A Papal Palace, A Bridge, And Van Gogh...

Avignon, France

June 2

A medieval wall completely encircles the old city of Avignon, once the center of the Roman Catholic world when it was the home of seven successive popes between 1309 and 1377. The Palais des Papes (Palace of the Popes), the papal home during this period known as the Avignon Papacy, is the largest gothic structure in the world and even though its enormous stone rooms are filled with not much more than frescoes, it looms over the city imposing and dignified.

Stone walls surrounding the city

 Square in front of the Palais des Papes

Avignon Cathedral (Notre Dame des Doms)

Avignon is a charming place to explore with its winding streets and tree-lined squares, religious sanctuaries, and architectural treasures. Having become a mecca for tourists with the annual art Festival d’Avignon, this historic town has boutiques and restaurants aplenty and, because it is still a home for about 90,000 people, there are the local cafés perfect for a beer, a glass of wine, or for my café au lait and a flaky warm croissant...the simple pleasures of a "petit déjeuner" in "la belle France."

Clock Tower

Synagogue

Trompe l'oeil - Place Daniel Sorane

And not to forget the picturesque Saint-Bénezet bridge that spans half the river. Built in 1180 to connect Avignon with Villeneuve-les-Avignon on the west side of the Rhône, it was destroyed  forty years later during the Albigensian Crusade. Rebuilt with 22 stone arches which frequently collapsed due to the river’s flooding, the city finally gave up trying to restore the bridge in the 17th century. Also known as Pont d’Avignon and familiar to many because of the French children’s song written about it, it is another of the delightful highlights of the town.

Arles, France

Sitting on a low hill with a history dating  back to the 7th century BC, Arles is a Provençal jewel. Roman treasures, narrow and winding medieval streets, 16th and 17th century mansions, colorful, sun-bleached houses, shaded squares, and  the “spirit” of Van Gogh, whose 14 months here produced over 200 paintings, give this capital of the Camargue a seductive quality…a sense of wanting more because there is clearly more.

Roman Colosseum

Place de la République -Town Hall (Hôtel de Ville) is at the far end

Hôtel-Dieu-Saint-Espirit (

The Old Hospital of Arles) built in the 16th and 17th centuries

"Service du travail obligatoire  (S-T-O) was the forced enlistment and deportation of hundreds of thousands of French workers to Nazi Germany to work as forced labour for the German war effort during World War II" (Wikipedia)

A final opportunity to shop...

Great Wine And An Extraordinary Bridge...

Avignon, France

June 1

Châteauneuf du Pape, known worldwide for its vineyards and its wine, is a lovely spot and just the right place to enjoy the “precious nectar” produced in the area. It is thought that vines covered the territory as early as Gallo-Roman times, although the first written record of the vineyards dates from 1157. It was the popes of the 14th century, however, who were the “real promoters” of the area’s wines as they realized that the unique rocky soil would provide excellent growing conditions; church archives reveal that in 1334 there were more than three million grapevines.

Pope John XII, wanting a summer residence for the papacy in Avignon, oversaw the construction of a castle high on a hill overlooking the Rhône Valley. Grapevines and olive trees were planted all around and, although only a remnant of the castle remains, the views are simply beautiful.

As to our wine and chocolate tasting...wonderfully French and wonderfully "extraordinaire!"...

The boat departed from Châteauneuf du Pape en route to Avignon just as we were sitting down to lunch. Shortly after docking across from the former papal capital, many of us set off for an optional tour of the Pont du Gard, one of the world’s best and most beautiful examples of Roman cleverness and technical skill.

Built in the  late 1st century in order to redirect water from a spring fifty kilometers from Nîmes and constructed with massive six ton stones held together by iron clamps and without any mortar, the bridge consists of three tiers of arches with the aqueduct at the top. Falling into disuse after the end of the Roman Empire, it continued to be used as a toll bridge controlled by the local lords and bishops who levied taxes on travelers wanting to cross the river. Damaged in the 17th century with the looting of stones, tourists began visiting the Pont du Gard in the 18th...and thus began a program of renovation that lasted until this century.

To say that it’s awesome  doesn’t do it justice; designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985, the Pont du Gard is sure to amaze…