Palais des PapesConsidering the freckled history Avignon has endured, perhaps the best thing that happened to Avignon is the arrival of the Popes. Although having said this, the city is also known for being infamously corrupt because of the vices of the papal court.

All the same, Avignon, was still at the beginning of 1300s nothing to write home about. Even though many groups over the centuries have had an interest in the little commune by the Rhône River -Celtic, Gallic, Romans, Goths, Franks. But in 1309 the city was chosen by Pope Clement V as his residence and belonged to the Papacy until 1791. During that time, seven popes and two anti-popes lived there and Avignon developed into a center for trade and celebrated the arrival of a university.

So when you visit Avignon, you want to visit Palace of the Popes. It is incredible to walk through the Gothic building and carry a remote control/wireless phone and dial up the stories of each room in your own language. We spend about 4 hours there and soaked up several 100 years of history. We learned that the wall surrounding the entire commune isn’t very strong, instead the the “Palais des Papes” is build with walls as thick as 17-18 feet from a natural prodding rock between 1335-1384.

Pont St-BénezetAnother cool structure in Avignon is the Pont St-Bénezet, a famous medieval bridge built between 1171 and 1185. The bridge was finally put out of use by a catastrophic flood in 1668, which swept away much of the structure. Since then, its surviving arches have successively collapsed or been demolished, and only four of the initial 22 arches remain intact today.

Alex tested two croissants at the local backeries and wasn’t impressed. I think I had about one bite from one of them. The other I noticed the crumbs around his mouth after I returned from the bathroom. I must admit, that was the first real day of touristing the countryside and I was pooped. Having not been familiar with the cuisine, the language, the culture, I was trying hard not to feel let down by my expectations. Usually, I’m pretty definite with my decision making but on this occassion I was at a loss for a dynamite idea and my compadres were just as brain dead. I think it had something to do with spending so much time in the presence of the Church

[Edit] Oh, that evening we cooked an Auflauf (tomato, cheese, pasta casserole) for all 5 of us. Unfortuately, we had a communication mixup and Gesela also bought food for the evening and wasn’t thrilled with the Auflauf. She said it was quanity instead of quality. But we got everything cleared up for the next evening’s meal. :huh: