Avignon - Saturday 19 August

At 4am this morning, we set sail for Avignon, bumping our way through a lock at 5:45am and waking the whole ship. Breakfast was quickly eaten at 7pm, so that we could all be up on deck to get good views and photos of the famous 'pont', from the nursery rhymes. Its real name is Pont St Benezet, and its location and construction were inspired by a shepherd's religious vision. The bridge was built between 1171 and 1185 and was one of only three bridges, strategically crossing the Rhone River in the Middle Ages. It has been damaged many times by floods, and only half of the bridge now remains because of this.

Before 9am we were all ready to head off into Avignon on separate tours. I went with the 'gentle' walking group, which was the only group not to go into the Palace of the Popes, viewing it only from outside - apparently lots of tricky stairs within which are to be avoided, so David went off with my camera to visit that without me.

Our guide took us on a 1.5 hour walking tour through the streets of Avignon, passing through the Place de l'Horloge (originally a Roman forum), where we saw the City Hall.

Palace Square is a grand square, facing the imposing Palace of the Popes, and the adjacent cathedral. There has been a lot of history here, from the days in the 1300s when the entire base of the Roman Catholic Church was moved to Avignon because it was deemed to be safer there. The Church bought Avignon and took it over, but then there was a massive split and there were two popes fighting it out as to who was the true pope. Establishing itself in Avignon involved building about 8km of protective walls with 39 towers. The 12th century cathedral pre-dates the Church's purchase, and the gilded Mary on top was only added in 1854. On our walk we also passed St Agricol and went into St Pierre.






David enjoyed his visit of the inside of the Palais Des Papes and the great views. Apparently the rooms are fairly empty, but are used for art exhibitions. There are lots of stairs within the building. There is a banquet hall that used to cater for 1000 people, and they would be served big meat dishes, but no vegetables. Knives were banned because of the danger they presented to the Pope.

We met back for lunch on the boat, and then we went our separate ways again for the afternoon, with David heading off with Mark on the Chateaux-du-Pape wine tour for a scenic drive, walk through a village, followed by wine-tasting.



The rest of our group took the 30 minute busied to the amazing Pont-du-Gard - an incredible Roman aqueduct. This impressively preserved aqueduct was built around 60 AD, and spans a canyon over the River Gardon. It is reputably one of the most remarkable Roman ruins surviving anywhere. It is mostly underground over its 70 km length, falling 12m over that distance. It supplied water to the town of Nîmes. The site an an excellent museum complex, and then the walk to the aqueduct itself.



Back at the boat, dinner this evening was a special booking at the Chef's table in the stern of the boat for a five-course degustation menu. Very enjoyable!  Photos are currently on Facebook, and are especially for Alison.