Avignon and surrounding area

 

On Tuesday we left Carcassonne and started driving to Avignon. Much of the driving was on good roads or toll roads, but not all. Navigation continues to be a challenge, as the signage does not always correspond to what Google Maps says.

We stopped in Pezanas to see a statue of the black Madonna. We had a nice lunch, but the church was closed. The sign outside the church discussed the history of the church and mentioned the black Madonna.

We parked our car in the underground parking structure near the Palais du Papes, and walked to our Kyriad Hotel, which is comfortable. We had dinner at a restaurant on the Plaza de Horlodge

Wednesday we started the day with the tourist train, just to get a feel for the city. We had lunch at Festicafe, and then went to the Palais du Papes. It is a huge place with lots of stairs, which was tiring for Sandi. Most of the rooms were empty, but they provided ipads loaded with augmented reality software that showed what the rooms would have liked at specific times in history. There were some areas of murals, but photos were not allowed. They had set up a stage and stands inside for the upcoming theatre festival. We walked away from the tourist area and had a good kebab meal at Aux Delices d'Anais.

Thursday we ate breakfast at the hotel, as usual. We drove to the Pont du Gard, a UNESCO world heritage site, an impressive aqueduct whose height is the same as the Statue of Liberty. They had a very good museum explaining how water functioned in Roman towns, and how the aqueduct was constructed. We then drove to Nimes, to see another UNESCO site, the Maison Carree, a Roman Temple. We walked to the Roman Arena, which held up to 24,000 people! They are still using it for events.

Maison Carree

Friday we ate breakfast at hotel and took a hop on hop off bus tour of the city. We got off on the island in the Rhone River and had lunch. The tour largely had us circumnavigating the city outside the wall. We went back to the room and rested It has been unusually hot, 95 to 100 degrees..After a nap, we walked to the Cathedral, and then the Museum of the Petit Palais, which had a very nice exhibit of paintings from the Avignon era.

This image is one of the paintings from the Museum of the Petit Palais.  It depicts two legends of St. Eloi, the patron saint of blacksmiths, who is kind of a patron saint for Richard.   One legend has him tempted by the devil disguised as beautiful woman; he noticed her cloven hoofs and pinched her nose with hot tongs.  The other legend has him shoeing a horse, that did not want to be shoed.  He got frustrated, cut off the horse's leg, and then miraculously reattached it!

Saturday we went first to the Halles Market in Avignon, and headed for Orange, to see the Roman Theatre, a UNESCO World Heritage site. We had a picnic on a bench in Orange. The Theatre was somewhat interesting, but very hot. We learned a little about the history of Roman Theatres. We stopped at the Brotte Wine Museum in Chateauneuf, and learned a bit about wine, including a lot about their wine and technique is the best. They do not machine harvest. We headed back to the hotel, and then out for dinner. We went out the front door and looked at the menu for the restaurant next door; the waiter directed us to a table. After Richard sat down, he realized that he did not have his wallet. We both went up to the room to look for it, when the front desk guy knocked on our door and returned the wallet. It turned out that the waiter dropped it off at the hotel, and later said that someone found it in a public restroom nearby. But how did the wallet end up in the restaurant that we were in? We strongly suspect the waiter.

Sunday we drove to Isle-sur la Sorgue; we parked a long way from town, due to market day. The church was plain outside, but beautiful inside, and the bishop said the mass. We had a good lunch of charcuterie, and a tomato mozzarella salad. The town is known for canals and waterwheels.  On the way back, we stopped at the police station to report the theft, which Richard did in French. His French has been improving on the trip. We had dinner at the Opera restaurant.

Monday we decided to change it up from history, and visit the Ornithology center in the Camarague. We enjoyed seeing the rose colored flamingos, spectacular in flight, with pink legs. We also saw many other birds, but were generally unable to identify them, despite having a bird app with European birds.

 It was very hot, so we decided to go to the nearby beach at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. We had a pleasant lunch at Bistrot Cafe Noisette, where we chatted with the owner, who enjoyed the US but said the food was bad. We walked over to the beach, and started driving back. We stopped to take photos of the famous Camargue horses and bulls. We continued to Arles, where we walked around the Roman theatre and Arena, adding another world heritage site to Richard's list. On this trip, we visited ten UNESCO World Heritage sites! Perhaps a little over the top......

Tuesday we crossed the Rhone to see the gardens at the Abbaye of Saint-Andre. They are built around the ruins of the Abbey, and are quite large. They are showcasing the plants of the Mediterranean, and promoting biodiversity. They were elegant gardens, and are still somewhat elegant, if wilder. There is a chapel dedicated to St Casarie, who was a hermit there. The current gardens started as a project 100 years ago, with successive family and friend supervision. We enjoyed our visit very much. There were great views of Avignon and the surrounding area. We filled up the car with gas. We had lunch at Festicafe again. We rested in the room in the afternoon, and had dinner at La Cuisine de Papa. The day was again very hot, over 95F; we were happy to be inside in the afternoon. We have been saying how much nicer it would have been to have normal temperatures, in the 80s. The heat wave has lasted about a week, and continued after we left.

Wednesday we headed for the TGV train station, to drop off our rental car and take the TGV high speed train directly to the Paris Airport, which should have been very convenient. Things kind of went downhill from that point. We took the wrong turn to find the rental car return, so ended up driving the wrong way on an airport road. At the train station, we learned that our train was late, but had trouble finding more information. We got on the train, but then found that the baggage area at that end of the train was full. This is where our four bags caught up with us. Luckily someone helped us haul bags to the other end of the car, where there was still some room for bags. The train station was in the airport, but we had trouble finding the taxi stand, even after asking several people. This day was like many things in France, you have to slow down, be patient, and realize that things are never easy, even if you speak decent French.

We got a taxi to our hotel, which was the Nomad Roissy. Nomad has kind of a strange décor; the shower enclosure was spiral shaped, and you could program the color of the shower light...... We walked to a local Kebab shop in the village of Roissy. Charles De Gaule airport is often described as being in Roissy, but this was the first time that I got to see the original village of Roissy.

Thursday we took a private van to the airport. We were told to head for the Mobility Assistance office, where we ended up waiting for two hours for a wheelchair. At least one person there just blew off any concerns, did not seem to care. As we were getting closer to boarding time, Sandi wanted to just start walking, but I argued that with the assistance, we would get expedited past long lines. Finaly our excellent helper arrived with a wheelchair, and we made it through immigration and customs. In France, they scan your passport when you arrive and when you leave. You end up in one line for immigration, and another line for customs. When we got to the gate boarding was going on, using buses to transport passengers to the plane. We were taken to a lift vehicle, similar to those they use to stock planes with food. We entered the back door, kind of a unique way to board a plane. Our flight home was routine; Richard watched movies, Napoleon, and a French comedy. We landed in Denver, took a bus to our car, and drove home. We were quite tired, with an 8 hour time difference.

Carcassonne

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Saturday we drove south, over the Black Mountains. We stopped at a picnic area, and a plaque commemorated a Resistance attack on the Germans. I was skeptical of the claim that they killed 50 Germans without losing a man; a lot of the claims about the Resistance fighters in France seem to be made up after the fact.

We drove to the hotel, which was not open yet, so we went to the walled city in Carcassone, and walked around. We ate lunch and later some ice cream. Sandi bought an Occitane cross from a jewelry maker in the reenactor camp. We also chatted with a bowman in the reenactor camp. On our way out, we chatted with a group of French Foreign Legion retirees, who were having a reunion.

Foreign Legion

 We headed out to find mass, but the Cathedral did not have a Saturday evening mass. The priest suggested Sacre—Coeur, which did have a 6 PM mass. We drove to the hotel, where Kathy was very helpful. The hotel is very nice, four stars. We had dinner at the Pampa Argentinian restaurant. Sandi ordered a hamburger, medium well, but it came almost raw, and Sandi could not eat it. The manager stopped by, and when he heard the story, said that the waitress did not really speak English, so there was a communication problem. He had them cook up another burger, well done. But well done in France is medium in the USA. So we had a lengthy chat about the differences in cooking in the US and France. We need to ask for “tres bien cuit”, very well done, but even that may be redder than we like. We were very tired at the end of the day, did too much.

Filling the lock.

Sunday we ate breakfast at the hotel, and took the boat tour on the Canal du Midi. The Canal du Midi is a Unesco World Heritage site, and was constructed around 1670, making it one of the oldest canals still in operation. (Using Google maps in town was frustrating, as the street signs did not match what Google said.) We enjoyed the tour, where we went through two locks, and listened to our guide give her talk seamlessly in French, Spanish, and English. We had lunch at La Rotunde near the canal.

Next we headed to Lastours, where there are four Cathar castles close together. A British couple lived next to the parking lot, and guided us to a very tiny road, where we could see the castles from a distance. We later drove to the Belvedere, where we were able to see them well, across the valley. We returned to Carcassonne, and had dinner at Ami Bagdad. The owners we loveable; they were refugees from Bagdad. They gave Sandi a mini cooking lesson.

Demon at church at Rennes-le-Chateau

Monday got off to a bad start when Richard turned down the breakfast buffet at the hotel. Many bakeries are closed on Monday, and even restaurants that are open for drinks may not serve food before noon. Sandi was very unhappy. We tried and failed to find a bakery, and went to the Basilica of Notre Dame de Marceille in Limoux, for the Black Madonna, but it was closed for lunch. We saw huge fields of grapevines as we drove. We headed for Rennes le Chateau, on the top of a hill, and ate a good lunch at La Escondida, with a great overlook. We visited the chateau and church, where the priest did a lot of building. There are many stories about where the money came from, including a lost treasure; signs prohibited digging within the city.  Reportedly Dan Brown got ideas from this story.

We returned to the Basilica, and found the Black Madonna. Many miracles are attributed to the Black Madonna. Richard wanted to see the exvotos, which are thank you notes to God; however, the museum and store are only open certain days in July and August. We continued to the abbey of St. Hilaire, which dates to the eighth century. We were tired when we got home; we went to the supermarket and picked up bread and cheese for dinner.

On Tuesday we said our goodbyes to Kathy, our host at the hotel. We started driving to Pezanas, in search of a Black Madonna. We found the Convent of the Ursulines, which the sign said had a 13^th century black Madonna statue. However, the church was closed. But we had a good lunch at a local street cafe. We continued to Avignon and found our hotel. We had dinner on the Plaza de Horlage, near our hotel, and wandered around a bit. It was a relatively easy day, partly because we were often on toll roads, not narrow country or mountain roads.

Aveyron - France Profund

Aveyron – the French Countryside.

On Sunday we took an Uber to the Montparnasse Train station, and caught a TGV (high speed train) to Toulouse. Only part of the trip was on the high speed rail network, so it took 5 hours to get to Toulouse. The INOUI train was very comfortable, with a bar car. We picked up an Enterprise rental car at the train station, but when we pushed the start button, nothing happened. It was a hybrid, so they explained that the engine does not start until needed, we only needed to put it in gear.

Our drive was partly on a toll Autoroute, and then on roads that became progressively narrower and more twisty. We arrived at John and Alison's house without difficulty. They have an old stone house, hundreds of years old. They have a “maisonette” or guest house, which is where we are staying. The beams are hewn, not sawn. The stone walls are at least 18 inches thick. Alison fixed us a nice dinner.

We are in the department of Aveyron; Rodez is the largest city, with a population of 25,000. We are in a tiny community, surrounded by other tiny rural communities. The closest store is about 10 minutes away.  Alison thinks that we are in "deep France", or "France Profund".

They do have fiber internet. There was no wifi in the mesonette, as WIFI signals do not go through thick stone walls. I suggested John order an outdoor WIFI extender, which I installed in the window, and provides decent internet inside their guest house.

Monday we did a little work around the yard, and then visited a local antique shop. Alison fixed us another nice dinner.

The church was painted everywhere

Very fine stone carving

Tuesday Sandi and I went to Albi, which has an unbelievable brick cathedral, reportedly one of the largest brick buildings in France. The interior is painted everywhere, and there is an incredible amount of very detailed limestone carving. This is a UNESCO World Heritage site. We also visited the Toulouse-Lautrec museum, where we saw his early work painting people and animals, and also his better known work with printed posters promoting books or performances. We visited a religious goods store, run by a loveable franciscan friar, who looks at his work as evangelization, as young people come in to talk.

Wednesday we drove two cars to Rodez, for the farmer's market. We had a fine meal at Touosto. Sandi and I walked to the Musee Fenaille, which ranged from stone age artifacts to Roman busts to medieval church objects. The day was very hot, so in the afternoon we relaxed in our cool stone house.

View from the castle

Castle drawbridge

Thursday we drove to Belcastel, which we liked very much. We started at the reconstructed castle, with somewhat hokey animatronic monsters, but it was cool to see the castle. We had a picnic from Alison that we ate near the campground, which looked very nice. We visited the chapel. Then we stopped in a couple of craft shops, where Sandi bought a few items. We also visited the blacksmith shop, which also had exhibits on fishing, making sabots (wooden shoes), as well as art carved from the trunks of trees.

Friday was a longish drive to Conques over small twisty roads, which took us over an hour to drive 35 miles. We had a good lunch at an organic restaurant. The church was very medieval, and did not have the opulence that we saw in Albi. The monks finished singing midday Vespers as we arrived. We visited the treasury of the church, which had a number of impressive artifacts from up to 1000 years ago. We also visited the museum, which included tapestries depicting Mary Magdalene.  Conques is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Richard enjoyed chatting with some French pilgrims. The drive seemed even longer on the way back. The area is called the land of 1000 valleys; it seemed we went up and down a good percentage of them. ;-)

Paris

On Tuesday we drove to the airport and parked at the Parking Spot, which gave us a deal. With Sandi's knee, she lined up a wheelchair, which took us to the Delta Club. The 5:40 PM Air France flight left on time. The premium economy seat was good, and the flight attendants were attentive. We arrived in Paris Wednesday, a bit early, but had to wait for a gate. The young lady who drove the wheelchair was great; we sailed through immigration and customs with priority, and took a taxi to the Hotel Darcet, which we liked, partly due to the employees. The elevator was too small for two people with luggage, however. We had a good lunch at Le Petit Poucet, around the corner, and went to sleep. We had dinner there as well.

On Thursday, we walked to the Montmartre cemetery, which was an interesting above ground cemetery, and found the graves of the painter Degas, and the scientist Foucoult (think pendulum). We continued walking towards the Sacre Coeur church, but turned around, as we were moving slowly. We came back to the hotel, ate, and tried to take a bus to the Louvre, but the bus never came; we took a taxi. 

 The Louvre was amazing, huge, hard to get your head around, and hard to navigate. We enjoyed being in the castle moat, and seeing the Louvre Couture exhibit, which put designer clothes in the midst of Napoleonic settings. We tried to take a bus back, but it did not show up, so we took a taxi. Sandi had walked too much; my phone said 7 miles! We had dinner at Little Italy, near our hotel.

Friday Sandi decided to stay in the room and rest her knee. We had breakfast at Le Petit Poucet again; it is a classic sidewalk cafe. Richard took a bus to his favorite, the Musee d'Orsay. He was interested in photos from 1945, showing the return of prisoners to Paris. The Impressionists were impressive as usual. The Musee d'Orsay is generally works from 1800 on, and is in an old railroad station, a dramatic metal and glass structure built in 1900. Richard and Sandi had dinner at Mont Liban, a Lebanese restaurant, where we chatted about Trump with Catherine, a Parisian exploring the neighborhood.

 

On Saturday, we took a taxi to the Batobus, which is a hop-on hop-off tour boat on the Seine. We caught it near the Eiffel Tower, and continued to Invalides, where we ate an excellent meal at a Lebanese restaurant. A bag in the store window caught Sandi's attention, so we stopped and talked to the artist for some time, and bought a few bags. 

 We got back on the Batobus to Notre Dame, where we were able to go to mass. We took a taxi back to our hotel, and packed to go to visit our friends in the country.

Madrid and home

 

I walked to a 9:30 bus to Madrid. As the bus was going to the station, I noticed the Museo de America, which I had planned to visit. I walked to the museum, which as organized by topic, not by area or culture. Not my favorite museum. I took a metro to my hotel, but found it uncharacteristically confusing. I asked for help, and got where I was going. When I arrived at the plaza del Sol, I found the tail end of a pro-palestine demonstration.

I checked into the hotel and retrieved the bag I had left two weeks ago. I went to mass at a local church, and then heard a marching band, so I followed. It was a religious procession, with a statue carried by dozens of men, people in street clothes carrying candles, etc. They like processions in Spain.





There was a Viva Madrid music festival, so I participated by going to a basement nightclub. The leader was Carla Lourdes, a singer-songwriter of the pop rock persuasion. She had many followers there who sang along. I enjoyed it.








Sunday I went to the Thyssen-Bornemisza art museum, a huge museum with art from the medieval era up to the 20th century, and a good amount of impressionist art. 











I took a nap, and visited the cathedral and its crypt. After a Ramen dinner, I went to the Plaza Mayor, where they had set up a huge stage, with pop musicians. Antonio Orozco, Conchita, and David Demaría. These are big stars here; folks knew the words and sang along.  I enjoyed Conchita.





Guernica




Monday I walked to the Reina Sophia museum. Most of what I saw seemed to be between about 1900 and 1940, with quite a bit of material from the Spanish Civil War. There were a couple of interesting metal pieces, one of them was a 38 ton Serra sculpture that somehow disappeared from storage. What was on exhibit was a re-creation. The other was a Alexander Calder sculpture, the mercury fountain. The model did not actually contain mercury, but the real fountain, from 1937, had mercury circulating in it with a little pump. The flowing mercury would’ve been quite spectacular, I’m sure.





I walked up to where I was going to catch the bus in the morning, to make sure I knew where the bus stop was. I repacked for the flight. I did a little shopping for gifts in the afternoon, and went to a jazz show in the evening, the Daniel Juarez quartet at the Cafe Central.

All day I was just feeling that I was so grateful that I could even be here. Actually, I’ve been feeling very grateful for the entire trip. As usual, we cannot count our blessings. I have been praying for some friends and family facing serious health issues.

I woke Tuesday at 5 AM to find an email that my flight was now 5 hours late! I went back to bed. Later I got up and went for a real breakfast, not the croissant and orange juice that had been my standard on this trip. I walked to the bus stop, and paid 5 euros to ride a crowded bus to Terminal 1. I was very early, so I hung out at the airport. Delta gave me a 13 euro chit to buy food, about $2 per hour of delay. :-(

Terminal 1 is modern; I walked what seemed like a long distance without leaving the terminal. None of the electrical outlets worked, including ones with big signs saying “Charge Here”. Luckily the Delta aircraft had a USB outlet that would charge my phone. It was a long flight. I did not try to sleep. When I got to Atlanta I was worried I would not make the connection, but with the help of Global Entry I sailed through immigration, and made it to my new flight before they started boarding. I took the bus to Fort Collins, where I learned that Uber may not be helpful on Tuesday at midnight; I called a taxi, got home around 1 am.

Salamanca

 

I took a bus from Leon to Zamora, and then Zamora to Salamanca. I checked into Hostal Granada. Went to a local restaurant to get a serious meal, then headed into the old city, where I visited the tourist office first, and then three museums. The first museum was an art nouveau and art deco museum, which was quite interesting; It had many extremely beautiful small things, such as small statues. I always like art deco.

Citroen DS-23

The next museum was a car museum. This was a little different take on a car museum than in the US, in that it had mostly European cars.

My next stop was to the archives of the Spanish Civil War. Franco centralized his police state like records here, and they’re stored in there for researchers. for some reason Franco was fixated on the Masons, thought they were communist. Apparently the Masons were the intellectuals of the day, and Franco did not like those folks. It sounds a little bit like 2025…..

On Friday, I signed up for a monument tour, in Spanish, because that was what was available. It was an excellent tour; it took us to the university of Salamanca, which is the oldest in Spain, and one of the oldest in Europe. we also visited the new and the old cathedral. The new cathedral is very difficult to get your head around. It is huge and extremely high. Lots of beautiful artwork.

Salamanca has a unique arch, came from the Muslims

They replaced some deteriorated stone carving
with new stone carving.  Look for the astronaut.

In the afternoon, I decided to visit two more museums, because of course you can never visit too many museums. The first one was the museum of commerce, which I enjoyed very much, with a special exhibit on radios and a lot of old photos. The second museum was the contemporary art museum called Domus Artium., a converted jail. As is often the case in contemporary art museums, there was a lot there that I did not understand or appreciate. I tend to think that art needs to show a certain level of skill, and so much of the contemporary art does not. There were some good photos, however, and a well done video of women singing a woman’s story of spousal abuse and jail.

Sometimes I joke, and I’m not sure it’s a joke, that I could go to a big city, and visit two museums a day for a week, and think that I had a great vacation. ;-)

Photos- Carrion to Leon

A somewhat typical view of the trail.  It is flat, and we often walk next to a road, usually a road that is not busy.  You can see a few pilgrims in the photo, but not many.   

Hanging out in the sun on the patio of the albergue.

This area has quite a few underground houses.  Most are no longer occupied.   This is the nicest one that I saw.   Some are just piles of dirt with the chimney and a door.

This is the French lady who walked 2200 km from her home in northern France to Santiago.

The cathedral in Leon.