A Journey Through Belle France

Day 7 - Chateauneuf du Pape & Avignon

Chateauneuf du Pape

Sur le pont d'Avignon

Today we left Vaison la Romaine and headed to Chateauneuf du Pape to see the ruins of the Pope's summer palace. Chateauneuf du Pape literally means "new castle of the pope", and was the summer retreat of the popes who resided in Avignon in the 1300s. The fist vines were planted here in the 1300s and today this little village is still producing wonderful wines. As you enter the town, you drive through the vineyard and then have to park at the bottom of a large hill and hike up to the ruins of the palace.

The town is very pretty with lots of shops to taste wine. As we hiked up to the palace Le Mistral was there to accompany us. When we reached the top, it felt like we were going to fly right off the hill the wind was so strong. Jack definitely looked like he was going to take flight.

Avignon

Avignon

Clockwise from top

(1) The town sign.

(2) The main wall of the palace (interior view)

(3) The main wall of the palace (exterior view)

(4) Jacque "Le Superman" Miller braving Le Mistral.

Once we were back on the bus, we headed toward Avignon. While on the road, Sabine taught us a little nursery rhyme about a famous bridge in Avignon, Le Pont Saint-Bénézet. The song, "Sur Le Pont D'Avignon", was written by an anonymous composer and is now famous all round the world. Below is a small sample of the song.

Sur le pont d'Avignon l'on y danse, l'on y danse. Sur le pont d'Avignon l'on y danse tous en rond. Les bell' dames font comm' çà et puis encore comm' çà.

Prior to entering Avignon, we went across the Rhone River to Villeneuve-lès-Avignon to see Phillipe de Bel's guard tower. This tower was built in 1307 to protect access to Le Pont Sainte-Bénézet, which use to span across the Rhone. Linda, Laura, and I decided to climb up to the top for a view of Avignon and the river. We had to climb 155 steps (yes, I counted) holding onto a rope hand rail to reach the top. Was it worth it? Definitely! Through the wind was so fierce at the top, we were concerned we would be blown into the river below. Fortunately, the tower is perfectly safe and the being up there gave us our first good look at Avignon.

View of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon from the tower

View of the Rhone from the tower.

Linda on top of the tower with Avignon behind her.

Yes, that's me in the fireplace. Don't ask!

Once we crossed back over the river, Francois drove us around the outside of Avignon so that we could get a good look at the massive wall that surrounds the city. Once we entered, we went straight to the hotel to get settled in before heading out on the town. When we arrived at the hotel I was immediately enchanted by the name Le Colbert because Claudette Colbert has been

one of my favorite actresses ever since I saw the 1934 version of Cleopatra. She was French, so it is possible that the hotel is actually named after her, which is very fun. However, once I walked inside I was even more enchanted by the cozy little breakfast room with its yellow and blue walls and the courtyard with its cute little waterfall.

When we arrived, the rooms were not ready yet, so we stored our luggage in the courtyard and prepared to go to lunch. We found out that the only bad thing about this hotel is that there is only one, little, tiny, guest bathroom. With 19 women on the tour, you can image how long the men had to wait before they

got their lunch.

Once we had all freshened up, Sabine lead us to Place de l'Horloge, which is a pedestrian square surrounded by cafes with a merry-go-round in the middle. This place was hopping, it seemed like every resident of the city was there. We all split up get a bite to eat before reconvening to go see the Pope's Palace. While sitting under a tree eating our after lunch ice cream with some of our travel buddies, we all noticed a large group gathering in the center of the square and a lot of police. It turned out to be a demonstration against President Bush who was in the country to commemorate D-Day. It was the most peaceful demonstration that I have ever seen. It looked more like a parade.

Not everyone, however, was interested in watching the protest. Sy and Harriet found another way to entertain themselves until it was time to depart the square. I think they definitely had the right idea.

Just a couple of kids on vacation.

Villeneuve-lès-Avignon

Entering Avignon

The Pope's Palace, Cathedral Notre-Dame des Doms, & Rocher-des-Doms

From Place de l'Horloge Sabine lead us to another square Place du Palais, where the Pope's Palace and the Cathedral Notre-Dame des Doms are located. We went inside the palace and met Elza our tour guide. I was shattered when she informed me that there was no photography in the inner rooms of the palace (thwarted once again), luckily there .

Entrance to the Palace.

Elsa starts the tour while the group takes it all in.

was a great gift shop. During the tour of the palace we saw the Grand Tinel (the banquet hall), the Pope's bedroom, the Studium (the stag room), the inner courtyard, and evidence of the military who once lived here after the pope left France. There are hardly any furnishings in the building, but there are some tapestries and it is not hard to image what it looked like in its glory days. There are also a few rooms with the original frescos still visible. These were the best rooms on the tour.

Left:

The Stag Room with a fresco of a hunting scene painted in 1343.

Though beautiful, the painting is a little odd to look at because it was painted before it was known how to paint three dimensional perspective.

Right:

The Grand Tinel, an astounding 4,050 sqft in size, it was the room the Pope used for entertaining. The tapestries are definitely worth a look.

Adjacent to the palace is Notre-Dame des Doms and its attached garden Rocher-des-Doms. After the palace tour we were on our own for the rest of the evening, so Linda and I headed to the garden for a look around.

I really enjoyed the garden for several reasons, there were lots of local families there (as has been the case in all the parks and

gardens we have visited). lots of beautiful statues, and a great view of the Pont Saint-Bénézet and the Rhone River.

We saw lots of young

children riding these fun little peddle toys. There was a circular path around a patch of lawn and they just zoomed around and around until there parents finally had to drag them away.

Pont Sainte-Bénézet and the Rhone River

A statue in the garden.

A young girl peddling through the park.

From the garden, we went to take a look inside the church, which was built in the 12th century. We only had a few moments to look around because suddenly people started flocking into the church for communion. We had no desire to interfere by walking around gawking at everything, so we left. Outside of the church we found Laura and since she doesn't have the best sense of direction we took her with us back to the hotel to check in. Once that was done, I have to say that we were all dog tired. We decided to pop into the nearby Shopi grocery store and buy some bread, cheese, and other goodies (I believe chocolate was also involved) and have a little indoor picnic in our hotel room. We spent the evening pigging out and watching the coverage of the D-Day celebration on the BBC. Not the most glamorous or exciting evening on the tour, but we needed a little down time to rest for our big adventure the following day.