A Papal Visitation, Just 700 Years Late: Day 13 - Cruising around Avignon - Hey Buddy, You're Going the Rhone Way - Rhone Source to Sea 2018 - CycleBlaze
A Papal Visitation, Just 700 Years Late: Day 13 - Cruising around Avignon
We had a leisurely day checking out this very enjoyable city. It was overcast and drizzling for most of the day and that set the tone for most of our activities and explorations.
A slow start with a very nice breakfast in the very elegent and peaceful breakfast room at the hotel followed by some journal updating and laundry (domestic duties always need to be attended too). We then set off for a slow meander through the streets towards the Papal Palace. Spoiler alert, this is a very lovely city well worth a visit, however the Papal Palace which is the 'main draw' for most people, was disappointing from our perspective.
Maybe it was the day, dull and drizzling, but the promise of the place from the outside ... grand and imposing, is dashed on the rocks of disappointment once you get on the inside.
Granted the place has undergone some pretty radical transformations over the years, from Palace for the popes in the 1300's through to prisons and military barracks and then in the last 100 years or so a return to it's 'roots' as a 'palace', once inside it was largely bereft of any ornamentation or human scale elements that would give you an impression of what it was, or was supposed to be. It was largely a collection of large, empty, stone rooms.
To make matters worse, there was a 21st century 'overlay' on it ... every person entering was given a tablet with earphones, that would be your 'guide' for the tour. The technology was baffling for many (most) given the looks and comment of most people, and once folks got it figured out they would invariably spend the rest of their time inside the place wandering along with their eyes glued to the screen, largely oblivious to where they physically were. Just like most folks wandering down main street in Everytown staring at their phone. Quite depressing ... which was unfortunate because the rest of Avignon is wonderful.
There's nothing here that jumps out at you and wows you, it just works and satisfies you on a very human level. Narrow winding streets, lovely squares and plaza's, great cafe's ... just a great place to hang out and live. Both K and I remarked that we'd like to come back... and we probably will.
Tomorrow we pack up and head off to Arles. That will be he end of the line for us. Another day off the bike on Friday to do what we did today, and then it's back to Geneva to fly home.
SOTD
From A Closet In Norway by Us + Them
This fell out of the sky when, over reflection on the day at dinner, I was lamenting the 'tablet experience' during our tour of the Papal Palace. Everyone was wandering around with their face and eyeballs glued to a screen, largely oblivious to where they were and what they were doing. I blurted out "they could have been in a closet in Norway!" ... and there it was, song of the day. The song's a bit depressing, somewhat like the scene at the palace, but let's all work to disprove the line "the dying are the only ones that know how to live"..
on that cheery note, here's the pics of the day...
a little glimpse of the structural underpinnings of the hotel we're in ... pretty cool
Imagine being a monk wandering these halls in silence .... that's how we think of monks these days, but in reality they were brewers and that Dom P guy came up with the method to make champagne... it couldn't have been all silence an introspection
... while a little disappointed with the Papal Palace, the rest of Avignon is very interesting, lively and with scenes like this around almost every corner
.. finished the day with a very good Provencal focused dinner at Le Moutaradier du Pape (yes, the Pope had a mustard maker) ... here's my shredded lamb shoulder wrapped in phylo with beans ... very autumnal fitting the day
Even tough we were in a 14th or 15th century building, across a square from a 12th century Palace, these French folks just cant help trying to make the place look like the Jettson's ... believe it or not, these chairs were actually very comfortable
