Amy and I started our day at 4:45am (gasp). We took the bus to the train station and got on a very nice TGV (high speed train) en route to Avignon. The only other people on the train were business folk so it was nice and quiet for a little nap. We arrived in Avignon at 7:45am and then had a pleasant (and by pleasant I mean frigid and windy) jaunt on the side of a highway towards the city center of Avignon (note to self, take a taxi next time).
We made it to the St. Roch hotel, which was our original pick up destination for our tour of Provence (we were told to choose a hotel to be picked up from). The day before we found out that our half day trip would be starting at 1pm rather than 9am, so we wanted to make sure we knew where the hotel was for later. We also went inside to steal a map and warm up. We were soon questioned about why we were sitting in the hotel’s lobby and asked if we had any affiliation with the hotel. We responded that we were meeting friends which was met with the question, “Which friends, who?” We said, “Our friends, they will be outside soon. It’s just cold outside.” The guy shrugged and walked away. But we decided we should probably find another spot to warm up and study the map.
We headed towards the Office du Tourisme where we were given a much nicer map and a discount pass for the local attractions. We made our way, with me struggling on the cobblestones in my new boots, towards the Pope’s Palace or the Palais des Papes. On the way there, we stopped for a formule tonique at McDonalds, which includes a boisson chaud (we had cappuccino), orange juice, and a trio of pastries. While we sat to warm up I had to figure out how to respond to a phone call about the electrician coming to do work on my apartment next week. That was annoying. More later on that subject.
We finally got to the Palais des Papes where we bought our tickets from a man who sang “Money, Money, Money” by ABBA when asking for our money. The French are strange like this... they seem to be able to relate every situation in English to a song. Anyway, a little background for you, at one point the Catholic Church had two Popes, during the Great Schism, one in Rome and one in Avignon. This was back in the 1300s. A good part of the palace was built in a mere 20 years. Our self-guided audio -tour took us through about 25 massive rooms in the palace. Most of them were not very ornate but were very impressive in size.
Once we had had our fill of stone steps and drafty rooms, we headed towards the famous pont d’Avignon. Only half of the bridge still exists, but it is most famous because of the French children’s song of the same name. It was built in the late 1100’s… so I guess it is allowed to have fallen apart a bit… We enjoyed the bridge, for the most part. It had quite a sharply cobbled surface, which was kind of murdering my already tired feet. It was also crazy windy up there… on our tour we learned that Avignon is especially windy due to the mistral winds which come from Morocco and over the Mediterranean.
After switching shoes (I have a very nice friend), we booked it back to the office of tourism, where we asked to be picked up. The 9 passenger van pulled up and was already packed with people. The others had been on the morning tour and were continuing on for the afternoon tour as well. Our guide was a funny French woman in about her mid-30’s. She said “up, up” often, as I’m finding many French do… kind of like a sound they make when they want to fill the silence while they are putting on their seat belt or something…. Hard to explain, I’ll have to reflect on a translatable American sound we make…
Anyway, she drove us to Orange, an ancient Roman city, which has nothing to do with oranges of the color orange. It is a name derived from something in latin. Orange is home to a pretty neat triple arch de triomphe (one of the best preserved in Europe) and a huge Roman amphitheater. Unlike the ones in Lyon, the amphitheater wall still stands. Amazingly, this theater is one of the most well preserved theaters in all of Europe (1 of 3). It played a major role in the original Roman town, the center of entertainment, but after Christianity became the official religion, it was shut down and abandoned, pillaged by barbarians. In the 16th century, it was turned into a village of sorts with houses built into it. It was a prison up until the French Revolution and in the 19th century, it was finally restored back to its original use. Several grand opera shows are put on each year.
After the theater, which we walked through in much less than the allotted hour we were given, we walked around the cute little provincial town, stopping in a few shops. We also went into the town museum, which had an exhibit of roman theater pictures from around the world. When it was time, we got back into the tour bus and headed towards the town called Chateauneuf-du-Pape, which is also a famous type of very expensive wine. To be a Chateauneuf-du-Pape wine, the wineries must use only a certain few types of grapes and grape combinations, the grapes must be hand-picked (no machinery), and the grapes must only receive natural rain/sun… creating a different taste from year to year. The wine is mostly red, with some white, no rose. The only wine that is imported to the US is the red because there isn’t enough white to send over…
There are over 300 vineyards in this town; we were taken to one called Skalli. The Skalli family has owned this vineyard for a ridiculously long period of time… and we were given a wine lesson/tasting by one of the family members. He taught us which types of grapes they used, which regions had the best type of Cote du Rhone (Chateauneuf-du-Pape is the top of the line version of the Cote du Rhone variety… the 2 euro bottles Maggie, Thomas, and Heather and I bought were bottom of the line), and how to taste the wine. To taste the wine, you do a lot of swirling and swishing…sifting and smelling, putting your nose in the glass several different ways. He said we were supposed to smell different fruit, etc…. I just nodded and went along with it. Perhaps I am not quite as cultured as the others, but I never really smelled strawberries or citrus. I smelled spicy, winey, and fruity. Done and done.
After our wine tasting, we hopped back in the bus, and asked our driver to take us back to the train station. She was sort of like, all the way over there??? But, she really didn’t mind. Plus, we got to talk to her more about the city of Avignon and asked her questions about Strasbourg. She told us that the wall surrounding the city of Avignon has something like 39 tours and 9 entrances (it’s been a few days, I may be making these numbers up). In any event, the wall was built for added protection for the papal palace.
We had about an hour to kill before catching our train, but we didn’t mind… starting your day at 4:45am makes 5:00pm seem like 11pm. We were ready for bed!
Well that’s the post you’ve all been waiting for (I’m sure hehe).
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