I am sitting, drinking my evening tea (caramel tea to which I add sugar making it what Dennis disapprovingly calls "liquid candy") and I am thinking back on our day today. We had no plans when we started this morning. After the usual quiet breakfast on the western facing balcony, Dennis started writing out his daily to-do list and I began doing my usual, the dishes. We decided to take advantage of the cool morning air and we loaded Denise into the car to drive out to the "Roman ruin" nearby. Dennis has a love of all things Roman and ruined. Now, getting ready to leave once the decision has been made is no small feat for us mostly because Captain Hook (our lovingly, affectionate name for Denise because of the noise she makes with her cane as she walks through the house) requires many different things before she feels ready to leave. Like her bag, her sunglasses, her sweater and sweatshirt (yes, both.....just in case) and all the doors in the house must be closed...and then we need to recheck the doors, and then the cushions have to be brought in from the balcony, and "do we have my sweater? Do we have gas in the car? Where is my bag?" followed by..."are the doors closed? I don't want animals to come in" (she lives on the 3rd floor). But finally we have her loaded into the lift...and we are riding down and walking to the car and she asks me, "Do we have gas for the car? Where is the car? I can't remembur anything anymore" Such a cute sweet French woman.We head out toward The Trophy. This monument celebrates the victory of the Roman Emperor Augustus over the people of the Alps. He subjugated (killed, enslaved, ruined their lives in general) these tribes between 25 and 14
B.C. In 7-6 B.C., the senate of Rome dedicated this trophy to Him. It is standing at the highest point of the road on the Via Julia which Augustus built to facilitate exchanges with Gaul. So we are about to walk up Roman roads (built by slaves), among the original Roman gardens (planted by slaves) to view something that was built (by slaves) before Christ was born.Along the walk we come across beautiful views of Monaco and the surrounding areas including Italy in the distance. It was sunny and cool where we were yet ahead there was a quickly gathering storm. It hasn't rained here in France during our entire visit. The cactus in the photo (this is some info on the side) blossoms this huge flower only once every 100 years. Amazing...
We first reach the museum that shows a completed replica of the Trophy as it would have looked before it was dismantled in 1705 and much of the stone used to build the nearby village.
Throughout the room are original pieces found at the site that were used to reconstruct the trophy to its current state. There were once many of these standing as a proclamation of the power and glory of the Romans. Only two survive to this day. The other is in Romania.
It is something poetic to stand among pieces of stone and carvings that were made so long ago. To stand where these long dead and mostly forgotten men once stood.
The first thing that strikes you is the sheer size of this monument. And then you remind yourself that this is a ruin, just a portion of what it looked like when it was complete.
Our handsome gentleman tour guide informed us that the huge columns we see surrounded the entire structure, totaling 24 columns. Very little is known about the structure because the Romans were not very good at keeping records and because there wasn't much love for them coming from the tribes that they enslaved, so all records were destroyed. On the very top of the entire structure was a huge statue of the Emperor Augustus himself, making the height of the entire Trophy at about 50 meters. This structure was simply built to honor the Emperor like a god. The Trophy itself is placed to mark the end (or beginning, depending on how you like to look at things) of the Alps. Augustus was deified and assimilated to Hercules because he opened roads through the Alps. The subjugation of the Alpine tribes was therefore just a pretext to legitimise the hero-worship of the Emperor: the celebration of his exploits highlighted his divine nature. MMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmm.....I guess its clear why the locals tore as much of it down as they could. No one wants to be reminded of the 'god' who came through and subjugated you...I'm just stating the facts
But it sure was HUGE!!! Along the side of the Trophy is this massive inscription in marble dedicating it to the Emperor and naming all 45 tribes that he slaughtered to get there in the first place. But the marble was lovely....Italian marble
The structure is made almost entirely of limestone that was dug up (guess who did the digging?) in the nearby quarry and dragged up the mountainside.
After walking all around it, standing next to it and putting my hands where ancient Romans and subjugated tribes (I couldn't help myself) put there hands, we found a staircase and start climbing. Dennis says to me "just think, this was built before Joseph and Mary were even married" And I swear to you, I stopped on the stairs and thought..."Who do we know named Joseph and Mary?" ...... Well, he said it like they were a couple we hang out with. I didn't know he meant THE Joseph and Mary.
So we reach the top, without railings or any safety equipment (as if the monument itself is saying "Go ahead, hurt yourself...mere mortal whom I would easily subjugate if I could just find me some Romans) and this is the view we drink in. The wind was blowing and you could see lightening in the distance. Its quickly obvious that this thing was built to remind everyone that Roman was driving this train. This must have been fearsome to behold.
The more you look, the more amazed you feel. In the left hand edge of the picture above you can see the remains of the quarry used to gather and haul the limestone (carried and gathered by the subjugated tribes, naturally)
It was really hard to pull ourselves away but it had been over an hour since we left The Captain waiting in the car so be began our climb down.
Along the way we edge over to enjoy the views of Monaco and I notice that there is a goat, no..wait.....two goats on the other side of the fence, just hanging. Ahhh...France, with Roman ruins, Monaco in the distance....and.............goats. Of course!
We make it back to the car and then the 15 minutes home...but before we can even arrive we are totally swallowed by the rain storm crawling up the mountain. Fat, bloated rain drops hit us, and cause rivers all along the roads. Everywhere we see scooters pulled over waiting it out but the storm ends up lasting 3 hours. And the wind was fierce and the rain icy. 2 days ago it was 90 degrees in the shade of the balcony.....while now its raining and it has dropped to 63. I love this place. Its crazy!
Of course we had to wrap Denise in two sweaters and a fleece blanket but I was in a tank top, soaking up the cold as I cooked us lunch (more on that later)......
I will say this, its a good thing the Captain had us lock down the castle before we left...the wind and rain was everywhere! Smart lady!
