Around Avignon

Old, old, old - its everywhere here, from the walls - almost complete, to the Pope’s Palace.  Thirteen popes lived here after leaving Rome due to the instability and violence after the Great Schism.  They certainly brought their money with them - there are palaces and churches everywhere. 

Villeneuve Lez Avignon

The bridge was apparently a money pit, despite tolls being paid, because the floods damaged it each year and the rebuilding costs were huge. We saw a reconstruction of the 14c structure, 22 arches and nearly 1km long but by the 17c it was damaged beyond repair and today only 4 arches remain - those of the famous song. The original words were sous (under) the the bridge but changed over the centuries to sur (on) the bridge - as Carole ably demonstrated by singing the song on the last arch of the bridge.(its on Facebook!)

I apologise!

We’ve been out on the bikes a lot - there is a large river island opposite Avignon and we’ve cycled the 20km around it and then over the road bridge over the main Rhone channel to find that the “new” town near Avignon - Villeneuve Lez Avignon - built in the 15c is quieter and just as pretty and quaint as its older sister.   It has its own monastery, fort and the tower at the entrance to the town was the far end of the bridge. 

We just caught the last performance of a sound and light show held inside the main courtyard of the Palais de Papes - the french love these “spectacles” and are really good at them.

The light show in the Palais de Papes.

The Halte Fluvial here is slightly odd - fab location, just below the main rocky outcrop of the town but its separated from the town by a very busy and noisy road. It also has very low electricity amperage for the boats meaning that we have to switch the hot water heater off before we can put the kettle on and everything off before the toaster is switched on, otherwise its a trip to the circuit board on shore to reset the breaker switch - that said at €84 for a week so we can’t complain too much - cross the road and you’re straight into the medieval city.

Our Halte fluvial - not pretty but 1min walk to the centre 

Off to the med tomorrow;

 A long day and touch and go that we’ll make it before the lock in the Canal de St Louis - the entrance to the Med - closes.  You can’t take the Rhone all the way to the Med as it spreads out into a wide shallow delta so we have to take a short canal into a port area to where our mast is waiting.


Carole's Interesting Facts:

No. 18.  'Lez" in old french means 'near to'.

No. 19.  Avignon bridge was so narrow that people often had trouble walking past each other in places.