Sunday 24th September 2023. Villeneuve Les Avignon.
Time to move on again after another good night at Arles. This time I was definitely tracking the Rhône northwards to Avignon.
The first milestone of the cycling was my 1000km distance….
The cycle tracks were pretty good most of the way, in fact large parts were freshly tarmaced as part of the Via Rhôna….they must have had some EU money!
My first stop was Beaucaire….
A nice ruined castle on top of the hill.Bit of an arty photo for me! Beaucaire Chateau….looks great.Chateau at Tarascon.The mighty Rhône is 814km in length, it starts in Switzerland, into Lake Geneva, down to Lyon and onward to the Med. The mountain you can see in the distance is Mont Ventoux which is the ‘Giant of Provence’ at 6250 feet high. I cycled up it in 2017, and still have the aftershave to prove it….Virtually none left, it’s lasted me 6 years! No wonder I smell!Here’s a photo of Avignon bridge with Ventoux in the background.
Janice had parked up north of Avignon and she cycled in and I met her outside the Palais du Papes!
This whole town is stunning. This is one side of a beautiful square.The Cathedral.This building has had multiple uses. It was the Papal Mint, a barracks and now a hotel, though you wouldn’t know it from this side.
The brief story about Avignon is that there was a Papal schism (falling out of the Popes) in the 1300’s when the Cardinals couldn’t decide who should be Pope so for a while we had two Popes. One was in Rome and one here in Avignon. It got sorted out in the 1400’s and it all went back to Rome but for a while a Pope lived here in the Papal Palace. Very grand indeed.
On a separate matter the half bridge at Avignon is subject to the song that Janice and I both learned at primary school. It starts “Sur Le Pont d’Avignon, L’on y danse, l’on y danse,”. This is believed to be a 15th century song about dancing that actually took place under the bridge? If you pay to go onto the bridge you can listen to modern versions of the song to Indian style music, reggae, country, bosanova and……acid jazz!! I’ll give that a miss.Nice little ride today. The wind was cool in the morning but it soon warmed up.
We returned to the van and drove to Villeneuve Les Avignon which is just across the Rhône from Avignon. I can say it’s not quite so grand but it is very pretty and includes Abbeys and a walled Fort St Andre.
A complete walled Fort! We are wild camping at the foot of the walls.La Chartreuse….a Carthusian Monastery, very much intact.
We missed the Scotland v Tonga game but it finished 45-17 to Scotland. I will settle down to watch the Wales v Australia game….it’s another biggie match.
It’s been a great day. I have taken sooo many photos I couldn’t use them all. The cycling has gone well so far….here’s to the next 1000km!
DESTINATION Y (WHY?). 
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