Palais des Papes tour

Started this morning a good way with Andre saying he will go get croissants for breakfast. We had passed by a bakery last night on the way home on a different street we hadn't been on yet, or maybe missed the bakery, a couple of minutes walk from here. I have given up on Pain au Chocolate here, 3 times now and all were too much like bread, so request was for croissants made. He arrived with 2 kinds of croissants, first time he had seen 2 types being sold, one with extra butter, and extra euros lol. I couldn't taste the difference, both were delicious, we have our new go to bakery. Also this is the first time he saw a huge 6 foot loaf of bread that you just request how big of a piece you want sliced off, I'll have to go check this place out with him next time.

A slow start to the day today as we have a tour booked of the Palais des Papes later this morning. It is a good break after all the walking yesterday.

Met up for our tour of the Palais des Papes, there were 13 of us on the tour. One was a Colombian that had just arrived in Avignon at midnight last night and is in training for a month to be a tour guide and then will stay here until November working. The surprise we got is Marc is our tour guide today, the same tour guide we had 2 days ago. He was not supposed to be the tour guide but got a call yesterday to fill in, lucky for us as we knew he was a good guide. The tour was supposed to be 1.5 hours, but it turned out to be over 2, not surprised as we knew Marc was long winded.

We knew that the seat of the Catholic church had moved from Rome to Avignon for about 70 years in the 1300's. We heard lots of history of the palace, from it being the Popes residence, to a military barrack, to now being really a tourist attraction. Because of all the transitions very little in the way of original ornamental things like paintings, floors, ceilings are left, but still a very interesting tour. We know that it went back to Rome, but there was some internal disagreements within the catholic cardinals and at one time there was the Pope and an anti Pope, and for 30 years the Anti Pope was here in Avignon again at the end of the 1300's. Very interesting history. We definitely got a lot more out of the visit with a tour than we would have using the iPad that they give you if you are on your own, and it cost us an additional 5Euro through the tourist centre than a regular ticket would have cost. Plus because it was through the tourist bureau no tips needed,

Next we walked through town looking for something to eat for lunch. We knew we may get caught again as it is 1:30 and lots of places close at 2. We are so used to being able to have lunch whenever, and especially late in Europe so it is very weird here, restaurants close for a few hours between lunch and dinner service.

Finally decided on a bagel place that had nice salads as well, this type of place is open all the time. Good meal at a good price, bonus.

Wandered along Rue du Republic, is the main street in town. We can hear singing coming from an old church that has been converted to a museum so step inside. Wow, the acoustics. We stayed and listened for about 20 minutes, when the poetry started it was enough for us.

We can see a police car at the end of Rue du Republic, we grab a seat at a bar and a glass of wine and watch the parade for the Provence region. They are celebrating their 100 year of this festival. Lots of men, women and children dressed in traditional clothes, some donkeys and carriages, some musicians with women dancing, and some pretty white horses to finish off the parade. Not sure when you could ever grab a front row seat just as the parade was about to start, but we managed here.

We followed the parade to the square outside of Palais des Papes using back roads and watched everyone enter. It was nice to see them all together, some beautiful colorful dresses on the women. Presentation of awards for we are not sure what. We moved on back to the apartment.

Small supper and then out again for a walk at night to see what is going on on a Saturday night. The streets were really crowded today so wanted to see what it was like at night. Really not many people out at all. We walked down to see the water wheels at night and the same 2 bars that were busy earlier in the week are busy again tonight. Maybe we were just too early as it was only 7:30PM

Back home to a quiet evening. Switch around clothes that are still really wet from the broken clothes rack to the new clothes rack that was dropped off this morning. Trying switching rooms as well to see if it dries better, if not we may have wet clothes the entire time we are here.

A quieter day today for steps 14,000 or 9 km

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palais_des_Papes

At the Palais des Papes waiting for our tour

Now on our tour

When a new Pope was chosen, this is the window he would come and wave at the people below

Most of the palace has been renovated

The front of the palace is on the right side

The back of the palace and is much higher than the front as it is built on a side of a hill

Very little remains of the original fresco, here a couple that they moved to this room while they were renovating the palace

Window shutters from the old city hall from the 1800

A piece of an old ram

Swiss guard uniform

2 chapel were in great shape but we were not allowed to take any picture. The fresco were still in great shape.

We were allowed to see 2 rooms that had not been renovated

A few panel showing the timeline of the Popes being here. here are 2 of them

These were the doors to the treasury

This is where they had of the animal that were given to the Pope was kept. Some in cages, some roamed wild.

The banquet dining hall

Inside one of the steeples

At the church part

We were allowed to go to top of one of the towers

2/3 of the Palace square

View of the Town and the Rhone River

The square is used for a theater festival in July every year. You can see where the window where the Pope waved to the people below

This year they did not take away the stadium seats.

Reminded us of the Banff Springs staircase where we got our wedding pictures taken

Not too many 800 years old giftshops around, none in Canada for sure

A ate lunch today. The coffee menu

Our lunch which came to 23 Euro. A large salad for Wendy and bagel & soup for me, A large Chai Latte Tea for the boss and a tiny expresso with milk for me. Delicious

The sign for the sidewalk sale that's going on

Free recital at an old church

We came out of the church just in time for the parade

These guys were had whips that sounded fire firecrackers

So many people shopping today for deals since it is Saturday on one of the back streets we took to meet up at the front of the parade arrival at the Palais des Papes square