Avignon --> ss Catherine

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Avignon à ss Catherine

We braved the heat again this morning to do the tour of the papal palace. But first stop was the Les Halles (food market) for breakfast. Fabulous food market selling fresh as well as precooked food. You could take home to heat, or one of the bars/coffee shops would cook for you. Very colourful and noisy. The Popes palace was started 1335 by the popes when they moved to Avignon for political reasons. There were nine popes to live here in all before they moved back to Rome. It remained in the hands of the popes until the 1700’s. The castle suffered sieges, a fire, a revolution and being turned into an army barracks for a hundred years until 1900 when the army moved out and they started restoration. Avignon is a very beautiful walled town beside the Rhone river and there are many Museums and nice shopping, it is mostly pedestrian although the cobbles can be hard to walk on. Then we took the “little train” which took us to the top of the hill to a fabulous lookout over Avignon and whole valley. By now it was 2 o’clock so we collected out bags and got a taxi to the much anticipated boat. Not far but too far to our carry bags. Why do your clothes get heavier and need more bag space when they are out on holiday? A s expected the boat is FABULOUS and looking forward to a great week.

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