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When we travelled to the south of France in 1999, we spent a few days in Perpignan, a lovely town. We remarked while at lunch at this sidewalk cafe in the Place de la Loge how many people were drinking rose wine. This surprised us. What was even more noteworthy, however, was that all of the streets in the area were paved with the rose coloured marble you can see in the photo.
I love the way the light shines through the openings in the Roman aqueduct at Montpellier, photographed in 1999. Montpellier is one of my favourite places in France. It has a world renowned medical school, the most beautiful modern buildings you will ever see, a very interesting old medieval quarter, and of course this beautiful ancient aqueduct. What more could you ask?
In 1999, we arrived at Peyrepertuse in the fog and rain, somehow appropriate for a visit to this ruined castle set high in the French Pyrenees. It was a refuge built by the Cathars, a religious sect that flourished from the 10th to the 13th Centuries, until wiped out in the Albigensian crusades.
This 1999 photo is a good example of the effort that is made in France to beautify public spaces like this area in Nimes that is called the Quay de Fontaine.
Near Avignon is a small village called Fontaine-de-Vaucluse, which we visited in 1999. We took the footpath that runs for perhaps a mile among trees beside the river to a grotto. Here, the river gushes forth from the rock and forms a pool. The village is famous as the home of Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca), the Italian poet who lived from 1304-1374. He was one of the earliest humanists of the Italian Renaissance.
