Gym's Ramblings: Sur le Pont d'Avignon

The title of this post is the first line to that popular French children's song that was pounded into my subconsciousness when we first started to take French in school. It came out when I reviewed the list of tours that were possible for this trip. I had to go to Avignon! I had to see the bridge and as it turned out, my desire to see le pont led us to explore one of the only cities in France that still retained its medieval ramparts and a city that was the seat of seven Catholic popes during a time in history when the Vatican was not a very safe place. This tour also took me into the Cote d'Rhone wine region with Avignon only a few kilometres from the town of Chateauneuf-du-Pape.

We awoke the morning of October 25th, 2015, as the ship was slowly pulling into the port of Marseilles. We had gained an hour overnight so we had made it to the port on time, in spite of the helicopter evacuation that slowed us down coming out of Majorca. Although there is probably many things to see right in Marseille we headed north up the Rhone river to our destination, in a medium-quality motor coach. It is about an hour's drive north on a good motorway and once you get away from Marseille a bit the valley greens up and near Avignon you enter wine country.

After arriving in town we circled the old walled city and passed under the famous Pont Saint-Benezet that inspired the song about dancing under the bridge. We then parked the bus just 200 meters or so to the south of where we had passed under the bridge. The bridge itself is not a bridge anymore as only 4 of the original 22 stone arches remain intact. The bridge was originally built of wood between 1177 and 1185 and that original structure was destroyed and replaced by the more modern stone bridge with the roman arches. The 22 arches only lasted until 1669 when a massive flood took the bridge out for good.

We entered the ramparts through the Port De L'Oulle. This is the main western entrance nearest to Pont Saint-Beezet. We then strolled through the narrow streets to the Place De L'Horloge which is in front of city hall. That was our meeting point for the return journey. We then toured around the Pope's Palace and the Centre de Congres, where papal succession was voted on. Subsequently, we climbed up past the Notre Dame Cathedral which is attached to the palace and visited the papal gardens, Rocher des Dom. The guide was very informative and then took us back by a different route to the meeting place where we had some free time before finding our way back to the bus for the return journey.

Our guide provided us with a lot of anecdotes and information dealing with the history of Avignon's time as the seat of the popes but the story that caught my imagination the most was the story of how the first Avignon Pope, Clement V, helped suppress the Templar Knights and stood by, while the King of France, Philip IV, tried to steal that order's wealth. The Templars were the defenders of the Holy Land. They protected the holy sites with their lives for 200 years. Unfortunately, with the donations they received from western European Catholics they became wealthy and it was this wealth that was what 'Philip the Fair' was interested in. The King laid down charges against the Templars and used torture to make it stick. Hundreds of Templars ended up burning at the stake and the pope did not really do much to prevent it. In the end the Pope abolished the order. Fortunately, Philip did not get any of the wealth because the pope ordered that another religious order get the assets (the Hospitallers gradually got everything). On the way back to Marseille we passed a former Castle of the Templars which is now private property.

We re-boarded the ship and soon set out to sea. The sea continued to be calm all night.