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Published: August 26th 2009
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It was nice waking up in Avignon again. We had already spent 2 days in this town and it felt familiar. After breakfast we broke into groups and went on a walking tour. We use a "quietvox" for this. It's a small ipod like speaker with a detachable earpiece. You keep the earpiece for future use and everyday get a new "vox". The vox's have numbers and that is your group so when you walk around you have a considerable distance you can be from your guide and still hear. It's very easy to use. Today we are touring the Palais des Papes. For all of you who know I am not a history buff, I was surprised to learn that Avignon was the home to 9 popes over the years. Eventually the pope moved back to the Vatican but Avignon holds on to the years of history that being the home to the pope was. We had to pass through the Place de l'Horloge, where we again saw the Merry go Round. Today they were setting up stages in the square but we were not sure why and what was going on. The Palais was build between 1335 and 1364.
It is mostly vacant now as the Vatican has reclaimed most of the artifacts but it was interesting to see the scope and the murals that remained. We found the synagogue and tried to go inside but we learned from our guide that it was only open on Friday afternoons. We separated from the group and discovered some more streets that we didn't from our first visit. We made our way back to the River Royale for lunch and then disembarked for an afternoon tour.
We tour an afternoon tour through the beautiful countryside going to Chateauneuf du Papes. We went to Le Pavillon des Vins, Les Vins Bouachon where we toured a small room of wine in casks. One of the barrels was being cleaned and it was interesting to see the small hole someone had to crawl through to clean the barrel. We went to their wine tasting room where we were given an explanation about the region and its grapes. We were given a demonstration of the proper way to taste wine and then were given three samples. One white and two red, one from 2007 and one from 2003. I liked them all!
From here we
traveled more in the countryside to the Pont du Gard Aqueduct , a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Here is a remaining piece of a 3 level aquaduct from the 1st century AD. It was amazing to see what wonderful condition it is in. What was equally as amazing was the visitors that came here to swim in the Gard River. It was the busiest place full of kayaks, canoes, & people swimming. People were jumping off cliffs. They spanned both sides of the aquaduct. Since it is "holiday" here it seems like everyone comes to Provence for the sun and they were all at the Pont du Gard.
We had a 45 minute ride back to the River Royale and within 15 minutes of arriving we set sail for Viviers.
Michael and I were given a bottle of champagne for our anniversary and we shared a glass before dinner. Our dinner was nice. Michael had salad with duck confit, pot roast and profiteroles. I had salad nicoise, halibut and pomme tartine with pear glace.
The movie of the night was "Chocolat" and it so reminded us of both Avignon and Arles. (We actually heard from someone aboard the ship that
it was filmed in one of these cities so I will have to do some research!). So, Michael and I ate some cheese, drank some more Champagne and ate some chocolat!
It was a beautiful way to spend our anniversary!
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