Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
19
The African Hunter
After yesterday's traumas it was lovely to enjoy an uneventful breakfast at our hotel. Even
Jack, the ache from his cavity having considerably subsided, was relaxed. It was still early
and we only had a 40 kilometre pop to our first appointment at 10:00am. This meant we had
ample time to have a quick look around.
I had already consulted my invaluable pocket guide and learned that olives were very
important here. There weren't any of this precious fruit hanging around in the
precise
vicin-
ity of our hotel but Nyons is situated in the very heart of olive growing country. So a search
was required. I started by telling Jack about the various
moulins
(mills) that one can visit, in
order to taste and buy olives and, of course, the obligatory bottles of oil.
“Indeed,” I added, warming up to my tourist guide vocational instincts, “the olive oil
here is considered to be amongst the best in France and is
'appellation contrôlée'
which is
very special. Furthermore, a point of great importance
especially
to olive buffs,” I babbled,
“is that Nyons is one of 75
Sites Remarquables du Goût
and therefore a must-visit location.”
Sadly none of this fascinating information was met by even the tiniest flicker of interest
so I tried a different tack. I explained that Nyons was typically French with lots of cafés,
squares and plane trees and had a couple of additional features that might really grab his
attention. One was the
Tour Randonne
also known as the
Chapelle Notre-Dame de Bon Se-
cours
. It was built in 1280 by the Barons of Montauban and served as a symbol of their
power and was also a prison.
Hum… no luck yet
.
So I continued.
“In 1862,” I further explained, “it was converted into a chapel which could strike one as
a slightly incongruous thing to do, but then, why waste a perfectly good building. And, even
more unusual, an apparently attractive pyramid was built on top of the tower with a statue
of the Virgin Mary perched on top of that.”
I was still getting blank looks at this stage so, in desperation, tried my trump card.
“Of other significance for Nyons, is the old Roman bridge, with a single arch 18 metres
high, which spans the river
Eygues. Obviously
a great engineering feat, it's absolutely mar-
