Avignon

I've finally managed a day trip into a more typical Provencal area. On Sunday, I went with Anne and the kids to visit Anne's grandmother in Avignon. The drive there was absolutely gorgeous. We arrived in an hour and ate lunch all together. Then we set off for Avignon city center.

I don't know if you've heard the song "Sur le Pont d'Avignon" but it's a really famous kids' song here. It's the equivalent of our "Yankee Doodle" or something similar. Well, the song is about dancing on the Avignon Bridge. So we went to see this bridge and maybe do a little dancing ourselves.

Sadly we discovered that there is no Pont d'Avignon. It is actually named Pont de St. Benezet. Also, the people of Avignon danced, not on the bridge, but under it. Thus the song should be entitled, Sous le Pont de St. Benezet. But despite the inaccuracies, the bridge was amazing and the view beautiful.

What I think is great is that it doesn't even connect anything. Half of the bridge washed away and now it just sticks out into the water with no purpose other than to make money for the tourist industry and get annoyingly catchy tunes stuck into peoples' heads with just a glance.

After that, the family dropped me off in town while they went off to see "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" which I later heard wasn't that great, it was just noisy. Glad I chose to do some touring on my own.

With urging from my mother, I had done a little research previous to going on this trip. I had discovered (or actually remembered because thanks to Milligan's Humanities, I had already studied this) that Avignon is the other city where Popes used to live when they didn't live in Rome. Therefore, they had built a palace there. An amazing, ginormous palace!

So I found it. It's called Palais des Papes and is one of the most important Gothic structures in Europe, according to Wikipedia. It was really magnificent. It has turrets and those waffle-looking towers and everything you imagine when you think really old castle. I took a tour of the inside with a handheld audio guide the size of a stone age cell phone. It took well over an hour. This place was huge and really well preserved. There were rooms painted with colorful murals and original treasure findings. You can see the unbelievable large banquet room and the ridiculously small kitchen. I was just amazed when I imagined who had actually walked those floors, sat on that stone bench built into the wall, or climbed the exact same staircase as me.

And the view from the top...wow! You could see all of Avignon, the cutest, quaintest little town ever. So typically Provencal and adorable.

Now I can't wait to go back. I definitely need more time to explore. I had just found the city center when it got dark and it was time for us all to leave.

Thanks to this trip, I'm feeling adventurous. It made me remember how many amazing opportunities are so close by. So tonight I'm driving myself to Aix-en-Provence to see a Baroque concert (providing I can actually find the city and a place to park). Honestly, I don't think I ever planned to drive myself any further than I've already gone but a chance came up and I'm going to take it. No more sitting around. There are adventures to be had!