CHAPTER 12
Leaving Collioure, we headed East to Provence- an area known for its lavender fields, roman ruins, and surprisingly to us, as we are not Catholic, a town that was the seat of the Papacy for almost a century during the 1300’s. I had no idea that there had been a second Vatican City, as it were. I love that about traveling- stumbling onto the realization of some huge historical fact, that admittedly I probably should have been aware of, but that somehow escaped my notice till now, and I just have to say “Wow, that’s incredible”- incredible because it’s real, and incredible that I could be ignorant to so much of the world’s history. I guess our only option is to keep on truckin and see what else is out there that we have no idea exists. But I digress…
First stop on our tour of Provence was the Pont du Gard, a monumental aqueduct built by the Romans in 20 BC, part of a system to provide water to the City of Nimes from a mountain spring 31 mile away, but only 41 ft higher in elevation! The Pont du Gard itself only descends 1 inch over its almost 1200 foot span- what an incredible marvel of engineering! Needless to say, I was quite impressed. The boys seemed to enjoy it as well, if not for the actual aqueduct, the visitor center had a pretty awesome water table for them to splash around in.
From the Pont du Gard to our hotel in the center of Avignon it was only about a half hour, and then another half an hour driving around the maze of one way streets trying to find a place to park. We spent that afternoon, and the full following day exploring the city of the Popes- checking out the lavender, eating pastries on the river front, admiring the graceful remains of the Pont d’Avignon, witnessing a guy pull a 6ft monster, no kidding, out of the water under the Pont d’Avignon- a leviathan if there ever was one (remind me not to go swimming in that river), taking the mini tourist train around town, playing in the hill top garden above the Palace of the Popes, and generally falling in love with Avignon. We will be going back.
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