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Today was market day in Villeneuve-les-Avignon. We just walked down to the square ater breakfast and didn't have to worry about finding a parking place. Think your local US farmers market times 20. Fruits, vegetables, cheeses, sausages, spices, clothes, purses, candy; it was all there. Then we took a local bus across the river Rhone into Avignon.
Avignon was an important Roman city,as well as the seat of the Catholic church in the early middle ages. It is also the home of the St. Benezet Bridge of nursery rhyme fame. Built in the 12th century, it had 22 arches and spanned 3000 feet across the Rhone River. Today, after centuries of deterioration, it has only four arches left and stops literally in the middle of the Rhone River. There is also a Romanesque Chapel on what remains of the bridge.
The entire city of Avignon, including the papal palace, is completely surrounded by ancient stone walls. Inside the walls, however, are hundreds of modern, high end shops and boutiques where most people I know can only afford to window shop. We visited a few museums, relaxed at a coffee shop and made our way back across the Rhone to
Villeneuve. I wanted to go visit an olive oil mill we had passed a few days ago when it was closed. Today it was open.
We walked into the olive oil mill and a friendly fellow Nicolai greeted us and told us all about how olive oil is made. He showed us the mill and gave us a private tour of the operation that his family has been running for generations. The mill is located right next to the Chartreuse monastery, and the monks used to make olive oil by hand over 500 years ago in the same building. We sampled several different types of olive oil and Nicolai even let us try some olive liqueur, which was really tasty. The visit was thoroughly enjoyable.
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