Le patrimoine provencal

The past few days have been a leisurely tour of Provence's heritage (in French, le patrimoine). Monday was spent visiting the important cultural sites of Avignon, the Palais des Papes and the Pont St. Benezet (le pont d'Avignon). The Palais des Papes was the papal palace during the Avignon papacy of the Middle Ages, and has a lot of history within its walls. One of the coolest parts of the audio tour was in the "kitchen tower," where huge feasts would be prepared for saints' days and coronations. The British guy on the audio tour rattled off the litany of animals and other foods they needed for one particular feast: figures like 60,000 eggs, 17,000 chickens, 10,000 pigs, etc. It was pretty wild.

Inner courtyard of the Palais des Papes

View of the Pont St. Benezet from Barthelasse

After our tours, we took the ferry over to the man-made island, Isle de la Barthelasse, that runs through the middle of the huge Rhone river. It was built to ease the passage of travelers over the river after the bridge mostly collapsed, but in the 18th century its grassy banks became a popular location for the town's citizens to hang out and party. That's actually where the song "Sur le pont d'Avignon, on y danse" comes from. People didn't actually dance on the bridge, like the song says, but on the little island. We didn't dance there, but we did lay out in the grass and read for a couple hours. Then it was back into town in search of dinner. We had our first real sit-down dinner in a French restaurant, complete with gazpacho, kir (white wine with fruit syrup) and honeyed duck leg. Pretty yummy!

This baby could seat 24,000 people back in the day!

The next day, we hopped on a train to nearby Nimes to visit the famous heritage sites there. Nimes is steeped in the history of the Roman provinces, complete with a very well-preserved Roman arena, an ancient tower overlooking the city, and a temple to Caesar Augustus. Despite all this history, the town is fairly contemporary with large boulevards and modern buildings integrated with Roman ruins.

We started our tour of the city at the arena, where we took a guided audio tour and learned about the gladiator battles that took place there two thousand years ago, about how it was used as a military fortress for hundreds of years, and about the bullfights that happen there twice a year (Nimes is actually the bullfighting capital of France). After that, we went to the ancient temple (called Maison Carree, or Square House) and watched a 3D movie about the arena's use throughout the ages. The movie was not nearly as entertaining as the French 2nd-graders on a field trip exclaiming over the 3D effects.

Le Tour Magne

La Maison Carree

Our last stop was the park at Jardins de la Fontaine, a huge 18th century park that houses both the ruins of an ancient temple to the Roman goddess Diana and the Tour Magne, a remnant of a huge military tower. The view of the city from the top was breathtaking. Of course, we ran into yet another school field trip. This has become a running theme of our time here in France.

When we got back to Avignon, we went to the grocery store to pick up some things to make for dinner: chicken with sauteed carrots, peppers and onions, a baguette with soft herbed cheese and Nutella. Gotta have my Nutella.

Today we visited another site that is very important to French heritage: the Pont du Gard. This massive remnant of an ancient aqueduct stands as a testament to the ingenuity of the Romans. The site itself is amazing, but is definitely augmented by the museum that explains its construction, historical value and restoration. There was also an interactive temporary exhibit about the composition of the ground and how it affects construction. It was surprisingly interesting, probably because there were toys to play with.

View of Pont du Gard from the river's left bank

After our tour, we made our way back to the bus stop, chatted with some friendly Colombian tourists, and headed back to Avignon, a 40 minute bus ride away. The rest of the night's agenda consists of finding a good place for dinner. I love this town.