el-granada.com - The Ketchums in France - Thursday July 12, 2007 Day 16

France 2007

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Wednesday July 11,2007
Day 15 - Carcassonne to Arles

Thursday July 12, 2007
Day 16 - Arles

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Friday July 13, 2007
Day 17 - Arles

Thursday morning we got a late start, leaving the hotel at around 11am after breakfast. We drove to Les Baux, found a parking spot – Dusty was getting quite good at European parking by now – and arrived at the ruins of the castle just in time to see the catapult fire –that was really cool.

Les Baux - the catapult, ready to fire

The rest of the castle ruins were much better than I’d anticipated, and the views from the top were incredible. It was quite windy, which cleared out the haze nicely.

Les Baux - Ruins of the castle, which was destroyed twice over the ages

The rest of the castle ruins were much better than I’d anticipated, and the views from the top were incredible. It was quite windy, which cleared out the haze nicely.

Click here for a panoramic picture from the top of Les Baux.

After Les Baux we drove through St Remy, where both the interesting Roman ruins – the columns and the arch – were completely surrounded by scaffolding. (St Remy is also famous forClinique St Paul, where Van Gogh spent a year in 1889 and painted over 150 paintings) We drove on to Avignon, and after quite a while found the huge parking lot on the island in the river across from the city, and found the free shuttle bus to the city. Avignon is most famous for being the headquarter of the Catholic Church between 1309 and 1377. Avignon was alive with street theatre – interesting demonstrations, parades, music, drama, all trying to get you to buy tickets to their performances. We grabbed lunch, watched more street theater, then toured the Palace of the Popes. It was completely barren, having been totally destroyed and stripped over the centuries. Only a few rooms had any paintings on the walls, and they were in tatters. Highly overrated - this was perhaps the biggest waste of time on the whole trip. We then climbed to the top of the hill, taking in the fantastic view, then hiked down and eventually found the bridge tour. It provided decent views of the city, but overall the street theater was by far the best part of Avignon. We headed back to Arles, then Robby started feeling ill from the heat. CJ and I found McDonald’s, and we brought back and inexpensive yet reasonably satisfying dinner.

Palace of the Popes

Mount Ventoux in the distance.
You can barely see the white rocks on the top

Pont d'Avignon
The only bridge across the Rhone during the Middle Ages
Completed in 1185, destroyed in 1668 by a flood.

Palace of the Popes from Pont d'Avignon

Palace of the Popes from Pont d'Avignon

Prev
Wednesday July 11,2007
Day 15 - Carcassonne to Arles

Thursday July 12, 2007
Day 16 - Arles

Next
Friday July 13, 2007
Day 17 - Arles