Avignon, France. We arrived here a week ago last Sunday. After driving from Carterette to Montpelier, splashing our feet in the Mediterranean sea we turned North East for the walled city of the Pope. During troubled times in Rome the Papacy was moved here ~ 1300AD. A large cathedral and Palace were built and for nearly sixty years the Church looked to Avignon for leadership. Over time the city was encircled by stone walls and a large bridge was built over the Rhone.
It was these walls that gave us quite a time on arrival. We had a rough idea where our hotel was, "somewhere in Avignon" but not an address. The walls create a real parking problem as there is limited space within the small city. Jean made our day when she asked inside the art museum and they gave her a map and our hotels location. Our Hotel was nice and just off the main street. We were within close walking distance to shops and restaurants. I parked on the street that night and we schlepped out bags up to the Hotel D"Angelterre. Jean had a meeting the next morning with her fellow NRC people. Before her meeting we went out walking and purchased sandwiches and coffee for breakfast at a little shop. Then we strolled up the Rue de Republique to the square near the Palace and ate our breakfast on the steps of the Elephant. The Palace is what you see in the background. Jeans co-worker Wendy stopped by and chatted with us while waiting for the museum to open. Jean went to her meetings while I went back to the room to inspect the inside of my eyelids. After a complete inspection and a trip to the shops jean got back and we went out for dinner. It was early so we walked through the streets. There were quite a few people out at the various shops and bars. We went down noisy streets. Once I looked up to see a young woman sitting precariously on a window ledge watching the passersby. We passed dark alleys and decided to head back toward the more populated streets as it was quite dark and even this City had questionable neighborhoods these days. The following day arrive very early. Jean heading to a site nearby for a tour of the reprocessing of nuclear fuel and I a walk of the perimeter of Avignon. We shared a breakfast in the hotel lobby and then divided to conquer our days. I headed out the small gate in the wall nearest our hotel.

The wall that surround the city has many such portals. Some are just for pedestrians and others are for cars and trucks. There is even a place where the wall has been removed and there is a large opening. Likely to accommodate large trucks. Each of the opening on the river side is equipped with flood controls. Grooves set into the stone allow for boards to be inserted to block flood waters. This is a great example of 13th century castle/fort construction. Complete with moats, draw bridges. Lookout towers and slit windows to rain havoc down on your enemy with arrows. Each entrance has crenelated walls like those here in the photo. What you cant see is that between the braces are holes that would allow someone to drop a rock or shoot down from a protected position on high. I don't know if any armies ever laid sieg to the city but if they did I feel sorry for the first warriors that arrived under this gate. I proceeded across the street to the river where I has seen several large boats tied up the day we arrived. The Rhone is very wide here. The color of dirty emeralds it carries a swift smooth current of water southward to the Med. The boats I came across were cruise boats that plied the rivers of France with cushy amenities. They had stopped in Avignon to allow their passengers to tour the city. Most of the ships passengers were well in their late seventies and early eighties. I was greeted by the occasional Bonjour as I walked past. They moved with enthusiasm but at a greatly reduced pace.

There was a statue of a woman I had seen from the road that I wanted a better look at. It was a rather large affair with much writing at the base. As I walked back over the roadway I was reminded that cars have the right of way here not people and I had to make a quick dash to get back over to the other side. As a friend of mine is fond of saying. "Yous pays your money and yous takes yous chances". I had meant to take a close look at the statue but never made it so I will include a photo here of the mystery statue for some intrepid reader to solve the mystery.

I was distracted by the bridge to nowhere. It would appear that Sarah Palin was not the first govern er to have this idea. The city had at one time constructed a stone bridge across the Rhone with large arches and towers. Today all that stands is the portion near the city. Complete with draw bridge and iron gates the bridge is part of a museum. I walked the outer walls looking for a way up onto the bridge but there was none on the outside. It seems the original design was working well to keep the unknown travellers out. There was an entrance within the city but it was early morning and they were not open as yet. I was later told that after a particularly cold winter a spring flood had washed the original bridge away. It had been repaired as a matter of course but the subsequent repaired structure had been washed away by an even stronger flood. It raises the question of how do you tell people the bridge is out and we will need to up your taxes to pay for another one. Somethings stay the same.

I spent the entire morning walking. Passing in and out of the city walls I came across many interesting places. There was a little chapel that looked as old as the city or perhaps older. The stone work worn with the erosion of time. There were shops of every description and traffic coming into the city ebbed and flowed like the tides. Inward as people went to jobs and outward as they went to lunch. On the North end of the city i came across a very peculiar wall. There were hundreds of niches in it. Many of they held curious objects like this stone face. Some had dolls. Some had broken pieces of pottery with colorful glazes and messages written in marker. Some had letters or Tibetan prayer flags. It was the crossroads of early message boardism. An obscure place with even more obscure meaning. I tried to take pictures of the niches and their symbolic occupants but the sun now high above the wall cast it in sharp light making it hard to see the objects. After taking several so so pics I walked down a narrow path to return to the square and the Palace where I would find the way up to the top of the hill and the gardens of the Abbey. Friends had mentioned that you could have dinner up there and I was determined to see these gardens before we left. I almost missed the entrance. As you walk up the winding ramp to the Cathedral you pass a statue of Jesus on the cross looking West. I stopped to admire the work and look out over the city. The view of the city with the river in the background is spectacular. I noticed a group of German tourists going through a gate to my right and followed their tour up the path. The cathedral is undergoing major stone renovation. The entire exterior is encased in scaffolding. The statue of Mary gleams atop the church in the morning sun. The winds are light out of the east and it is a perfect day for sightseeing. We pass a cemetary on the way and I attempt to get a picture of the rose garden outside. But, a man stopped right in front of me and stood there looking at me as I sighted up my shot. I waited. He waited. I waited some more. He looked about as if killing time. I walked up the hill and he put himself between me and what I was trying to shoot a second and third time. I finally put my camera away. Yawned loudly and waited for him to leave. He did hang around for several more minutes before finding another person trying to take pictures and scurried off to get himself in that photographers view. Meanwhile I high tailed it back to the rose garden and got my shot before he could return. This is one of the pictures I took from the top of the gardens overlooking a castle on a hill several miles away. Below is the Rhone river. After three and a half hours I am proud to say I completed my circumnavigation of the city and walk up to the garden. Avignon is a great place to visit and I would recommend it highly to anyone interested in history and European culture. Jean and I had a great time wondering the streets here. We found the food to be good and outside of the hotels very reasonable in price. But I have always enjoyed doing what the locals do and spending as much time as possible people watching. Bonjour!