurt.
The third amphitheater was in Nimes, built in the 1st century for gladiatorial fights. We had a rather enjoyable audio guide tour of the place, where the narrator introduced different types of gladiators, their lives, and the atmosphere of the shows in the Roman days.
By the way, here's a bit of trivia for you: Nimes' other claim to fame came in the form of a man in California in the 1800's, when he was looking for a hard, tough-wearing fabric to make pants for miners, and found the right type, imported from Nimes. His name was Levi Strauss, and today this fabric is simply known as denim (= de Nimes = from Nimes).
Besides these amphitheaters, the Romans also left a vast network of very practical structures in Provence. The Pont du Gard (another UNESCO WHS) is apparently the largest aqueduct bridge in the world. It is 50 metres high, 350 metres long, with arches that are 25m wide and 19m high. It transported 9 million gallons of water per day to Nimes when it was one of the largest cities in Europe. Most of the aqueduct is on or below ground, but at Pont du Gard it spans a canyon on a massive bridge. It was indeed a sight to behold.
We had an enjoyable lunch by the bridge, where we ate under the parasols while listening to the shrieks and chatter of those frolicking by the river below the canyon.
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