A Papal Palace, the Pont d'Avignon, and the Princess and the Pea

Palais des Papes, Avignon

One day we traveled from Arles to Avignon to see the Palais des Papes, the huge palace fortress that was the Papal residence in the 14th century. Seven popes resided in Avignon during the period between 1309 and 1378. The Papacy was moved from its traditional home in Rome during that time because of political upheaval in Italy.

The Palais is a huge complex of ancient buildings that have pretty much been stripped bare. There are no furnishings, and only a few of the original wall frescoes remain. Throughout the massive buildings were very good descriptions of the original use and decoration of each room, in English. You had to use your imagination to “see” the grandeur of this place in its heyday. It was impressive, and even in its bare bones state you can get a sense of the Papal excesses that built it.

Unusual beds at the Palais des Papes

There was a contemporary art exhibit in one of the cavernous halls of the Palais, titled Les Papesses (the female popes). There were lot of very unusual pieces, including huge metal spiders and sculptures that looked like parts of dead horses. We were amused by two of the artworks. One was a “bread bed” whose mattress was made of loaves of bread. Another installation was a very tall pile of mattresses! The Princess and the Pea’s bed come to life! 

Before we left Avignon we climbed to a park high above the town for a view of Avignon’s famous bridge, the Pont Saint Benezet- better known as the Pont d’Avignon. The bridge was built in the 12th century. It fell into disrepair in the 17th century, and a catastrophic flood swept away many of its arches in 1669 (only 4 arches remain today). Overlooking the bridge, of course we sang the famous song...

Pont d' Avignon

Sur le Pont d’Avignon
L'on y danse, l'on y danse
Sur le Pont d’Avignon
L'on y danse tous en rond

On another day we took the train to Marseille. We hiked from Marseille’s beautiful train station, high on a hill, down to the Vieux Port (Old Port) to see the famous harbor. This place was first used as a port in 600 BC when Greek settlers set up a trading post on a nearby hill. Today the Vieux Port is jam-packed with sailboats and other watercraft. You wonder how anyone can find their boat in that jumble! 

The Vieux Port of Marseille

We ate lunch at a fish market/restaurant named Toinou near the harbor. We ordered raw oysters, clams and mussels. The “chef” walked to the outdoor seafood market in front of the restaurant and selected our shellfish from the display! Delicious...

Choose your lunch at Toinou in Marseille

We continued our train journey, traveling from Marseille to Aix-en-Provence. The tracks had a steep incline when we neared Aix, and off to our right we saw a spectacular sight- Mont Saint Victoire. The massive face of the mountain looked to be snow covered, but it was actually the bright sunlight reflection off the limestone mountainside that we were seeing. We arrived in Aix after 4 pm, too late for any museums. We just wandered around the town's hilly streets and stopped to drink Oranginas in an outdoor cafe. It’s a lovely little town with picturesque pedestrian streets that are lined with beautiful shops and eateries. A nice place, somewhere we’d like to spend more time exploring in the future. 

We left Aix-en-Provence just as it was getting dark. It was a long train ride back to Arles, where that wonderful ancient Roman amphitheater was waiting to welcome us back.

Aix-en-Provence