A mini-Weekend in Provence

The weekend of April 24 marked that last overnight excursion through my AIFS program. This final trip was to explore the region of Provence. Cannes is located in the Provence-Alps-Côte d’Azur region but is more characterized as the Côte d’Azur; Provence is our neighbor. So Saturday morning we began our trip by heading to the Gallo-Roman city of Arles.

Arles is a comparable city to Nîmes, which I visited with my cousins. In Arles I also visited an arena, though the one in Nîmes was a bit bigger and much better preserved. However, the one in Arles still hosts bull fights, where unfortunately the bulls are killed for sport. (So sad) Also in Arles is an all night café that Van Gogh frequented and painted a few times. Arles was only one of many on our list of stops that day, so after a quick visit we were on our way to the Pont du Gard.

All Night Café in Arles

The Pont du Gard is a Roman aqueduct that was built around 19BC that transported water to Nîmes. The aqueduct is about 31 miles long and remains in pretty good condition. At the aqueduct we were under time restraints so we had just enough time to take it in and gawk at boys jumping from cliffs into the water below. We were all very excited for our next stop Châteauneuf du Pape, a vineyard, for a little wine tasting...or so that’s what we thought. Unfortunately, our bus driver, Teddy, was very young and quite inexperienced and got us lost at least twice that day, which prevented us from getting to the vineyard in time for our appointment. Teddy would also go on to come extremely close to getting stuck under an arch way and rough up the bus quite a bit...oh Teddy. So with time not being on our side we headed to our hotel in Avignon a little early.

Pont du Gard

Avignon is a gorgeous medieval city boarding the Rhône River. We were all in awe as we drove nearer to the city, which is enclosed by these wonderful stonewalls. I immediately fell in love with the city, which just kept getting better as we came up to our hotel that was located across from the Palais des Papes, a magnificent gothic palace that served as the seat of the Papacy during the 14th Century. With our arrival we settled in and had a lovely aperitif (to make up for missing the wine tasting), which was followed by nice dinner as a group.

Wall surrounding Avignon

The next morning we started our day by touring the Palais des Papes. The palace was huge, but besides the gorgeous architecture and view from the top, it wasn’t very exciting. After quickly finishing the palace we explored the city a little. During our exploration we found the Pont d’Avignon, which is a well-known bridge. One reason being that half the bridge was washed away by a flood, and the second reason being that there is a cute little folk song about it. For those who are interested the song goes like this:

Sur le pont d’Avignon
(On the Avignon bridge)
L’on y danse, l’on y danse
(One dances there, one dances there)
Sur le pont d’Avignon
(On the Avignon bridge)
L’on y danse tous en rond
(One dances there all around)

For whatever reason you had to pay to actually go on the bridge so instead we danced beside it.

Dancing by the Pont d'Avignon

Palais des Papes

After concluding our morning in Avignon we said farewell and made our way to the Cathédrale d’Images. This was not so much a cathedral but an art exhibit in a former quarry. Inside the pitch black quarry images created by a featured artist are projected on the wall. During the time we visited the title was Australia and we briefly got to experience life down under. It was a cool exhibit; I thought the concept was very original.

Our last stop then was Les Baux de Provence. This is a tiny medieval village located on a rock plateau. In the village we visited the ruins of a medieval castle and got to witness a sword fight demonstration and launching of a catapult. It was a great way to end our trip to Provence, which in turn was a great, simple overnight trip to end on with AIFS.

Castle ruins at Les Baux de Provence