FB4: The Extraordinary Museum, the fort, and the red rocks

We woke up early and on schedule, to Jeremy's surprise.  We ate breakfast in the hotel lobby, with the owner bringing us croissants, jam, bread, scrambled eggs, cantaloupe, yogurt, cheese, and honey.  I ate only a few of these.  We loaded the car and headed towards our first destination, a small town named Ansouis.

When I first picked this place to visit, I had my eye on a museum that called itself the Musee Extraordinaire.  Its reviews marked it as a small, but quirky museum that looked like something that Miles would enjoy.  Besides, it is right there in the name.  How can a museum that calls itself extraordinary, be anything but!?

It was a museum run by a woman whose father was a scuba diver and created the museum from this passion of his.  It was small, but Miles loved it and was asking for pictures throughout.



While in this town, I wanted to visit its chateau.  Unfortunately, when we arrived, it was closed.  It wouldn't open for many hours, so we decided to head out, but not before Miles made friends with the local cats.



Our next destination was Fort Buoux.  We parked our car outside the gates and started the trek towards the fort.  On the way, we discovered an outcrop, that according to Jeremy's translating skills, labelled itself the largest outcrop in all of France.



We continued up the path and into the fort.  Once inside, it looked like it was mostly just grass and some remnants of the fort, but we soon discovered that the mountain kept climbing and more and more buildings continued to come into view.  It really surprised me just how much there was to the fort and how much remained.  We climbed to the very top and I cowered around the large stones, unable to bring myself to the edge.  Miles had less difficulty of course, but was still happy to begin our descent.



It was finally time to drive to our final destination for the day, the commune of Roussillon.  Towns in France call themselves communes, so I should have been calling them as such all this time.  Roussillon is known for its ochre colored rocks, which used to be mined around the area.



We are staying at a newer hotel in town, and the accommodations looked very nice...until we got to the rooms.  First we went to the second floor, which looked like any other decently sized hotel in existence.  Then, they brought us to a door with a low overhead, via a small windy staircase, to a loft area, with two rooms.  We took the slightly larger room.  It had a nice balcony, but there were parts in the room that I could not stand straight up in, and I could not stand straight up in the bathroom.  I was not happy.

I wasn't impressed with the guy that was running the hotel, and this impression was reinforced when he led us to the pool later.  The pool was across the very small street in a large open garden area.  Miles and I swam for an hour while Jeremy read in his room.  We returned to the room and cleaned up.  I did not enjoy bending my head to avoid the ceiling while showering, nor the few times that I hit my head on the door frame to exit my room.  As we left this time, I noticed that someone else was at the front desk.  He smiled.

We walked up to the top of the town, which had amazing views of the French countryside and the town.



I began having allergy problems and headed back alone to take some allergy medicine.  After feeling a bit better, I headed down to have a talk with the new frontdeskman.  He understood completely, and gave us a new room on the second floor with very high ceilings.  It had nearly double the space, but no balcony.  I couldn't have been happier.

I returned to Jeremy and Miles.  Jeremy informed me that he was content with his room.

Since Jeremy was nice enough to let us eat and Miles' restaurant choice(the same restaurant) the last two nights, we thought that it was only fair that he chose the place of tonight's outing.  He picked a restaurant with a balcony.  Miles said that his burger was, "the best hamburger of my life."  For those following the blog, he has now had the best pork and beef of his life so far.  Jeremy had macaroni with escargot, which he had never had before.  I had stuffed zucchini, tomato, and pepper, with rice.  It was all very good.

I took the following photo, asking Jeremy to smile.  At least he tried.



Tomorrow, we will be walking the ochre trail and going into a mine that purports to be ten degrees Celsius, which is 50 degrees Fahrenheit.  I will be bringing my jacket.