Author: Grubb

Only four spans remain of St. Benézet bridge built in the 12th century over the Rhône.  Considered a marvel in its time with twenty-two spans, it was a major pilgrimage route in the Middle Ages between Italy and Spain. Damaged by flooding over the centuries, the stone bridge became too expensive to maintain.  Now it juts into…

It was starting to rain when we left the abruptly curtailed medieval bridge after visiting the Palace of the Popes.  So we quickly angled down a couple of side streets and found the Angladon Museum Jacques-Doucet.  Taking up a couple floors of an old chateau, the museum has a collection of art that was acquired by Jacques-Doucet,…

For most of the 14th century the Catholic papacy took up residence in Avignon.  This all had to do with French king Philip IV getting in a deadly spat with Pope Boniface VIII.  While Rome was in bickering chaos, Philip was bent on centralizing the church.  The next seven popes made Avignon their base where Benedict VII built…

Château des Baux was a monument to carving a fortress out of granite.  Down the steps past the village and up the road was the former granite quarry.  Now it is an immense cavern with a sandy floor and large stone columns dedicated to themed light shows.   As we entered, the underground cathedral of light was immersively…

Today (Armistice Day in France, Veterans Day in US) was meant to be a get down medieval day.  Only to get down in the medieval way we had to climb up the some steep stony steps. These led to the large granite ruins of Chateau des Baux looming over the farmland in the valley below.   The…

I’ve come face-to-face with this Egyptian god of the underworld and protector of graves.  He has the body of a man with a canine head, so even from a distance he’s hard to miss.   I first ran into him while moiling through the Louvre.  I was trying to skirt the crowd and there he was right in…

How can one not love a penguin or a flamingo?  The penguin for waddling in a tux, the flamingo for its stately pose in pink finery.  It’s only fitting that we made our journey to the gathering of the flamingos in France.  Their upright stillness, the long graceful loop of their necks as they dip their beaks in…

The Saint-Trophime Catholic Church holds a prominent corner of the large square in the center of Arles that once was the Roman forum.  It was first constructed in the 12th century.   It was built in the Romanesque tradition as you can tell from the pillars fronting the entrance.  When it comes to medieval churches, I prefer Gothic…

This shot of colorful boat-shaped tables outside a seaside cafe in Menton had me recall tables we had come across near an outdoor museum kiosk a few days earlier.   The museum kiosk had, unbeknownst to me, a hierarchy of tables.  I thought we could sit down and have a cup of coffee, but was quickly informed…

I forgot to mention that in the midst of our Arles rain walk we took a brief tour of the cryptoporticus, a “semi-subterranean gallery whose vaulting supports portico structures aboveground” such as the forum which served as the Roman marketplace of the city. No one is quite sure went on down there during Roman rule,…

Arles, two-thousand years ago was an important Roman city.  It still has the ruins of a coliseum that used to be able to seat ten thousand people.  Up the cobbled street from where we’re staying, we paid it a mid-morning visit.   Now bullfights take place in the arena.  From what I’ve read they have a benign variation on…

Arles is known among art lovers as the place in Provence where Van Gogh spent a prolific 15 months in the late 1880s finishing over 200 paintings.  During this time his work became brighter as his attention became more focused on his surroundings.  Just look at “The Yellow House,” “Bedroom in Arles,” or “The Night Café.”  Arles is…

The Cimiez Monastery in Nice tops a hill above the park by the Matisse museum that has paths named after American jazz legends.   The original monastery was founded in the 13th century and has been rebuilt many times over the years. It was run by Franciscans most of whom were friars.  So instead of being cloistered…

Today’s trip along the coast took us to Menton on the border of Italy.  We wanted to get away from busy promenades and we succeeded.  Menton has all the attributes of a French Riviera town minus the crowd attractions of a famous casino, cathedral, or film festival. It does have the Jean Cocteau museum in a former…

When we took our #82 bus to the town of Eze high up in the hills on the coast overlooking the Mediterranean I thought today we’d be, well, at ease in Eze.  So the minute I stepped off the bus I plopped down at a nearby café and ordered cappuccino along with the rich pastry du…