Pope's Palace, Roussillon, Gorde, La Baux de Provence

Sunday

Today was a full day, but we all felt pretty rested because the weather is much better, not near as hot as it has been. We started at the Pope's Palace about 9:00, no lines! The audio tour was a must, if it was not for the explanations it would have felt like there was nothing to see. At the end of the 13th century the pope decided that Italy was getting to dangerous and they would build a palace in Avignon.  

There were 9 popes during the almost 100 years in Avignon, after the decision to return to Rome the palace deteriorated and then was ransacked during the French Revolution. It was a prison for a time and then finally in the early 20th century the city began renovation. It still has a long way to go, but it was an interesting place to visit. 

We took a small group tour in the afternoon. The first stop was Roussillon, or the red city. The soil is kind of like Oklahoma, red, and all of the houses and building must also
 be built with a red hue. The story goes that a royal couple was visiting and the King was out hunting and his wife falls in love with a local man. The King finds out about the affair and takes the man hunting and kills him. He then serves the man's heart to his wife, he comes clean and tells her what he has done. She loses her mind and the blood of the story turns the soil red. This is the French tale. 

The second town we visited was Gordes, the homes there must be built with limestone, native to the area. The movie "A Good Year" was filmed in Gordes. 

La Baux, the last little city we visited just has 40 residents.  It had very quaint shops, and all the houses were in the 
valley below.  We purchased some olives, chocolates and nougat. The castle at the top of the town was in ruins, but its story was that the Provence area was becoming more Protestant and Napoleon was not happy about this, so he killed the King of that area and gave the castle to the Moroccan King with the stipulation that it remain a Catholic area.

We walked the aqua duct from Roman times on the return to Avignon. It was an engineering feat to get water a long ways. The duct went 31 miles, dropping 20 inches over the entire distance. 

Our evening meal was one of the best, we had a variety of dishes and a nice, friendly waiter, we thought might be the owner. 

Train to Avignon, France

Our train today has been an experience. First our actual train broke down and so they replaced ours with a Renfre train, not high speed, and the boarding passes they gave us did not reflect the seats on the other train...so we did not have a spot for both of us to sit, one seat, not two.  We found two seats and hoped that no one came with passes for them. Then through word of mouth, no announcement, we heard that we would change to a high speed train in France. The whole train got off and waited for the other
train to arrive. It took a little search to find our seats, but we did and another family from the U.S. came in and some French people were sitting in theirs. The French tickets said "coach 2" and the US said 12, which we were on coach 12. They would not get up, even when a lady told them in French. They just smiled and sat, so the Auburn man(had on an Auburn shirt) went to get the conductor.  The conductor of course told them to get off and move, one of the 4 still sat and they had to go get the conductor again.  The train clapped when they all finally moved. We wished we had taken a video, it was pretty funny, "Welcome to France!"

Avignon is much smaller, we are just staying inside the walls that were built by the popes when they moved their home from Rome to Avignon in the 14th century. They actually purchased the city and lived here for approximately 100 
years. 

Montserrat

Up at 8:00 today and off to find a bakery on the way to catch our bus to Montserrat. It took about an hour to drive, and just the last 15 minutes were straight uphill. 

We took the funicular up to a higher point as soon as we got off the bus. It only took 5 minutes and we saw some amazing views. 

There is a boys choir at Montserrat, they study and sing throughout the week and go home on the weekend. The cathedral is pretty, and was very crowded. Outside on the little street leading up to the monastery there were vendors selling cheese, honey, nuts and some pollen. We bought a baguette and had some cheese for lunch before we got back on the bus to go down the mountain. 

Gaudi built or remodeled many homes for families, there are three that are open for tours. We went to the most popular of the three, Casa Batllo (1904). I call his style the Dr. Suess' Whoville. He adds the blues of the water, the motion of the waves and the bones. Gaudi sure was ahead of his time, lots of original ideas on airflow within the house. Look for the openings from room to room and in the windows themselves. 

This was a slow day, only about 15,000 steps, we have been averaging about 20,000 per day. 

For dinner we went to a corner pizza place and did, as they call it, "take away". Our hotel has a terrace on the roof, so we relaxed with our wine and pizza.