Avignon population: 90,800.
Isle-Sur-La-Sorgue population: 20,300.
Yay for daytrips in the fabulous region of Vaucluse, Provence. We roll out of Aix en Provence Gare Routiere at 11:30 after a nice couple hours of restful sleep, and arrive at 12:45 in Avignon, prefecture of the Vaucluse Department of France, also former home of the Popes from 1305ish-1409. We'd already learned all the history last week in La Provence class, so this was an informed visit. Once off the bus we walk up Avenue de la Republique, grabbing Rapido Resto sandwiches with french fries inside them (which were not made fast at all but still deliciously delicious) and sit on the stairs in front of the Papal Palace, admiring the view of the square, the little cafes, the many pigeons who graciously accepted our offers of bread, and the cute carousel in the plaza. Avignon is not that big of a town, we pretty much walked from one side to the other in fifteen minutes, nor is it inherently beautiful, but the history is important to Europe, the papal palace is cool, and of course there's le Pont d'Avignon. After eating, we (by we, I mean me, Sam, and John, my fellow journeymen for the day), walked back to the bus station and hopped on a bus to Isle-Sur-la-Sorgue, further west in Vaucluse. It's this little town, really quaint and pretty, that has the river Sorgue enclosing it on all sides so it's like an island. All over the river peripherires there were these Roue a Aubes, I guess it's what Isle Sur la Sorgue is known for, like water mill wheels with moss growing on them and droplets falling down and making a pretty water falling sound, it was cool. Isle Sur la Sorgue also used to be a gypsy town and its still the town with this huge antique selling business and an antique market on Sundays. We walked around a bit and zigzagged our ways through the streets, then sat down at a cafe and got a drink for a while and chilled. My knew fave hot chocolate was definitely ordered and enjoyed, you can't go wrong. We took the bus back to Avignon and this time we went in the Papal Palace and danced on the Pont d'Avignon (also known as the Pont St Benezet). The Papal Palace was super cool, huge, sort of austere for a palace, built in the 14th century and added on to by repeated popes so its a lot of different types of stones with walls overlapping each other and chappels tucked away in corners all over. The pope's bedroom was very interesting: the floor was tiled with faience painted tiles of all colors, something that now seems like a paysan/lower class family decorative style but the colors used at the time were very hard to come by (the blue dye they used in the palace was more expensive than gold). And the walls were painted in these swirly designs. Then we walked up to the top of the palace and got to be on the roof overlooking all of Avignon, a very good view and the breeze made it complete. There's an extra big chapel connected to one end of the palace called the Chappelle Rocher des Doms, with this golden statue on top of it that's the only colored thing on the horizon and sticks out very prominently, but its very simple even thoguh its gold and doesn't overwhelm the skyline but makes it just right. After taking pictures up there, we didn't have much time left, so we briskly walked to the Pont d'Avignon. The Pont d'Avignon had its cornerstones laid in 1177 by the sheperd Benezet who thought it was important to build a bridge crossing the River Rhone for commerce purposes, it was then kept up as a toll bridge by the village and made lots of revenue. It was one of the reasons the popes chose to come to Avignon as their home, I guess the town grew with commerce and easy access. But in the 16th century the people just got tired of its constant upkeep and left it abandoned, and then half of it fell down a hundred years later I think in some big storms or something, so now it's really only half a bridge. I think the fact that it's only half of a bridge makes it even better somehow, it makes it something of the past and gives it an air of mystery. We danced on the bridge and took more pics, then headed back to the bus, leaving the ramparts behind us (the ramparts of Avignon were spectacular, all intact and huge and thick and medieval, they were built even before the pope got there) and returning in the evening to Aix after an excellent sojourn into Vaucluse.
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