Today was our day to head into Avignon and delve into it long and storied history. We had quite a few targets: the Papal Palace, the famous Pont d'Avignon, the Cathedral of Notre Dame du Dom and various others all tucked inside the 14th century city walls.
We took the bus from our hotel right up to one of the gates and headed for the plaza in front of City Hall. There were several impressive buildings, a great mosaic, a clocktower and a plaza filled with coffee places and accordion players. Great start.
The real attraction was, of course, the Papal Palace, where 8 or 9 popes stayed during the 14th and 15th centuries. It wasn't quite what either of us expected. First off, it is absolutely massive, imposing itself on the tiny square below and racing skyward. I think I was expecting a more luxurious, decorative, religious building. What it turned out to be was pragmatic. It was big, but without much decoration so it could be built and expanded quickly. It needed to house the immense papal staff and court and serve all those functions as well, and it was well disposed to do that. The tour through the inside was still interesting,
favorite room was the one that laid out the history of each of the popes, how they handled the politics of the day, the church finances and their contribution to both the church and the overall history of the area. Depending on who you talk to, some were even anti-popes, competing with candidates installed in Rome.
We got some great views of the surrounding city and the golden statue on the top of the Cathedral from the Palace towers. After a brief lunch we took a quick tour of the Cathedral and papal gardens. Both were impressive, but really only previews to the real star of the show - the Pont d'Avignon. This bridge which projects halfway out into the Rhone is the subject of popular children's song and dance - a sort of "Ring Around the Rosey". It doesn't look overly impressive from the outside, but the tour went on to inform us that it was once about 6 times longer than it currently is, and was positioned over a much less controlled river Rhone than now. Even more impressive is that when it was first "built" in the 12th century, they sort of built it on top of an old Roman bridge that had been built almost a thousand years before.
Speaking of Romans, our next stop was the village of Orange, which has one of the only completely intact Roman amphitheaters still in existence. Having taken a few classics courses in University and being somewhat of a nut for all things to do with Imperial Rome, I was in heaven. I have no words for how cool it was to be there and see the stage, the statue of Caesar over the stage and the worn steps leading up past the good seats reserved for town elders and soldiers up into the seats at the top for non-citizens and beggars. I'll let Fiona's photography do the talking for me. We'll be back to Orange sometime soon, as we have yet to see the triumphal arch or any of the historical attachments to the House of Orange, which holds special significance for this lapsed Dutchman.
We kept it with the Roman theme by stopping by Pont du Gard next, a multi level aqueduct built by Agrippa in 19 BC. Again, it is hard to put the words together to describe the sight of this massive piece of history sitting in a beautiful river valley bathed in the setting sun.
I love that Fiona gets how much I enjoy stuff like that and it all gets worked into the itinerary somehow - including some extra time for me to just stare with my mouth agape - and that she patiently puts up with an entire car ride back of "can you believe ...", "did you see ..." and "do you realize ..." If I had the money, talent and army of defeated Gallic slave labour there would definitely be a Pont du Fiona crossing some beautiful valley somewhere.
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