Today's adventure is to check out the Papal Palace in Avignon. The famous French song "Sur le pont d'Avignon, l'on y danse, l'on y danse" is invariably associated with Avignon. Of greater surprise to us was how windy it is in Avignon. The wind was blowing a steady 20 miles per hour today and that's apparently normal for this city. Apparently, the Mistral winds, so devastating in the winter, blow 120-160 days per year, so if you're coming to visit us, bring a windbreaker. The sun is warm, the wind is cool. The Rhone River, which you can see behind Janis apparently channels this wind from north to south along the Rhone River. The closer to the river, the stronger the winds.
Our trip into Avignon had a GPS hiccup, but once sorted out, we drove directly to a parking ramp under the Papal Palace. It was a bit tricky to get out of the ramp on the scooter via a stroller exit, but once we figured it out, that worked fine.
The palace is not handicapped accessible, so we checked the folded up scooter and I walked the steps to tour the palace. It was worth every step.
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| The Papal Palace |
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| "Cour d'Honneur" - the inner courtyard |
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Janis and Clark looking down on the inner courtyard
Clark says: "No we aren't we're gazing into each
other's eyes." |
The Palace is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is the largest medieval fortress and the biggest gothic palace in Europe. The Avignon Papacy is a little confusing and a lot political. (Some things never change.) From 1307-1376, seven French popes chose to reside in Avignon rather than Rome. It was a time when the Papacy was in conflict with the Holy Roman Empire and the French kings over who leads Christians in secular things. Concern about the intrigues and influence of Italian families in the election conclaves made the Papacy more comfortable with the move to Avignon. And then there were the machinations of the French king who was also using his influence to elect French popes.
There are actually 2 palaces. The first, the Palais Vieux, built in 20 years starting in 1335 by Pope Benedict XII (1334-1342), is more austere than the new palace (Palais Neuf) built by Clement VI (1342-1352) who was rather showy. Prior popes had to use the former bishop's palace which was torn down in building the papal palace. Some excavations in the Cour d'Honneur (courtyard) show some of its outline.
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| Nancy on the parapet of one of the towers |
The popes returned to Rome in 1377 in order to maintain relations with Rome, remain true to their seat as descendants of St. Peter, and with hopes to heal the rift between Orthodox and western Catholicism. When an Italian pope was elected, it didn't sit well with the French cardinals, who elected their own pope. For the next 45 years, there were two popes - one in Rome and one in Avignon. This schism was finally ended in 1423 with power returning to Rome.
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| The Grand Audience room sits directly under the Grand Chapel. |
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| fragments of tomb of Cardinal Albernoz |
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| The portal of the Great Chapel - walled over in military days, uncovered in 20th century. All the heads of the figures were chopped off in French Revolution, as they were thought to be nobility |
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| The indulgence window. From here, the newly elected pope would forgive the sins of the penitents below |
Avignon, owned by the papacy, remained a papal territory for the next 350 years. It was sacked during the French Revolution and used as military barracks for Napoleon's army. It was finally vacated in 1906, pretty much in ruins. But, at least it was never completely destroyed and occasionally rooms, which had been covered by military whitewash, preserved parts of frescoes and ceiling paint. Restoration is a continual process.
Many sites have audio guides, but the Papal Palace was beyond audio. We received a headset and iPad type screen that had multiple features (called a Histopad). The first was a map showing a path, rooms visited and your next location. Slick. But wait. It gets better.
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| Janis, Dave, and Clark with their Histopads |
The palace is mostly plain limestone walls with occasional features like a fireplace or a piece of furniture. It's hard to imagine how the rooms were used. But this Histopad allowed us to go back in time and see the room as it would have looked in 1335. To do this, we held the pad over a particular "Time Portal" block in the room and suddenly, when we pointed the screen in any direction, we saw the room furnished, heard an explanation, clicked on icons on the screen for more information. It was powerfully interesting which also meant it took us over 3 hours to go through the rooms. What a fantastic way to bring the history of the Palace to life.
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| we held our Histopad over this Time Portal to be transported to the 14th century |
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| The room was described, and we could see what it looked like in the 14th century |
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| The room on the Histopad, with audio explanation |
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| the room as it currently looks |
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| The Great Chapel as it looks today |
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| The Great Chapel in the 14th Century |
We were also fortunate that we went in the morning. We didn't expect big crowds on a Friday in April, but I had forgotten that this is prime time for school groups to visit. There were lots in the afternoon. So for us, the rooms were sparsely filled with visitors, but when we left, there were lines out the door waiting to come in. Whew.
We ate lunch on a stone retaining wall alongside the Palace walls. Sunny, slightly protected from the wind, overlooking the Palace square.
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| lunch at le Palais des Papes - Avignon |
After lunch, we poked our heads into the cathedral.
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| Statue of Mary atop the cathedral (pole in back is a lightning rod) |
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| Painted dome of the cathedral |
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| Cathédrale Notre-Dame des Doms |
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| a side altar in the cathedral |
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| stained glass in cathedral |
Then went up to the pleasure garden.
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| The garden, Rocher des Doms, is located on top of this rocky outcropping |
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| grotto in the garden |
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| roses in bloom on the south-wall of the garden |
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| The whole crew: Nancy, Dave and I, Janis & Clark. Taken by a very friendly lady in a red scarf |
Later in our walk around the garden, we saw a statue of a man who introduced the culture of "la garance" and I didn't know what it was. We saw the friendly lady in red scarf again and I asked her if she knew what it was. She thought it was some kind of plant. But the young lady below with the long hair was a virtual dictionary and explained (talking as fast as Katie does) la garance was indeed a plant the roots of which could be made into a red dye that was used for military uniforms up to WWI. It is no longer grown as a crop.
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| Lynn asking about "la garance" |
This lovely lady and I had a lively conversation as she was curious about where we came from. When she learned we were from the states, she thanked us multiple times for speaking French with her. Clark added his French vocabulary: "vin rouge" and that prompted questions about wine tasting. (You know the answer to that already.)
This lovely spot above the palace and the church, gave us great views over the Rhone River, the St. Benezet Bridge, and the Palace.
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| View of Rhone - taken same place as Janis of the wild blowing hair |
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| Pont St. Bénezet - the "sur le pont" bridge goes only half way across the Rhone now |
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| pony peddle carts |
In this pleasure garden is a playground, rental pedal cars, and rental pony pedal carts, potential grandchildren outings in May. As well, the Avignon visitor train comes through the garden and has a stop at the top. A café, and plenty of places to sit and enjoy the day are available. This 2-star garden is certainly worth the visit.
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| The tourist train (looks like it has headsets to hear commentary) |
Walking down the hill toward the bridge, we came across these plaques. The large one is a list of Jews of the region who were deported to concentration camps in WWII. Children's ages are written after their names. The + after a name means they survived the death camp. Not many did. A sad reminder of our cruelty to those who are different from us.
Next was the plaque you see below: translation: "The French Republic in homage to the victims of racist and antisemitic persecution and crimes against humanity committed under the authority of the so-called 'Government of the State of France' (1940-1944) never forget"
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| view walking down to the Place du Palais on our way to the St. Bénezet bridge. |
We ended the day with a walk down to the St. Bénezet Bridge. This bridge of rather checkered history still crosses half the Rhone River, the other half having been washed away multiple times by floods. The story goes that a shepherd, Bénezet had a vision that he should go to Avignon to build this bridge across the Rhone. There are all kinds of stories and traditions around the building of the bridge - mostly folklore. The bridge was eventually built, but only partly out of stone and cement. And the river at flood stage frequently washed out sections of the bridge which were replaced with wooden ramps. Besides, the bridge was too narrow for real commerce - a wagon couldn't cross and it would be crowded with pedestrian traffic. But it makes a good story.....
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| chapel on the St. Bénezet bridge |
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| The gate house: a drawbridge could be pulled up to close off entrance to the city |
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| looking back from the end of the bridge |
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