Orange: Roman Theatre

We thought we had seen most of the Roman towns of Provence, but then found Orange, a beautiful little city that boasts the largest and most intact Roman theatre as well as the 3rd largest triumphal arch in the Roman world. We had to visit and easily found a free aire, one of two very close to the town center. Orange, FWIW, was home of the house of Orange, who became the royalty of the Netherlands, and beyond, for that matter.

Here Vicki demonstrates proper form in ordering the local
specialty, Orange Jus

The stage building of Orange's ancient theatre; 110m long;
turn a football field on its side and you have roughly the
dimensions of this building; Aspendos in Turkey bills itself
as the largest extant Roman theatre; I believe its stage
building may be a bit smaller than Orange's

Rather than buy the interior tour--we have seen dozens
of Roman theatres--we elected to do the free hike up the
beautiful city park to view the theatre from the top down;
en route, here is a view, the distant shadow, of Mt.
Ventoux, apparently a volcano of France's central massif

View from the top; although the stage building may be
larger, Aspendos' proscenium and particularly its extant
seating area, are far larger; not to mention the adjoining
complex...

But the statue of Augustus is remarkably original

In the park, the tree planted by Queen
Juliana of the Netherlands, in 1952

Back in town, the best figurine shop ever, so
far; this the nativity scene, comparable to
anything we saw in Spain

Detail: harvesting lavender

Just one wall of the selection