Sur le Pont D'Ávignon

Tuesday 9th May

One of the challenges of travelling is to allocate the days to stay in a place and not have too much, or too little to do and see. So today we set off for Arles, but on the way we went to Avignon as we don't have time to stay in both places. It was a good call we decided at the end of the day.

There are two main features of Avignon and one is related to the well-known song 'Sur le Pont D'Avignon'.

We set off early after being farewelled by our AirBnB host Patrick with fresh croissants and a bottle of rose!
Avignon was only 30 kms away so we barely had time to admire the trees, hills and vines (yes still more of them!) before we were entering the old town. In our experience the phrase 'the old town' equates with 'there will be no parking and lots of narrow one way streets whilst you look for it'! And Avignon was no exception, as it is an old walled town definitely not built when cars were in existence, and how carts ever moved around I don't know! We decided to do the easy thing and go to a paid car park. Life is too short to be squeezing through lanes and alleyways you aren't familiar with, I can tell you.

The main attraction of Avignon which is set on the Rhone river, is the Palais des Papes (the Palace of the Popes). For nearly seventy years in the 14th Century nine popes lived in Avignon. Each of them added to the buildings so it is a fascinating mish mash of rooms and turrets and huge walls. Competition was tough to see what could be added I think! And it must have cost a fortune in those days. We enjoyed the audio guide and carefully followed the signs so we didn't get lost.

In some of the historical places we have visited there has been some very modern statues - some ghastly and some stunning - and this was no exception as you can see. I liked these, but the very first piece of sculpture we came across was a huge wire gorilla: not sure I could see the relevance of that!

The Palace has some absolutely stunning brightly-coloured frescoes in a tiny chapel, by Matteo Giovanetti. I particularly liked them because the characters seemed to be based on real people with appropriate facial expressions instead of the usual vague esoteric expressions in most religious paintings. There was a group of angels in blue welcoming a Saint to heaven, and the last one had a particularly grumpy expression on her face and her arms crossed. I looked for a postcard, as no photos were allowed, and found one, but her grumpy face had been cut out of the photo and the three smiling angels left in! Very funny!

The Cathedral was next door, with a golden Virgin Mary at the very top and a rather gruesome crucifixion statue out the front. I limit myself to one church per day whilst travelling, so I attempted to get in to have a look but it was closed . So sad.

The other not-to-be-missed attraction was, of course, the Pont D'Avignon so that we could sing and dance on it. Well....not really. It had been all but washed away by the raging Rhone River and during the 15th Century when there was prolonged periods of ice and cold. But it has been half built as it doesn't actually reach across the river. It does still contain the chapel to Saint Benezet who had a vision to build the bridge and the chapel, or so the story goes.

Then we headed for Arles where we will stay for a couple of nights.  In a nutshell we are here because this is where Vincent van Gogh lived and painted many of his most famous works. We went to the centre of the old town again - we are gluttons for punishment. We parked and had a coffee to work out where our next AirBnB apartment was....and it was one minute away so that was clever. A trip to the Tourist Office, to sort out what to see, has got us organised
Will have to finish this blog as the formatting is playing up: Blogspot is a nightmare sometimes  Part 2 to follow!!