Nothing special to do today, after cruising through market day…which is spread all over this little town, so it seemed like a good time to drive to Avignon for a sightseeing day. The market was fun: my belt has almost worn out so I got a decent-looking replacement for 5 Euro - tres cheap! My thought is that the buckle will be all tarnished by the time I get home, but let’s see. We also visited the bike shop, map shop, and pharmacie, when we were done with the market sidewalk madness. Lots of French-speaking practice for Lynn; she bailed me out of lots of deadends where my few words give out.
We had the most delightful encounter with a nice Belgian couple we met a few nights ago while eating our pizza at a riverfront restaurant. They sat next to us there, and we talked a long time, mostly in French (well, I mostly just listened and stayed out of the way!).Anyhow, we ran into them during market day, they remembered us, and told us this was our third encounter: turns our they’d also seen us at Fontaine des Vaucluse when we had our adventures there a couple of days ago. What a riot, two friendly perfect strangers, now our casual buddies. I hope fate brings us together again during this trip, stranger coincidences have happened!
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| Sculpture of Christ, below the gold statute of Mary high atop the Palais |
AVIGNON was a fun trip in some ways, and a disappointment in others. Most famous as the home of the Popes during the 14th century. The details of its history are fascinating, but suffice it to say that the official home of the Catholic Church was moved from Rome to Avignon during the 1300’s, and moved back to Rome less than 100 years later. Lots of war and siege and ruination and rebuilding took place in the 700 years since the Palace of the Popes was built. It’s still standing, and is magnificent. We hiked all over the grounds, high above the Rhone River. Funny enough, directly across the river from Palais des Papes is an ancient French fort, Fort St. Andre, built in the mid-1300’s…to keep the Church from invading or expanding any further into France (from the little bit I’ve read about it. Don’t take me for a history expert!). Palais des Papes is surrounded by a few miles of stone ramparts, and is built in part upon even more-ancient Roman ruins (some of the Roman walls were visible when we hiked a backroad in the city.) The old city of Avignon inside the walls has a big, straight main road (Rue de la Republique) with urban businesses, crowds and amenities, running straight from the train station (the Gare) to the Palais. The rest of the city is NOT as straight and modern. Lots more old twisty streets and architecture. We didn’t explore that old part much, maybe come back later. Too much city for one short visit.
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| Hotel de Ville, Avignon |
There’s a bridge that is famous to anyone who ever took French lessons and learned a singsong refrain about the bridge: “Le Pont d’Avignon”…so... we went to see it, of course! It’s real name is St.-Benezet Bridge, with a beautiful story behind it’s construction, started in the 1300’s by a shepherd boy named Benezet who later became a Saint of the Church! Anyhow, the bridge is beautiful and still standing - you can walk out on it - but no longer reaches all across the Rhone. The Palaisedes des Papes, the surrounding gardens and city were all beautiful to see. Then we wanted out of there!
Sightseeing in a big city, with crowds of tourists, parking hassles, and traffic, is kind of the opposite of what our trip has been about so far. We left Avignon during evening rush hour, miserable driving, but eventually made it back to the more tranquil atmosphere of L’Isle. We’ll probably avoid crowds and big cities a bit before doing it again! Hey, we saw a BIG BOY statue atop the Memphis Diner on our way out of town. American culture continues to permeate this place!
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| Big Boy LIVES in Avignon, atop Memphis Diner! |
Lynn bought me a super-detailed map of the surrounding country roads now, so tomorrow I have big bike plans. Hopefully, I’ll ride to Bedoin, gateway town to the climb up Mount Ventoux. Lynn’s thinking tomorrow is a good antique-looking day. While making our plans, we strolled the town looking for ice cream. Sat out at a cafe while a Scottish street saxophonist in a kilt serenaded us, and Lynn's desert was the best she ever had! We headed back home and (next to a fantastic old waterwheel...) found an Irish Bar where they do karaoke, but were too shy to go in...maybe next time. Anyhow, we plan to find the rest of the hidden waterwheels and under-city canals next time we go exploring. Well, that’s our ambition…we might just goof off instead! See ya tomorrow, and thanks for reading this stuff.
LINK TO all the photos we took so far, if you'd like to see more:
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