Avignon, France 15.08

We woke up in Avignon after a long recovering sleep. We didn't do much in the morning, as we were trying to regain some energy. By lunchtime, we headed into town, and found a cute cafe for a meal.

It was a beautiful, sunny day, but it was also extremely windy. In fact, it was so windy that most of the umbrellas from the outdoor section of our cafe and the neighbouring ones, were completely blown over! We were very happy to have the chance to practice our French again. We were both feeling a bit rusty, but we enjoyed the experience, and were gradually getting better and more confident.

'Sur le Pont D'Avignon...'

After lunch, we started our sightseeing of Avignon. The first thing that we visited was the 'Pont Saint Benezet', or better known as the 'Pont d'Avignon'. The bridge is one of the most popular attractions in Avignon, so we had to wait a while to get in. We hired some audioguides, and headed out to see the bridge.

The bridge was built in 1185, but only 4 of its original 22 spans still remain. The rest were washed away by the strong current. The bridge was originally made of wood, but was later rebuilt with stronger materials. The bridge was desroyed in 1226, at the time of the Albigensian Crusades. It was rebuilt, but kept being damaged by floods. Eventually, it was abandoned in the 17th century.
There was a small chapel inside the bridge, which is dedicated to St Nicholas, the patron saint of bargemen. At one point, the bridge even became the subject of a nursery rhyme and song. 'Sur le Pont d'Avignon'. The song talks about dancing on the Pont d'Avignon, and this did happen at one time, when the bridge's interior was converted into restaurants.

Musee du Petit Palais
After visiting the bridge, we decided to see the 'Musee du Petit Palais'. There was no audioguide here, so we had to rely on our French reading skills. Thankfully, there was more to see here than to read, so we didn't have to try too hard.

There were quite a few paintings here by famous artists. One of its main focuses was religious art, which isn't our favourite kind, but we enjoyed it anyway. There were famous paintings by Botticelli, Carpaccio, and Giovanni di Paolo.

We found some funny looking pictures among the religious paintings. Some of the artists really put some strange faces on the baby Jesus, and at other times he was painted with a six-pack! Very weird! We had a good laugh, not blasphemous, just at the painter's expense.

Does anyone else find this picture creepy?

One of the people working at the museum obviously loved his work, and loved talking to people. He grabbed people as they entered his section of the museum, and started asking them all about themselves, and telling them all about the paintings there. We struggled to understand him at times, but he was trying to show us things that he liked or found strange about each painting. He showed us where to stand, so that it looked like the figures in the paintings were looking at us.

It was really nice that he made such an effort, but Loren found that she didn't actually see many of the paintings properly, she was too busy listening to him and being taken quickly around to different paintings. We were grateful, but relieved when he jumped on the next couple to enter the room.

Palais du Papes (Pope's Palace)

Next we went to see the Palais des Papas. It was a really impressive building, and it stood in the middle of a huge square. The square had amazing old buildings on all sides and was worth staring at for a long time, just to absorb it all.
The Palace was built in the 14th century as a fortified palace for the Papal court, and became a home to the Sovereign Pontiffs.
It's now actually the largest gothic palace in the world. It was undoubtedly huge, but incredibly empty and undecorated inside, and it seemed more like a castle than a palace. There were 25 rooms to visit out of the whole place, including ceremonial rooms, chapels, cloister and private papal appartments filled with frescoes.
The papal appartments were more interesting than the other rooms, and the frescoes on the walls were faded but worth seeing. The rest of the rooms were bare and the only interesting thing about them was the audio guide commentary.
After we finished our tour, we made it to the terrace of the Palace. It was really high, and so we could see a long way over the city. The enormous square below was amazing to see from up there as well.

Old Town in the Evening

Our last stop before we left the Palace, was the little wine shop boutique. They had a great range of wine, like 'Cote du Rhone', which means, 'beside the Rhone river'. We decided to buy a bottle of the wine, as we were presently beside the Rhone river,
Outside the exit of the Palace, we saw a young group performing old French folk songs. Usually we would run away from this kind of music, but it felt right hearing it here, and we quite enjoyed it.
Then we wandered down through the streets of Avignon. It was such a picturesque town, and it was all surrounded by huge stone walls. As we walked, we came across an old carousel, in the middle of a square. It was brightly colourful and sparkly, with a couple of kids riding around happily. It really felt like we were in France now!
We picked up a fresh baguette, and some ham and cheese to go with our wine. We headed back across the bridge, just as the sun was setting. We could see the Pont d'Avignon and the old city from our bridge. It was just spectacular.
To see the photos from the post in slideshow mode, click on on the link below:
Avignon pictures