Avignon

August 24 & 26, 2015

I was based in Avignon during my stay in Provence, as I mentioned earlier.  It's a substantial town and doesn't have the charm of St Remy, but I enjoyed my stay there.

Here is some art work from the stairwell of my hotel:

There was art work all over the hotel, in fact, but most of it was edgier than this.  Some of it was a lot edgier (posters from A Clockwork Orange and Apocalypse now, for example).  I preferred the kitty-cat variety above.

I was in the walled historic (read: interesting) part of the city.  The walls are in good shape, in general; I believe a lot of restoration has been done.

The city is situated on the Rhone; I took this shot of the river from a not-famous bridge.  

Here is the bridge that has been immortalized in song (sur le pont d'Avignon...) (actually called the St Benezet bridge).  Only 4 arches remain of the original 22 (it originally continued some distance past the river).  Behind it on the far right is the Palais des Papes (Palace of Popes), and on the left is a nice park, le Jardin du Rocher des Doms.

I climbed up to the park on my first evening in town and took this photo of Fort St Andres, across the river, to the north.  It was built around 1360 by the French "to counter the papal incursion", according to Rick Steves' travel guide.  The Catholic church had basically bought the town, and several popes in succession lived at the Palais des Papes.

Here is another view of the Rhone, taken from the Jardin du Rocher des Doms.  The whitish cap on the mountain in the distance is (again per Rick Steves) not snow but limestone.

Another viewpoint in the Jardin looked out over Avignon rooftops:

Here's some fun stuff for the kiddies in the Jardin:

And a nice carousel!  This is down below in the main town square, not far from the Palais des Papes.

Here is some of the entertainment, so to speak, that I saw in the large plaza in front of the Palais des Papes. The two stayed in this position for quite a long time.  It looked very convincing, but I remained skeptical (as usual).  The "act" opened and closed with both of them covered by a large black cloth, so....

I did go out onto the "Pont d'Avignon"; you have to pay to do so, but not too much.  So here is the view back towards the town:

I even took a selfie (which looks back towards the river).
.

I do not like taking selfies, but that isn't the worst selfie ever.  THIS is the worst selfie ever:

I wasn't committed at that point, and yeah, it was pretty windy.  My first instinct, of course, was to delete it, and I never thought I would post it here... but it cracks me up.  So there you have it.

Next came the tour of the Palais des Papes.  I had the audioguide with me, but it didn't explain this little donkey.  He has some carpentry tools with him, so my guess is that he is a Christ symbol.

I don't remember what room this was, but I like these photos!

This was the dining hall.  Yes, many of the rooms were enormous. The wood ceiling is impressive, though it was built only recently, during the 1990's, I think.

Interesting effects though these stained glass windows:

Here are a couple of exterior shots:

 For some reason I never took a picture of the exterior from the front, so here is one from Wikipedia.  The guide book calls it "the largest surviving Gothic palace in Europe".

The tour ends at the back of the Palais, and this is where the "Back streets of Avignon" tour from (again) Rick Steve's guide book begins.  These are some rocky roads!:

The tour continued onto more normal, but still interesting streets.  I stopped and had a yummy meat pie along the way, and then came to the colorful Rue des Teinturiers (street of the dyers; the area used to be a textile producing center).  It had a little canal running alongside it, and an old water wheel (not pictured):

And many of the barriers placed to keep cars out of the pedestrian area had been carved in interesting ways (including a lion!):

So that's Avignon!  The next day I took the train to Arles, which will be the subject of my next post.