Avignon and Chateauneuf du Pape

Thursday, April 25

Today we drove to Avignon, France to see Palais de Papes (palace of the Popes).  Avignon is about an hour from Uzes.  Arne used Google maps to determine the route and also to find parking once there and we drove right to the parking garage directly under the Palais de Papes.   Thank you Google Maps!

Also thank you to Wikipedia for some of this historical info...  Avignon became the residence of the Popes in 1309, when Pope Clement V, unwilling to face the violence of Rome after his election (1305), moved the Papal Curia (the various Vatican bureaus that assist the pope in exercising his jurisdiction over the Roman Catholic Church) to Avignon, a period known as the Avignon Papacy.  Since we aren’t Catholic and didn’t study a lot of World History, this was new info for us!  Avignon was home to 7 popes during the Avignon Papacy (1309 – about 1377) before being moved back to Rome.  Each pope made his mark by remodeling the palace, and there are actually 2 buildings built by 2 different popes.  The final result is the largest Gothic building of the middle ages (app 160,000 square feet).

Outside the Palace (on the right)

In the courtyard of the palace

This is where the Pope's kept all the journals, accountings, etc - under the stone floors.

In the couryard where the Pope would address the throngs of people (from the arched 'window' in the corner).

This was another courtyard, but I can't recall where in the palace it was - the place is huge!

One of the assembly rooms

The tour itself was quite good, very informative, and took about 1-1/2 hours.  What you get to see is the “shell” of the building (ie – walls) both inside and out.  It was seized and “sacked” during the French Revolution, and after that the palace was taken over by the Napoleonic French state and used as barracks and stables, so the original floors, frescos, and ceilings are, for the most part, gone. The tour does have videos that depict what it was believed to have looked like.

One of the most interesting rooms was the “barbecue room”.   It is a good-sized room with no ceiling, but “vented” to the outside like a ‘room-sized’ chimney.  It apparently had several bbq “pits” (even stacked on top of each other), used to cook meat for events.  We don’t remember the details given in the tour of the menu for one of the Pope’s selection feast, however, based on the size of the dining room, the feasts were huge.  We have always been impressed with Ruben’s ability at Fairwood to serve meals to 100-200 people at a time (and always the right temperature).  Imagine needing to do that for 1000 people using wood-fired spits?  Amazing!

This is the 'chimney' in the kitchen of the palace.

In the palace

More stuff inside the palace.  I wish I could tell you more about these, but they didn't give any info on this room in the tour.

This is the view the Pope would have had when he addressed the masses in the courtyard area (currently under renovation)

After the palace, we toured Pont Saint-Benezet, a bridge spanning the Rhone between Villeneuve-lès-Avignon and Avignon, built between 1177 and 1185.  This early bridge was destroyed forty years later when Louis VIII of France laid siege to Avignon.  The bridge was rebuilt with 22 stone arches.  It was costly to maintain as the arches tended to collapse when the Rhone flooded and in the middle of the 17th century, the bridge was abandoned.  The four surviving arches on the bank of the Rhone are believed to have been built around 1345 by Pope Clement VI during the Avignon Papacy.  Below are some views of the bridge and from the bridge.

Actually, this is not of the bridge, but of the rocky out cropping that the palace and bridge are built on.   You can also see a good section of the wall that surrounded the city.

On the Pont Saint-Benezet

Looking back toward the Palace from the bridge 

On the bridge looking at the Avignon side of the Rhone

Looking at the Palace of the Popes from the bridge

Looking down the Rhone - you can see some of the wall of the city in the distance 

We also toured the Petit Palais Museum while in Avignon.  Frankly, we thought it would a history museum, but it turned out to be a collection of Italian and Provencal paintings from the late 13^th to early 16^th centuries.  At that time, most paintings were done on wood, and almost all depicted either the Virgin Mary with Jesus as a child, Jesus on the cross, the Apostles, or Saints.  We were struck with how much of an influence the church had on all aspects of peoples lives during that time period.

This is the Virgin at the top of the tower of the Cathedral of Avignon.  It's quite a sight!

One of the paintings (on wood) in the museum.  It was titled:
Maitre de 1310
La Vierge de Majeste avec six anges et les donateurs Paci

This was in 3-D hanging from the ceiling of the museum

We walked up to the overlook  

From the overlook of the Rhone, looking down at the Pont Saint-Benezet

Christ on the cross 

Looking down at the square in front of the Palace of the Popes

It was a long day, so headed home - then walked into Uzes for dinner.  Even though we were able to communicate that I am “celiac”, gluten intolerant, there wasn’t much on the menu I could eat, and even though I was assured that what I ordered was gluten-free, I still had a bad reaction to it – ugh.

Friday, April 25

Today was a ‘down day’ – our term for ‘no plans’.   This was good because we needed a break from being tourists, and it was cool and rainy in the morning.  I had my hair cut and colored in the morning – got a recommendation for a place in Uzes from Stephanie, our landlord here.  Arne dropped me off in the car, had a couple free hours at the house, and then walked up and met me for lunch when I was done with the hair appointment.  We found a Thai restaurant that was pretty good (and gluten free!).  We’ve decided you can’t have lunch in France for less than 50 euros.  It doesn’t seem to matter what we order!

Additionally, my haircut/color was quite expensive -- 205 euros ($283)!  That included some products I purchased as well, but still – quite a bit more than I would pay in Seattle.  We had dinner at home that night!

Saturday, April 26

Saturday dawned clear and sunny again!  I am hearing from people at home that it’s been cold and very wet there, so we are soaking up all this nice weather as long as we can!

We had made arrangements to meet an ex-Boeing guy who Arne knew of through a former co-worker.  So we drove to Chateauneuf du Pape (home of the Pope’s summer palace – now in ruins, or course).  Doug Graves, who retired from Boeing and moved to Southern France in 2008.  He bought a winery and a vineyard (he has since sold the vineyard) and is spending his retirement giving wine tours of the Chateauneuf du Pape area and where he lives, as well as making his own wine.  He has his own label – Mas de la Lionne, and will soon be shipping some of his wine to California for distribution in the States.   You can check out his website at http://www.masdelalionne.com/.  There is a link on his site to his wine tours also. 

We spent the whole day with Doug and had a great time exploring several of the wineries in the area, tasting and having lunch, then more tasting!  We started at Doug’s own winery at his home.  We tasted 3 wines – a Rose, and two reds – Cotes du Rhone and Ombre du Chateau.  We ended up buying 2 bottles of the Ombre, 2 bottles of the Rose, and a bottle of the Cotes du Rhone.   We both thought his wine was very good and will look for it when it is available in the US.  He also explained the wine making process in detail -- we found it very interesting and were asking lots of questions. :-)

The town of Chateauneuf du Pape

Antiques at Doug's winery 

Antique grape press at Doug's winery

The vineyard

We then traveled east across the valley to “the hill country”.   Cote de Rhone is an AOC (Appellation d’Origine Controllee) that borders the Rhone river (makes sense doesn’t it).  There are 8 grape varieties grown in the region, however the northern region is primarily Syrah and the southern region primarily Grenache.  There are 8 villages that also qualify as their own micro appellations (4 in the north area and 4 in the south area).

We had lunch in Gigondas and spent time reminiscing about Boeing - found that we had worked on some of the same programs in the 1980’s and knew some of the same people.  After lunch we visited a tasting room in town and a local winery (Domaine de Long Toque).  Gigondas is one of the 8 villages that also qualifies as it’s own appellation.  The vineyards in Gigondas start at the valley floor and move up the hillside (highest elevation probably 1800 ft), providing 4 very different types of soil (“terroir”) that affect the wine flavor.

In Gigondas

Gigondas 

The place we had lunch in Gigondas

We tasted wine at this tasting room

Looking back down the valley from the restaurant

We then visited a “cooperative” in Vacqueyras, another one of the 8 small villages.  The vineyards there are mostly situated on a “mesa” just above the valley floor, and even though it is close in proximity to Gigondas, they produce a noticeably different wine.  Interestingly, the coop has a self-serve “fill and go” wine area – members can bring in (or buy) empty jugs and fill them with wines at a bulk price.  It’s like a filling station!  What a great idea!

The wine self-service filling station at the co-op

We then headed back to Chateauneuf de Pape.  This town is also one of the 8 in Cote de Rhone that qualifies as it’s own appellation.  Historically, this was the first AOC established in France (1932), and one of the more interesting rules here is that wine makers using grapes from the area can make vin rouge and vin blanc, but not vin rose.  We tasted the wines of Domaine du Pere Deboche, and of course, bought a couple of bottles.  :-)

We also stopped at the ruins of the Pope's Summer Palace briefly.

All that's left of the Pope's Summer Palace

From Chateauneuf du Pape looking toward Avignon - you can see it in the distance on the Rhone River.

From Chateauneuf du Pape looking away from the river - beautiful country!

We truly enjoyed meeting Doug and spending the day visiting and learning about winemaking and the Cote de Rhone AOC.  We would highly recommend that anyone visiting this area take a tour -- and his wines are quite good as well!

We arrived home about 5:45PM and decided to walk into Uzes for dinner to avoid the leftovers in the refrigerator…we will deal with those tomorrow, our last full day in Uzes.

Place de Herbes in Uzes in the evening

One of the roads on our walk home