Last day in Provence

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Currently I am sitting in the departure lounge at Marseille airport waiting for my flight. There is no WiFi access here, so I will have to send this later, but I can still tell you about my day today. It was cold and very windy all day. I bundled up and braved the elements, but didn't spend as much time out of doors as I had planned. That was partly because of the weather and partly because there is not much open around here on Sundays in late October. I checked out of the hotel in Arles and drove north along the Rhone river to Avignon. When I got out of the car, my cap blew off and I had chase it down the parking lot. One of the things I wanted to experience in Avignon was to walk out on the famous, broken St. Bénezet bridge that extends about 2/3 the way over the Rhone. (See picture) Apparently there is a well-known French song about it, but the bridge was closed today because of high winds. I walked around the old part of town a little, but the only thing that I saw open was the Palace of the Popes. In the 1300's the Papacy was moved to Avignon. The Italians didn't like this, of course, and elected their own pontiff. For awhile there was more than one Pope. After about 100 years things settled down to one Pope in one place, ie Rome, but the Avignon palace remains and is a tourist attraction. I can't say that I was impressed. It is quite large, but there are no furnishings and one must use one's imagination to appreciate what it must have been like. (See picture of the Pope's chapel) After the palace, I drove up the Rhone valley a little way to see the village of Chateauneuf-du-Pape. Wines from there are among our favorites and it was fun to see the vineyards with their famously rocky soil. (see picture) After that it was time to head for the airport. I left myself plenty of time and plenty of money and I needed both. There was a traffic jam on the highway and that took some time, but then I had to buy fuel for the rental car before I returned it. I did a rough calculation and I think gasoline is around $10 a gallon. Anyway, I used up most of my "leftover" cash. Now at least I don't have any Euros to worry about exchanging!

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