Europe,  France,  TDM,  Travel Journal

Pont du Gard, Pont d’Avignon & le Palais des Papes – Road Trip in France #14

After having scratched the car because of a too narrow passage, we say to ourselves that we are a little tired because of the rhythm of the trip and that it will be necessary to go a little softer. So, instead of making stops in all directions, we remove the ancient monuments from our itinerary, namely: the Ancient Theater of Orange (before Avignon), the Arena & the Blue Museum of Arles ( after Avignon). Without these visits, we have 2 full days in Avignon.

Note: this blog article is part of the “Road Trip in France” made in August 2020. To read the previous parts, click here : #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12 and #13

Part 1: Travel Diary
Part 2: Practical Tips

Part 1: Travel Diary

After driving through the road of the Gorges, we arrive late afternoon in Avignon. We have dinner downtown at the restaurant Café Saint-Jean. I recommend you with closed eyes their tuna tartar, it’s a killer! The rest is very good too, but not as remarkable.

Pont du Gard

The next day, we rest, I put online articles of the blog… and it is only at the end of the afternoon that we move to go to the Pond du Gard. We had a little difficulty to understand how it worked. We are parked side “left bank” because there is a museum, but I think that to swim, it is better to park on the “right bank” (there are more beaches). Whether it’s left bank or right bank, you have to pay. And you can’t just pay the parking no, that’s where it’s a bit sneaky. The parking is included in the entrance ticket. Yes, 9,5€ per person (and not per car), it’s a little bit abused. It seems that it is possible to reach the bridge by crossing the woods, but we aren’t locals and we risk to get lost.

I put below the site map, click on each picture to zoom and save them.

Here is the view from the left bank. There is a swimming area here, it isn’t sand but sloping rocks. The water is cold despite the heat wave. There are a lot of young people jumping from the rock opposite. It must be 4-5m high. Many canoes pass under the bridge. They don’t pay the access 🙂

JB loves to jump rocks and to see youngsters jumping without any problem reassures him. He will also be able to jump 3-4 times, after having taken a little time to get into the water (it’s cold!). Impossible to know the depth of the Rhône du Gardon at this place, but it looks very deep. Of course, it is forbidden to jump from the bridge, and it is also dangerous because there is the risk of falling on a canoe.

The Pont du Gard is basically a viaduct, part of a huge network built by the Romans in the 1st century to bring water from Uzès to Nîmes. It is the only example of an ancient 3-storey bridge still standing today, it is thehighest Roman aqueduct bridge in theworld (49 meters).

So there were plenty of other viaducts, and the layout takes into account the technical difficulty as well as the altitude of the place. There was a viaduct more impressive than the Pont du Gard but it disappeared. These unused viaducts were very quickly looted for the constructions in the surroundings. Even the Pont du Gard lost a small part (right bank side).

The Romans already had very advanced techniques. The water, arriving in Nimes, was kept in the water towers, before being distributed everywhere in the city, in copper pipes, in the form of fountains. Thus, the rich even had access to running water at home! In the 1st century!

The museum on the Left Bank side explains all this very well, with plans and miniatures. They even have a very nice movie, with beautiful images taken by a drone (because we all wonder what the 3rd floor of the viaduct looks like). I strongly advise you!

The viaduct, at the base, was only used to carry water, so you couldn’t get from one bank to the other easily, it was too narrow. The road bridge (Pitot Bridge), attached to the ancient structure, to which we have access now (the 1st level) was added afterwards (in the 18th century, with stones from the quarry next door).

Tip: if you want to combine visiting and swimming, I recommend you to park on the Right Bank (Google Maps coordinates). Cross the bridge to access the museum, the quarry and several viewpoints. Then, come back to the Right Bank for swimming.

Avignon Bridge

The next day, we visit ENFIN Avignon. I confess that we stopped in Avignon because of the “song”. It sounds very “Asian tourist discovering France” but I assume lol 😀 Apart from the song, Avignon has several UNESCO world heritage sites and that, well, as it was not indicated in the song, I didn’t know 😀 hihihi

The city is entirely fortified, it can be seen on Google Maps, but also from afar. The bridge of Avignon is broken so we can’t take it anymore to go from one bank to the other. On the other hand, there is a bridge parallel to it, from where we can have a great view on the Pont d’Avignon. To have a view in height, go through this small door just next to the entrance of the bridge, to access the heights.

You have to climb quite a lot though 🙂 with the mask and the heat, it’s not easy. If you don’t like this view, you can take a free ferry connecting the two banks, not far from the Avignon bridge.

According to the legend, the Saint Bénezet bridge (known as the “Pont d’Avignon”, one dances on it…) would have been built in the 12th century by a young shepherd of Vivarais, Bénézet, on celestial order. The bridge was modified over several centuries, until it was abandoned from the 17th century. The hydrological modifications of the river are at the origin of its destruction: only 4 of the 22 original arches remain. I forgot to take the picture of the bridge from the bank so here is an official picture:

Access to the bridge is inside the ramparts (rue Ferruce). You have to pay 5€ to walk on the bridge (we recommend you buy the tickets online to avoid the queue). It is very well done and even wheelchair accessible. Well, there is no crazy interest in walking on it, but you can notice a chapel on the bridge itself (on the left in the picture below) and have a great view on the Popes’ Palace.

The water of the Rhone is absolutely incredible, transparent, you can even see the aquatic plants.

the bridge parallel to the bridge of Avignon: you can cross it by car or on foot

Palace of the Popes

JB’s big cousin lives in Avignon (she is a guide if you want to discover Provence with her: https: //la-provence-de-claire.com/fr/) and when I asked her if it was worth visiting the Popes’ Palace, she made me understand that being in Avignon without visiting the Popes’ Palace was like coming to Rome without visiting the Vatican, basically.

For the Palace of the Popes, it is best to book in advance (online). When we arrived for our visit at 10 am, everything is already full until 12 am.

“Thanks to” the Covid, the visits are autonomous and become super interesting because we are given a tablet and thanks to the augmented reality, we can scan the whole room and see what it looked like in the time of the popes. Seeing these rooms filled with riches, carpets, art… makes me quite angry, one wonders where faith, humility and simplicity have gone. We’ll have to prepare ourselves psychologically, the Vatican must be 10 times more bling.

It took 70 years to build it. Residence of the 9 popes of the 14th century, classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the palace is the largest Gothic palace in the world (15,000m² of floor space, equivalent in volume to four Gothic cathedrals). The political tensions, the violent agitation of Italy … make the popes settle in Avignon rather than in Rome.

If the popes are in Avignon, the cardinals prefer the other bank (of which we can still find traces today, including an absolutely incredible chartreuse – which we did not have the courage to visit).

Some of the Pope’s chapels and private apartments still preserve incredible frescoes, executed by Matteo Giovannetti or Simone Martini. It is forbidden to take pictures in the rooms with frescoes so you will have to visit them yourself.

After the Papacy’s return to Rome, the palace became the residence of legates and then vice-legates until the Revolution (when it was looted), before becoming a military barracks. Now it can be visited and some concerts can be attended as well.

Avignon

The city is very nice with many pedestrian streets. We like it a lot! The PACA spirit is there, we see dried lavender everywhere. We also liked very much the restaurant La cour du Louvre, in a courtyard sheltered from the tourists, we eat there very well for 25€/person (lunch menu). The owner like the waiters are adorable.

Road trip & laundry

We have been on the road for almost 10 days. With this heatwave and the mandatory masks, I ask JB to choose an Airbnb (2 nights) in Avignon with a washing machine to wash all our clothes (and fabric masks), asking permission in advance from the owners (who were absent during our stay), and opting for short programs.

In fact, in the small villages, there is never a dry cleaner and the only place to wash clothes is at Leclerc or Super U (big machines near the parking lot, rather adapted to the comforters), and we aren’t ready to stay hours in the parking lot with this heat wave. It happens that the Airbnb in question was vexed that we use too much their machine! By leaving us a murderous comment on Airbnb, like that they are abused (they looked at the camera of surveillance of the living room to count the number of laundry!)

I didn’t realize it, but B&Bs and Airbnb (in France) are super reluctant to let you use their machines – especially when you just rent a private room. I don’t know if it’s a question of cleanliness or electricity. Besides, they don’t have many requests of this kind, as most French people go on vacation for 2-3 weeks with huge suitcases and never need to do laundry during their stay. Anyway, to make everybody happy, now we propose to pay to use the machine, because I don’t see myself washing all this by hand at all, in France on top of that!

Our next article, it’s this way

Part 2: Practical Tips

Useful links

Budget

  • Visits
    • Pont du Gard : 9,5€ per person (parking included)
    • Pont d’Avignon : 5€
    • Palace of the Popes: 12€
  • Underground parking lot “Palais des Papes”: 9,4€ for 5 hours
  • Restaurant
    • count 30€ per person at Café Saint-Jean (-20% when booking on La Fourchette, get a 10€ discount by using this link: http: //tfk.io/ci1u2u)
    • La cour du Louvre: 25€ for the lunch menu

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