We docked in Avignon during the night, and when we woke up this morning we noticed we were moored next to another river ship, and the galley was opposite our window.
We assembled at 8.30 to board our coach, and to disembark from our ship, we had to travel through the reception area of the ship moored next door to us. This is not the first time we have done this, there are so many ships on the river, they sometimes need to dock two or even three abreast.
Our excursion took us firstly to the Pont du Gard. This is a bridge over the river Gardon and part of a Roman aquaduct, the means the Romans used to supply fresh water to the city of Nimes from the city of Uzes.
This is just amazing, it was built in the first century, and is a 50 kilometer long aquaduct. The largest one, at 150 Kilometers, is in Carthage. The lower arches are 21 meters high, and 6 meters wide.
It's a very imposing structure.
On our drive through the countryside we saw grape vines and sunflowers fields; cherry tree orchards, pomegranate fields, and oak trees producing truffles. The grapes will be ready early for harvesting this year due to a very hot summer. Our guide, Katherine, has a heavy French accent, and it can become quite tiring concentrating on listening to her...rain becomes wain, trees become twees, and birth became birs. After the Pont du Gard, we visited the small medieval town of Uzes, which in the 17th century was very famous for its silk, especially silk stockings, which were worn by both women and men. It was the very first Duchy of France.
On return to the Scenery, we enjoyed a grill lunch on the sun deck. It was lovely just being out in the fresh air for a meal, which was typical of a BBQ we would enjoy at home.
Our afternoon walk took us to the city of Avignon, once owned by the Papacy. Avignon is 900 kilometers from Paris, and thanks to the TGV (fast train) can be reached in just 2 hours and 40 minutes. It is one of the few cities with the city walls still in place. In the early 2000's the Rhone River flooded to around the height of a third of this wall.
Avignon is home to the Palace of the Popes, and we had a walking tour of it. It's a huge castle, that was used by the Popes for almost a hundred years, 1309 till 1377, when Rome was deemed to be unsafe for them. It remained under Papal rule until 1791 when it became part of France.
This is just a model of the Palace, which was surprisingly austere, although a lot of the decorations have been lost through the years. Our guide did tell us that there once were tapestries on the walls of the great chapel. These were for the acoustics, once the singing changed from Gregorian chanting to to polyphonic singing.
On the way back to our ship, some of us enjoyed a carousel ride. It was very relaxing sitting in that carriage and gently moving forwards and backwards.
More entertainment on ship tonight, a gypsy band and a flamenco dancer. A little loud for my taste, and no English!
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