Note: Entry backdated because I felt like it.
So this weekend I did a giant tour of southern France. The original plan was to go to Avignon, Arles, Marseille, and Carcasonne, but I couldn’t work it out, so instead I went to Avignon, Arles, Marseille, Nice, and Monaco. Not bad for a four day. Shane and Joel were my partners in crime for the weekend. None of us had a digital camera, so I stole all of these pictures off of the web. If you don’t like that, sue me. (Actually, if you own the pictures please don’t sue!)
We took a night train from Metz to Nimes, arriving sometime between 6 and 7 am. Since we had a while to transfer in Nimes, we went and checked out Nimes’s Roman arena, which was pretty impressive looking. I was pretty tired so I don’t remember much else of Nimes. We were only there for about 40 minutes, because we hopped on to a train to Avignon.
Avignon was really cool. It was a big city, but it had a really relaxed feel to it. I think the feeling was kind of like what the Southern US is supposed to be, but without the road rage and racial tensions of Atlanta. We walked around Avignon’s old city for a while, checking out the city hall, an ancient church, and a bunch of other things I forgot. The church was interesting, because the spire was way shorter than they usually are. I noticed a lot of them the south: church spiries that looked like they’d had 100 ft chopped off the bottom. Next we headed to the Palais des Papes (the palace of the popes), where the Pope lived for around 100 years way back in the day (14th century). The palace actually looked more grim than anything else. We didn’t bother going in because I had heard it isn’t all that great inside. We went next door to Notre Dame des Doms, which was your basic Romanesque cathedral. Apparently there’s a bench there where the Pope would kneel, but I missed it. The coolest thing about the Palace was the Rochers des Doms, which was a park beside the palace that gave you an awesome view of the Rhone river valley, the bridge, and Villeneuve-les-Avignon. The park was right near a bend in the river, and it’s one of the highest points in Avignon, so you could see tons of great views from it.
After checking out the view, we walked down to the city walls, and went along them to the Pont Saint Bénezet, aka le Pont d’Avignon, aka the famous bridge in the nursery rhyme. Since we were still being cheap, we decided not to shell out to walk on the bridge, so instead we walked down to the river, and then walked along the river.
We decided to head across to the river to Villeneuve-les-Avignon, which, in spite of its name (the New City of Avignon), is 700 years old or so. Apparently, even though the French king encouraged the Pope to move to Avignon, he felt it necessary to build a fort on his side of the river to protect himself from the Pope. No, that doesn’t make much sense to me either. While we were waiting for the bus, I had a nice chat with an older woman who had a son working in Canada, although she didn’t know where. So we took the bus across the bridge (but not the bridge) and then hiked up to the Fort St. André, and then back down again.
That was pretty much it for Avignon. Our next stop was the Pont du Gard. We had to take a bus, so we went to the bus depot and were lucky enough to find that the next bus left in five minutes. An hour or so later, we were at the bridge. The bridge was really impressive. I don’t think the massiveness comes through very well in the pictures. It’s apparently the second-tallest surviving Roman structure (after the Colosseum). From up close, it looked incredibly massive. And to think that it was built completely with human power. We walked across the bridge, then went down to the river to get the view from below, waded in the water for a while, watched people diving, skipped some stones, and then headed back across to find out when the next bus came.
The bus was a great story. It turned out the next bus wasn’t for four hours. Oops. So, we took a different bus to the town of Remoulins (don’t worry, I hadn’t heard of either), got some lunch (moussaka), walked around for a while, and then got on a bus back to Avignon. Once we got to Avignon, the next train to Arles was cancelled, so we had to wait for two hours before we could finally get moving again.
On the train to Arles, we met some girls from Quebec who were really nice. I knew they were Quebecoise immediately because they sounded like they were speaking French correctly (as opposed to all the French people who just sounded plain wrong the first month I was here). OK, well, the giant Canadian and Quebec flags on their backpacks were a giveaway too. We chatted about our trips on the way to Arles. It turned out they were taking two weeks to see the region we were seeing in four days. Once we got to Arles, we went our separate ways because they were staying in a hotel and we were staying way the heck out in the HI hostel.
We got to the hostel, then went back downtown to find some dinner. There was a square with a ton of restaurants, including the Cafe la Nuit that we had been warned was super expensive. So we had a great meal at another place that someone in the square told us was the best restaurant in the square. I had some lamb and some fries that I think had been fried in olive oil. More people need to start doing that, because they were delicious. After dinner, we headed back to the hostel and passed out. To think we did all that, and it was only the end of our first night!
Saturday morning, we got up and to check out the sights in Arles. Shane told me that there the girls from Quebes were in the breakfast room. It turned out their hotel had fleas, so they sneaked out and came to the hostel. We chatted for a bit, and then we checked out and headed to the sights. There was a cloister, that was pretty cool but nothing special. Your de rigeur Gothic cathedral. The Roman arenas, which were pretty neat because they’re in pretty good condition. I just stood there for a while and imagined thousand of people in togas screaming as gladiators fought it out down below. Provence just has this feel to it that makes it feel like those times weren’t all that long ago. We went back to the square with the restaurants to have lunch. The waitress was really nice–she was really interested in our travels and I think she loved having the chance to practice her English. A pigeon crapped on my hand and my shorts, which wasn’t quite so nice. We had tartine, which is basically the Provence equivalent of bruschetta, but closer to being a pizza on bread. It was also great stuff. If the people in Provence know how to do one thing, it’s definitely cook. After lunch, we dashed to the train station, ran into the Quebecoises one last time, and then hopped on a train to Marseille.
I think if all we had seen in Marseille was the view from the train station, it would have been worth it. We stepped out of the train station to an amazing view of Notre Dame de la Garde at the top of its hill. The sun shining off the statue at the was an amazing effect. It’s rare to see a building that just seems so well placed.
Anyway, we didn’t have much time in Marseille, so we went to the Quai des Belges to board a boat to the Ile d’If. The island is of course the site of the famous Chateau d’If, where Edmont Dantes was imprisoned in The Count of Monte Cristo. The castle was pretty cool. I thought we were going to get a tour, but it turned out to only be a “commentary” before we went off to see it on our own. The girl who was giving the commentary was pretty funny, and there was a lot of joking back and forth between her and us. Unfortunately, Joel and Shane didn’t understand much French, so they didn’t enjoy that part nearly as much as us. After the commentary, we checked out the castle, which was pretty cool. They had a “cell of Edmond Dantes”, as well as cells used to imprison real people. You could even see some of the scratchings made by prisoners back in the day. And, there was the whole story of the Rhinoceros on the island…
Once we got back to Marseille, we took a bus to see Notre Dame de la Garde. The church looked just as impressive from up close. The upper chapel was naturally incredibly gaudy (we didn’t get to see the lower one because there was a mass). The view of Marseille was great. After seeing the church, we basically just got something to eat and then got on a train to Nice.
Still more to come…