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…
Popping in for a Cézanne
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,…
Simone at the Palace of the Popes
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…
Does the Pope know?
Post by Ella I’ll just say this about that. Rumbling through the Palais de Papes in Avignon today, there was a surprising art exhibition adding to the decor of the somber early 14th century rooms. This and then that. That and then this.
Only for two nights
Post by Ella Our apartment in Avignon has equaled our place in Nice. A spacious two bedroom, separate kitchen and living room, two full bathrooms. On Rue Victor Hugo no less. We’d arranged to meet host Adrien in front of the building (on Monday) to get the keys and get checked in. A few minutes…
Anubis at the light show
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…
Le Vintage
Post by Ella Avignon. An intimate French restaurant. Took awhile to find. Many fine dining establishments were closed for Armistice Day (Monday, Nov 11). Finally came upon Le Vintage while googling “restaurants near me” in an ever widening circle around our apartment. It was 5:00pm and we were hungry having been chugging along on only…
Château des Baux
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…
Forward ho
Post by Ella On to Avignon with a delightful stop in Les Baux-de-Provence to climb around the Chateau and then an immersive experience in an old cavernous granite quarry. The drive was lovely. It felt like Van Gogh’s world. How much more spectacular it would have been without asphalt roads and cars. And if only…
Arles photos
Random pictures from Arles