France- Avignon

25-05-2011

Avignon, Avignon... Can't remember the rest of the words of the song but it had us skipping along the bridge.

An hour from Montpellier, spent a glorious day there. Walked along the oldest bridge , Pont Saint-Benezet. Initially had 22 arches, only 4-5 survive today. Contains 2 chapels, one for Saint Benezet, the man who had the vision of the bridge and initiated it's building. As it is across the Rhone river, I was surprised at how such a narrow river needed a 22 arched bridge . Later realized that an island in the middle gave it the illusion of being narrow.

Next stop the Pope's Palace or Palais des Papes. Some areas were under construction in preparation for the Avignon festival in July. There were a bunch of naked female mannequins , most likely for the theatre festival, looked very out of place under the stairs.The palace is large and spacious but quite plain with stark walls. Most palaces we have visited have been quite grand but not this one. As per the audio guide it was the furniture and the tapestries that brought the grandeur to the place. There was also a bit about one of the feasts there, could not believe the grocery list, everything was in thousands to tens of thousands , for example more than 13 thousand eggs.

Then did a walk on the other side of town. Walking across the modern bridge, the Rhone river was quite impressive. Strolled through a garden ( more like an unkept jungle), then a church, lost our way a little , back tracked to the chateau , then the scenic view from the castle and finally a pub for some much needed iced water, southern France is hot.

Spent a little time in the main squares of both Avignon and Montpellier, they have cafes and carousels in common, need to convince Jeevan to go for a ride.


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