Sep 22, 2011

Decided to lie in bed for an extra half an hour to give the old body a bit more recovery time then headed off to explore the Palais Des Papes (The Palace of the Popes) which was pretty impressive and discovered among other things that nine Popes resided here prior to the seat of power of the Catholic Church being moved to Rome following political involvement of the Church which wasn’t welcomed by the then King Louis VIII. We had a coffee in a little coffee shop in a tower overlooking the outer surrounds of Avignon then headed for the Pont D’Avignon.



First view of the Palace of the Popes when we entered through the gates

The view of the old city was quite spectacular from the Pont D’Avignon which was a bridge initially constructed 1177 – 1185 only to have a third of it destroyed by Louis VIII in 1226 then in 1633 reconstruction was abandoned. In any case it is quite a spectacular structure and gives a beautiful view across the Rhone River which was once tidal but now has a series of 26 dams and or locks.



The Pont D’Avignon

We were supposed to do a round trip today through several villages and see some other sights but I was still not in great shape and we have a big ride lined up tomorrow so we piled into the car with Sharen and Ken to visit Arles this afternoon and I did the blog in the car then had a nap while the other three did a bit of exploring. The trip there and back was very picturesque through many olive groves, market gardens and rugged stony canyons but the town seemed very tired. The troops were surprised to discover a Roman Amphitheatre in the process of refurbishment for the princely sum of 45 million Euros. Unbelievable.



Part of the Roman Amphitheatre with old and refurbished stonework visible - Arles

Bits and Bobs:

We are glad to have survived the ‘French Riviera road experience’ in one unscratched, scraped or dinged up piece. After reading much on the area this is apparently a rare occurrence and one we were grateful of. We certainly came across plenty of crazies, but the majority of people were patient and didn’t want to be scratched, scraped or dinged up either. Needless to say there were plenty of suicide jockeys around….particularly on motor scooters but we even managed to avoid them..…not to mention the fast reversing cars and vans up one way streets they weren’t allowed to enter. Kept us on our toes. Actually it has been weird to hear so few motor scooters in Avignon after the predominance of them everywhere to this point; they have obviously been the ‘daily commute’ for people from larger towns where more were obviously walking to and from work today in Avignon.