Bridges and Wine!

We’re still in Avignon, since that last blog post was getting a little long after the Cathedral and the Popes’ Palace! As you’ll remember, those two places make up two out of three elements that make up the UNESCO Site in Avignon. The third is the bridge, which we walked down to see after we left the palace. It has an interesting history, this bridge, especially the story behind why it was built. We learned the story after we got our audio guides and climbed up the century-old steps onto the bridge.

The Pont d’Avignon or Pont Saint Benezet, was built between 1177 and 1185. It’s called Pont Saint Benezet because of a legend about what inspired the building of the bridge – besides the fact that there wasn’t one across the Rhone anywhere near Avignon, so people had to try to cross the perilous river in small boats. The legend goes that Benezet, a shepherd boy from a nearby hamlet, was tending his sheep when he heard the voice of Jesus asking him to build a bridge across the river. He went to Avignon and publicly told everyone why he had come. They all laughed at him. Then the priest he’d made this public announcement to asked him to prove his divine calling by laying the foundation stone of the bridge, using a large boulder he pointed out. Benezet walked over to the boulder much too big for 5 men, let alone a shepherd boy, picked it up and walked it all the way down to the river where he thought the bridge ought to be built. He won support for the building of the bridge and was able to form a Brotherhood to oversee the construction. When he died, he was actually buried on the bridge in a small chapel.

 Some believe he was granted this divine mission because it would be essential when the papacy came to Avignon, which happened 150 years later. The bridge was an important link between Avignon and the area just north of there on the other side of the river where many Cardinals had homes. At that time Avignon was a populated citadel that was unfortunately considered by some to be “the most foul, stinking city on Earth” (the poet Petrarch) and anyone who was wealthy enough to afford it had a house in the hills on the other side of the Rhone. This was only possible because of the bridge. It was also a big part of one of the most important pilgrimage routes between Italy and Spain, since it was the only bridge between Lyon and the Mediterranean that crossed over the huge river.

It originally had 22 arches, but over the centuries it has gotten beat up quite a bit, particularly in the early 1600s. During a flood in 1603, one of the arches collapsed – and three more in 1605. They didn’t try to start repairing it until almost 20 years later, and because of an epidemic of the plague that slowed the work, it wouldn’t become usable again until 1633.  Two months after it reopened, two other arches were swept away by the Rhone, and by 1669 even more of the bridge had been lost. By 1674, they removed the relics of Saint Benezet for fear they would be lost when the bridge finally collapsed. The remains of the bridge never did collapse, but there are only 4 of the 22 arches left and it doesn’t actually cross the river anymore.

There’s a well known song called “Sur le Pont d’Avignon” which has existed in various forms since the 16^th century. It has, of course, undergone many, many changes throughout the centuries, and the current form has very little to do with the original, but it has remained popular. In its current form, it’s a popular children’s song:

But I’m particularly fond of this video of a contemporary dance to it on the actual bridge (just the music, no lyrics) because the main lyric is “Sur le Pont d’Avignon, on y danse, on y danse” (basically we dance on the Avignon Bridge) and they’re actually dancing on the bridge:

At the very end of the audio guide we could listen to the original song from the 16^th century, which was actually for use in a Mass in 1503 – and it was very, very different from what we hear today. It was a fun way to end our tour of the UNESCO Sites in Avignon.

Our plan was to see one more UNESCO Site that day: the Roman aqueduct that was only 20 minutes away. We decided since it was still early enough we could squeeze in a wine tasting before we headed out to Pont du Gard. We drove out to Chateauneuf du Pape, a town about 20 minutes from Avignon that is well known for wine tasting. We hadn’t chosen a specific winery, just decided to randomly turn up one of the long driveways that had a winetasting sign out on the road. There were a lot of them and I randomly chose one – and the long, winding driveway led to a large castle on a hill. It was quite picturesque, this castle on the hill surrounded by vineyards as far as the eye could see! 

We had a lovely tasting, and decided to buy a bottle of one of the wines that we would save for our final evening in France. Later on I wondered about the history of the building. To be honest, it seemed a little too perfect to be authentic, so I looked it up a bit later and couldn’t find it on the list of historical monuments in that region. I think it is actually a modern building made to look like an authentic castle. It was pretty cool anyway!

It was about 6:30pm by the time we were done with our tasting, but we knew that Pont du Gard was accessible until dark, which was almost 10pm this time of year, so we headed that way. The official tourist center was closed by the time we got there, but access to the actual aqueduct doesn’t really close, so we walked out to the river to see it. We’re going a lot further back in history than even Avignon when seeing Pont du Gard. It was built by the Romans in the 1^st century AD as part of the Aqueduct that carried water to the Roman colony now known as Nimes. It carried an estimated 8 million gallons of water a day 31 miles, for 6 centuries. Eventually the other parts of the aqueduct weren’t well maintained and the water couldn’t flow in some parts, but the bridge (Pont) was well maintained because it was also a toll bridge. The local rulers (lords and bishops) kept it maintained so they could charge a toll for people who wanted to use it to cross the river.

 It’s a spectacular representation of Roman engineering at 160 feet tall, 1,180 feet long at the top, with a slight descent of 1 inch over the length of the bridge, just enough to keep the water flowing.  It has 3 layers of arches, with an even number of arches on each level. The bottom, and thickest, layer had a road attached to it in the 1800s – and that’s the part you can walk across today.

The river below is quite shallow these days and it’s a popular swimming hole. The pebbled beaches are nice for sun bathing and enjoying the view of the amazing bridge. If it had been earlier and still so warm out, we would definitely have taken a dip in the river. As it was, we just got our feet wet before hopping back in the car and heading home.

 At this point in the road trip, we’ve seen 3 UNESCO Sites!!

 Next: Orange and its Roman Theatre!

Avignon (UNESCO # 2)

Avignon was the next stop on our road trip, and we wanted to make sure to get there in time to attend Mass at the Cathedral, part of the ensemble that makes up the UNESCO site. We left at 8am and made it to Avignon just as the clouds were threatening rain. We parked the car in a large lot just outside the city wall – the historical center of Avignon has a defensive wall around it – and made our way in towards the Cathedral… or at least what I thought was the 

Cathedral and Palace together

Cathedral. I didn’t realize that the Cathedral and the Pope’s Palace were all connected, so we ended up at the wrong church just as it started to rain. We figured out we weren’t at the Cathedral and headed back out to find it. 
Once I realized the two monuments were connected, we found it easily and got there just as Mass began, only a few minutes late. The Mass was lovely, and I particularly enjoyed the Homily, which was on the subject of the Holy Spirit – being Pentecost Sunday and all – and how we are able to see manifestations of all 3 elements of the Holy Trinity within ourselves.

After the service, we stayed a little bit to see the church, and then headed out to see what else there was to see – after a coffee/crêpe break, of course! The UNESCO site is technically the “Historic Centre of Avignon: Papal Palace, Episcopal Ensemble and Avignon Bridge” and we were on to the Papal Palace. It’s known as “the most well-fortified house in the world” and was chosen by UNESCO because it is “one of the most outstanding examples of medieval architecture in the world” according to the UNESCO description.

Well fortified!!

Why is it the most well-fortified house in the world? Because of the people it was built for and their position: the Popes’ Palace was built, you guessed it, for Popes. But the Popes live(d) in Rome! Well, back in the medieval times, the seat of power didn’t stay in Rome at all times. It was an “itinerant” and would reside in different cities that made up its states. When the archbishop of Bordeaux became Pope Clement V, he decided to have the Papal seat stay in Avignon more or less permanently. He was able to systematically promote French Cardinals until they were a majority in the Sacred College. He hoped this would make it so that the Popes to be elected in the foreseeable future would be French. His plan worked and the next 6 Popes were French – ending the domination of Italian Popes. They all decided to keep the Papacy in Avignon, making Avignon basically the most important city in the known world for about 70 years. Gregory VI was crowned in Avignon, was determined to diplomatically bring together feuding heads of state all around him and brought the Papal Seat back to Rome in 1377.

They actually only recently found this hidden
chamber under the floor of a bedroom in the Palace!!

He died in Rome a year later, and that began the “Western Schism” when a faction of dissident Cardinals protested the election of an Italian Pope (after 70+ years of French Popes reigning) by electing their own Pope, Clement VII. He and his successor both resided in the Palace at Avignon. The second Avignon Pope, Benedict XIII, was confined to the palace that was constantly under siege. He was able to flee and took refuge with a sympathetic monarch, the King of Aragon.

We learned all of this as we visited different rooms in the palace. The interesting thing is that the rooms are all pretty much empty! Usually they’d be furnished with period-specific pieces, but these were all empty. It worked out well though, because this place gets an insane amount of people visiting each year and the upkeep would be near impossible. The empty rooms allow for more people to visit, and we were still able to see what it looked like in the 1300s when the Popes lived there! How, you may ask? Great question! They gave us “Histopads” to use as our guides. These tablets are SO COOL. Here’s a video I took to show you: 

 In the audio we learned that peacocks were an expensive delicacy that only the extremely wealthy ate. After they were cooked, they were redressed with their feathers so they looked nice and exotic while on the table. When we went into the kitchen area, the audio talked about how there would be a large section of hot coals in the middle that would be cooking meat – which you can see in the video below.

It’s not easy to take a video of a tablet while walking around and holding the tablet and the phone, but I thought it was so cool and wanted to show you the newest thing in tourism technology. They also had this cool app at the end where you could take a selfie and it would put your face in a medieval image... here I am as a medieval maiden :) 

 Stay tuned for my next blog, which will be about the last of the 3 parts of the Avignon UNESCO Sites, plus the Pont du Gard, which is a separate UNESCO site about 20 minutes from Avignon.