Day 5 - Thursday, June 21 - Avignon

Another beautiful morning on the Rhone River.

This morning we had a tour of the Pope's Palace, the largest Gothic building in Europe. There were 7 popes in Avignon from 1309 to 1377. There were two more popes in Avignon after that but they were concurrent with 4 popes in Rome which led to considerable confusion. The Catholic church does not recognize the last 2 Avignon popes. The popes were exceptionally wealthy due to large land holdings and support from wealthy nobles. Successive popes built larger and larger adjoining palaces, resulting in the huge complex that exists today. A number of the rooms have beautiful frescoes (no photos) and there were beautiful colored tile floors. After the popes, the palace was used by bishops and for official church functions. After the French revolution, the palace was used as a military barracks and considerable damage was done to statues and frescoes.

Front of Pope's Palace

We also visited the indoor city market which has every imaginable produce from salt and spices to fresh vegetables, fruit, meat, seafood and wine. We bought a bottle of rose wine which is a specialty of this region.

Avignon Market

After lunch we took a half hour bus ride to Pont du Gard, a 2000 year old Roman aqueduct that traveled 31 miles to the capitol city of Nimes. It was in use for 700 years and the original bridge over the Gard River is still intact. The gradient of the aqueduct is only 2.5 feet per mile, quite an engineering feat. There is a great museum at the entrance that explains how the aqueduct was constructed and the importance of water to Roman life.

Swimming under the Pont du Gard

Standing on the Pond du Gard

David hugging 1100 year old olive tree

While eating dinner, the ship headed down river to Tarascon where we docked for the tour of Arles. Tarascon is about half an hour drive from Arles which doesn't have docks large enough to handle the Viking ships. Just before docking at Tarascon, we went through a lock. The ship fits in the lock with only one foot on each side between the ship and the lock - quite amazing. I find locks in general amazing, that huge ships can be raised (45' for this lock) with only the power to open and close the gates and to open and close huge valves to let water in or out.