Tuesday October 22, 2024 - Avignon, France
I’m having that familiar feeling from when we took the Viking World Cruise in 2022/2023 which is: “It is Tuesday so we must be in Avignon” as opposed to it is Tuesday, October 22, 2024. We somehow lose track of time except we do know what town we are in and what time our tour starts!
Our included tour of Avignon this morning was a walking tour. All 180 people on the Viking Buri were going on the included tour and as we started walking with our guide towards the walled city of Avignon, we could see another German River Cruise ship was also doing a walking tour at the same time. Avignon is not that big and there was one place that everyone was going to visit….”Palais des Papes” or Pope’s Palace.
With everyone trying to get to the same place at the same time, there was definitely a lot of waiting around on this tour. We thought that perhaps the walking tours could have been staggered such that there was an 8:30am group, a 8:45am group, a 9:00am group…etc just to avoid everyone leaving the ship at the same time. It sure would have helped with the waiting around if the groups had been staged to enter the Pope’s Palace at different times.
The last time we visited Avignon (other than the day we embarked) with Uniworld, we did a walking tour of Avignon with a guide, but we never got to go inside the Palais des Papes! So this was our fourth time to Avignon (2 embarkation days, twice sailing to Arles, twice sailing back to Avignon and then two walking tours of Avignon). It is amazing to us that we are still seeing new things in the places we are going, despite having been here before. Yesterday in Arles it was new for us to go to the Roman Colisseum and this time is was new for us to visit inside the Pope’s Palace!
The Pope’s Palace is actually two joined buildings; the old palace of Benedict XII which sits on impregnable rock which was started in 1334-1342, and the new palace of Clement VI, the most extravagant of the Avignon popes.. Together these two buildings form the largest Gothic building of the Middle Ages which is 118,403 square feet. The building was enormously expensive to build consuming much of the papacy’s income during its construction. The interior of the building was decorated with frescos, tapestries, paintings, sculptures and a wooden ceiling when it was built.
Avignon became the residence of succeeding pontiffs in 1309 when the papacy was moved from Rome. The Pope’s Palace was built in less than 20 years and the popes departed Avignon in 1377, returning to Rome. After the popes departed the Palais was taken over by the Napoleonic French state for use as a military barracks and prison.
Today the Palace is used for tours, concerts, and exhibitions. Over 650,000 people a year visit Avignon to see the Pope’s Palace and finally we had a chance today on our 4th visit to Avignon to see it!
Frescos in the Pope’s Palace
Frescos in the Pope’s Palace
We were not allowed to take photos of the frescos unfortunately but I was able to find pictures of the frescos online. The frescos have been restored and what stood out for me was the vibrancy of the colours. Originally the blue colour was made from crushing the gemstone lapis lazuli and this is what gives the vibrant blue colour to the fresco.
It was very crowded in the Pope’s Palace and of course every guide only had limited time to speak about the various rooms of the Palace. I quite enjoyed the office of the pope which was decorated in dark black frescos with hunting scenes on the walls. Not something you would normally think of decorating the Pope’s office walls!
After visiting the Pope’s Palace our guide walked us to ‘Les Halles’ which is the local market in Avignon and at this point we tipped our guide and wandered off on our own for some exploring in Avignon.
It was a gorgeous sunny 24C or 75F day in Avignon and we decided that we would walk back to the Viking Buri for a quick lunch and then head out again in the afternoon on our own. The back on board time was 6:15pm so we had lots of time to be able to walk around Avignon.
Looking for directions in Avignon
The famous bridge of Avignon was something I wanted to photograph, but not visit. It is had to photograph something we would be standing on that also charged admission, so instead of paying to go on the bridge, we walked towards the famous Avignon bridge to take some photos.
The bridge of Avignon or Saint-Benezet Bridge was started in 1177 and it was one of the most important pilgrimage routes between Italy and Spain. The bridge had 22 arches was 920 metres long and was 4 metres wide. It was built in only 8 years. Before the bridge was built people crossed the Rhone in small boats and given the Rhone can have a strong current at times, the crossing was quite perilous.
The bridge received worldwide fame through the song “Sur le Pont d’Avignon” which dates back to the 16th century. The song as we know it now was first performed in Paris in a comedic opera in 1853 called “Le Sourd ou l’Auberge plein”.
After wandering around Avignon all afternoon and getting lost within its walls, our feet were killing us so we headed back to the Viking Buri to get ready for dinner.
Provencial dinner on the Viking Buri. French cheese and sausages
Bread and various dips and anchovy butter
Selection of the small appetizers we could choose from on the buffe
Tonight we were having a special Provencial dinner and the Viking staff had decorated the tables with table clothes especially representative of the region. We were given cheese and small sausages and some dips to share on each table and dinner was served as a buffet with everything from duck a l’ orange to pork, chicken and cod fish. There were many decadent desserts on offer too but I stuck to a slim piece of lemon meringue pie and a couple of French macarons.
Richard looking very ‘French’ with his new French sweater from Arles
After dinner with our Aussie friends from Perth we all went up to the Lounge to play the Viking Music Trivia game. Our Program Director Daniella made the game a lot of fun by saying if we wanted 5 bonus points on a question, someone had to get up and dance like Elvis for example. We had willing participants in our Aussie friends and while we lost the game because we could never quite get the right decade for the song that we had correctly guessed, we did have a ton of fun and we all ended up at times on the dance floor cutting a ‘rug’ so to speak. Richard even danced to ABBA’s Dancing Queen which is a miracle since he hates ABBA!
It is nice to make new friends when travelling and while we aren’t in each other’s faces all day long, we still can enjoy the times we do spend together, having a laugh and telling stories and in this case making fools of ourself on the dance floor!
We were so glad that we had the chance to finally go inside the Pope’s Palace in Avignon. I don’t think I would do the tour of the Pope’s Palace with a group again, and I would definitely schedule my own visit at a time when there would be no river cruise passengers in the palace, to be able to have a more in depth tour. Since the River Cruise season in France is slowing down, now is a good time to visit the Pope’s Palace but perhaps on an afternoon when the cruise guests are off on other excursions to the Roman Aquaduct or Chateau neuf de Papes.
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