A Roman theatre and Welsh rugby

We had our second trip into Orange this morning, this time to visit the Théâtre Antique d’Orange. This Roman theatre still has its original stage wall, which is the only one of its kind still intact, and it is still used for concerts throughout the summer.

The theatre was designed to ensure perfect acoustics, amplifying the voices of the actors, and it originally held up to 7000 spectators. It was a long way up to the top level and, from there, we could see above other buildings in the town. It really is an amazing space and I’d love to see a gig there.

We also walked up into the Parc de la Colline St-Eutrope for a bird’s eye view of the theatre and a sweeping panorama of the surrounding city and the countryside beyond it. It was well worth the slog up what felt like 100s of steps!

By now it was midday and we decided to find somewhere for lunch before moving on to l’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, where we’d booked a campsite. John spotted a little restaurant down a side street and it was lovely… both the food and the ambience.

We settled into the campsite and relaxed for a few hours… it was too hot to do anything else! Then at 6ish, we showered and wandered into the town, which took about 25 minutes. L’Isle is a pretty town built on islands in 5 branches of the River Sorgue. Apparently there are 14 water wheels in the town, although the river once powered 70! We didn’t have much time to explore though, because we needed to get dinner before Wales played Fiji at 9 o’clock.

I found a restaurant on Trip Adviser and we chose dishes from the 38 euro menu. The starters and deserts were both made up of 3 different dishes, all of which were delicious. John had veal for his main course, and I had trout, just out of the Sorgue. I think John was treating me because I’d agreed to stay in town and watch the rugby in a bar 🙂 I was spoilt having 2 meals out in 1 day!

We then crossed the river to the sports bar. I was pleased it wasn’t too busy, which was probably because it wasn’t a France game and it was Sunday evening. There was another couple supporting Wales and, later, a Scottish couple. It was good to have some company.

There was a shop selling cigarettes within the sports bar and an endless stream of people coming into buy some. It seemed unusual to me, but maybe it’s normal in France. There certainly seem to be more smokers than there are in the UK. Anyway, Wales-Fiji was a really good match and, because it was close, even people in the bar who were ambivalent about who they wanted to win seemed to enjoy it, and the place was fairly lively. The ending was tense but, thankfully, Wales won in the end. What a good start to their World Cup campaign!