Historic Provence

In 118 BCE the Romans founded their first colony outside of Italy which came to be known as "Provincia Romana". This region would eventually be known as Provence.

There are still many Roman ruins from that time including the Théâtre antique d'Orange built in the 1st century CE. 

The theatre hosted the greatest Greek and Roman tragedies, which in time became more low-brow bordering on pornography. Unfortunately, when the Catholics took over they banned the theatre and ruined everyone's fun.

The Romans also built an amphitheatre in Arles which was used in the old days for chariot races and gladiator battles. Today it's used for bullfighting.

We checked out the theatre in Arles which had a rather minor acrobatics show.

Perhaps the most well-preserved and most interesting site was the Pont du Gard. While the Romans of Nîmes had enough drinking water, they didn't have enough bathing water or fountain water. So they built a 50km aqueduct from Uzès including the 49m high, 274m long Pont du Gard.

(For those of you at home playing "Pedantic Geography", the Pont du Gard is actually in the Languedoc-Roussillon region rather than in Provence)

The next major historic influence on the region was during the 14th century when Avignon became the centre of the Catholic world and home to seven popes. The Palais des Papes was very interesting and really showed how involved in politics and power the Catholic church was throughout the Middle Ages.

Also in Avignon is the famous bridge, or half-bridge. It looks a little something like this.

We climbed the mountain to reach the castle at Baux-de-Provence, where amongst other thing we saw some medieval siege weapons. Josh's favourite was of course the trebuchet. This one, the biggest in France, could fling up to 100kg over 400m.

Finally, if you've always wanted evidence that ghosts exist, then you've probably convinced yourself that you've found it. But if you haven't, here it is. An unedited video from inside the necropolis at Arles.