Has the Pope got a balcony?
Monday 2nd October 2017 - Uzes.
Our first sight of the town. Impressive ramparts and the Palais de Papes.
The Popes' waving window!
The cathedral. The gold statue on top is very striking.
The Pont is no longer fully across the Rhone. It hasn't been for a long time, it had problems with its construction so that the arches collapsed. It had a little Chapel near the Avignon side.
We particularly liked this photo for the reflections in the water. If only I could paint it.
I have learned a new French word today for 'underpants'!
Our stay on the Aire was lovely and quiet near the Rhone. I still don't know what the French neighbour was talking about.
We drove to a town called Aramon which was near the Rhone but was closer to Avignon. We parked the van and cycled the remaining 12km into Avignon. It is quite a big town and I thought it would be a bit too busy and touristy. Maybe we picked a good day because it was relatively quiet and Monday is the only day when the Avignon market is not on. However, there were still several River Cruise boats parked up and plenty of American and English accents to be heard.
Our actual impression was really positive....
I only knew of the town because of the French song I learned in childhood. We didn't know that it had been the city of the Popes from 1305AD for about a 100 years. Nine Popes reigned from here in that period, partly because the Italian Politicians were particularly difficult with the Popes whilst they were in Rome and therefore in the period prior to settling at Avignon the Popes moved around Europe without a specific base. The first was Clement V, who had previously been the Bishop of Bordeaux. He installed several French cardinals who ensured that the subsequent Popes were also French. My analogy is that it is a bit like Sepp Blatter in FIFA appointing his mates on the committee so they could all steal the money and keep appointing each other!
They built the Palais de Papes and, as it happens, they didn't have a balcony but waved from a window into the courtyard!
We actually paid 11 euros each to get in and it was well worth it. It was a large and amazing building with a very interesting history.
Their was a power struggle in the Catholic Church that caused a 'schism', whereby one branch of the church appointed a Pope in Italy and the Avignon Popes were appointing their own too. At one point there were three competing Popes. My sporting analogy for this is the split in the World Boxing competitions where there are different World Champions at the same time! I'm not sure the sporting analogies should be used for religion but hey! Ultimately the Avignon Popes were squeezed out, serves them right for cheating the succession.
After leaving the Palais we moved to the Cathedral and then on to the famous Pont.
Just to remind you of the song....
Sur le Pont d'Avignon
Tout le Monde y danse, danse
Sur le Pont d'Avignon
Tout le Monde y danse en ronde.
The audio guide did six versions of the song in various styles, including Indian, Reggae, Acid Jazz, Country, Bossa Nova and Berere (whatever that is)?
We took loads of pictures during the day, too many to use all of them in the blog.
Before we cycled back we saw a new French superhero!
On our return to the van we went in search of a new Aire de Camping and eventually stopped at Uzes. This is a place recommended by friends Lin and Norman. The Aire is actually on a vineyard.It was pretty full of camping cars when we arrived but the Boules players moved over and let us find some space. It will certainly do for the night. We had a little walk in the evening and the town centre area looked gorgeous. I didn't take a camera but will get some snaps tomorrow. We may even stay close by for a few days. Another good day for the the memories.
We were sad to hear about more terrorist atrocities in Las Vegas and Marseille over the weekend.
Comments
Post a Comment