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FRANCE 2012
Day13, Saturday, September 15
AVIGNON
We had planned on going to Arles today, but we decided after we got up
that we needed sort of a down day, and we hadn’t seen all of the
wonderful sites in Avignon, and today was our last day. So it was after
9:00 before we had breakfast.
The cathedral is located high next to the Palace of Popes. It sits up
high near the top of the Palace. We climbed more steps. The cathedral
was first built in a pure Provencial Romanesque style in the 12th
century, but was soon dwarfed by the Palace of Popes that rose beside
it. An attempt to remedy this was made in the 14th century with the
addition of a cupola, which promptly collapsed. It was rebuilt in 1425
and it is Byzantine like marvelous stacked arches. Baroque galleries
were added in the 17th century and crowning the top of the cathedral is
a huge gilded Virgin Mary lantern from the 19th century, whose glow can
be seen for miles around.
Inside, the cathedral contains Flamboyant Gothic
tombs of some of the
Avignon Popes. Like most of Avignon churches, the cathedral was sacked
during the revolution. It had a wonderful interior, mostly Romanesque
with a square tower in the crossing and a number of chapels.
When we came out we discovered a wide pathway to the left of the
cathedral- it is called the Promenade du Rocher–des–Doms. We followed
it up the hill to a large square area with magnificent views of the
surrounding area.
We were very high with a wonderful view of the Pont
d’Avignon.
Across the river was some kind of festival on a little
island across the river which had a camp ground. There were water
skiing events and music.
We decided to take the little train ride around the city but we
were hungry so we ate in a very nice café – Restaurant Le Lutrin in the
Hotel du Palais des Papes. We both ordered omelets which were delicious
and met our hunger needs for the moment-with a small bottle of wine, of
course!
We walked back up to the Palace and got the little train – it had a
small engine with rubber wheels and five open coaches. The trip lasted
40 minutes. It saved a lot of walking in and we saw a lot of
interesting buildings, which we might otherwise have missed We learned
when we got back from our train ride that the “little palace” which is
now an art museum was open to the public today for free. This museum
exhibits paintings from the Italian school of the 13 to the 16th
century, with works from Florence, Venice, Siena, and Lombardy. Salons
displayed 15th-century paintings done in Avignon in several galleries
contain Roman and Gothic sculptures. This was a very enjoyable
experience and we particularly enjoyed seeing a Botticelli.
There were huge crowds in town today celebrating a festival weekend.
Then we walked back through the large
square. In the square is the
Hotel deVille (city hall). A wedding party came out – bride in a white
gown.
Outside the city hall in the square is a large merry-go-round.
The bride and groom and the wedding party got on and the guest stood
around it cheering them as they went by. A few minutes larger another
wedding party came out of the city hall and headed to the merry go
round. Seems like it’s a tradition, get married at City Hall, then ride
the merry- go-round!
We walked a few blocks and looked at stores.
We didn’t have dinner reservations for tonight so we went around the
square looking a menus and restaurants. In France almost all of the
restaurants have large outdoor seating areas. Some are glassed in to
protect diners from the weather. One of the problems in the outside
eating area is that smoking is allowed – and we have discovered that
many Europeans love to smoke in public. Inside the restaurant, smoking
is not allowed, and no one smokes.
We found a restaurant, Lou Mistral, which had a good menu (all
the restaurants post their menus outside) and an attractive inside
dining room. We ate rather light tonight and service is very good.
Kathleen had duck and I had salmon. Both were delicious. I had
tiramisu and Kathleen had a lemon tart.
We were finished before 9:00 and came back to the hotel. We have had
four nights here in Avignon and have really enjoyed this town. The
population of Avignon is 92,000. In the morning we head for Marseille
for 3 nights. Marseille is the second largest city in France with a
population over 1.5 million.
