Le Pont D'Avignon et Le Palais des Papes

Our final day at our house in St. Remy was spent exploring the town of Avignon. Axelle, her father, and her father's godmother came with us. It was so great seeing Axelle again, and seeing her in her home country! In Avignon, we saw the famous half-bridge and explored the expansive Palace of the Popes. To read more about the half-bridge, click here: Pont D'Avignon on Wikipedia

The Rhone River from the bridge

There was a small alcove that appeared to be some kind of chapel on the bridge.

It was really windy that day. Can't you tell?

A view of the Palace of the Popes from the bridge


After gaping at the enormous palace from the outside, we took a tour of the palace. It was expansive and overwhelming; there were so many rooms to explore and so many different artifacts to look at and histories to comprehend. We moved quickly through the palace and came to the top.



Us with Axelle outside the palace

After our tour, we sat at a cafe right outside the front gates for a drink.

(Posted by Shannon)

The Castle at Tarascon

After spending the morning at le chateau fort at Les Baux, we headed north a little ways to Tarascon, the site of the castle of our friend,the Go0d King Rene (remember him? He was the guy with the Muscat grapes in Aix-en-Provence). But of course, before we could see the castle, we needed to see the church building, Eglise Ste-Marthe. This church building has a crypt with the 3c-4c tomb of St Martha.

The picture above is the castle. It is exceptionally well-preserved, and dates from before the 13th century. This massive building sits right on the edge of the Rhone River.

Here are the children crossing the moat.

Above is a view up within the walls, but not actually inside the castle.

Here is the painted ceiling in one of the rooms. It looked just the way a castle is described in story books: high-ceiling expansive rooms, stone floors, massive stone fireplaces, and latticed arched windows. Cameron had sword battles with imaginary knights in nearly every room.

A view of the Rhone from the top of the castle.

The men of the family on the roof

The city of Tarascon from the roof of the castle. The mountains in the back are the Alpilles. St. Remy, where we are staying, is situated near the foot of those mountains.

This is a look at Eglise Ste-Marthe from the roof of the Chateau. I love the house with the blue shutters just beyond it.

That beautiful Provencal sky! And two cute kids.

The castle weather vane.

It seems like every castle served as a prison at some time in its history. The prisoners here left elaborate grafitti all over the walls of several rooms. Here is a sample.

And here are some inmates.

A gargoyle keeping watch over the courtyard while he does his duty as a rain spout.

(Posted by Mom)

Le Chateau Fort

Les Baux (baux referring to a rocky spur) was one of our favorite places in Provence. It is an old city built on a rocky spur that rises out of the valley. We got there early so as to get a parking spot close to the city. The weather was lovely: cool and breezy.

Before we went into the city, some of the family did a little birdwatching.

The old city of Les Baux is on the left, with houses and B&B's decorating the valley below.

The streets are very steep and narrow. No cars drive through the old city.

Before we climbed up the streets to the chateau on top, we stopped at this bakery to get some of these delicious cookies...and chocolate olives.

Of course, we had to stop at the church before we got any farther.

The stained glasses in this building were more modern.

We finally made it up the steep streets to the 11th-century chateau fort.

A recreated trebuchet

This is the old windmill.


The view from the top of the spur was stunning.

The valley below was dotted with vineyards and olive groves.

It was very windy up top.

Before we climbed to the top of the walls, Cameron tried his hand at shooting a *real* crossbow. Looks like an expert, doesn't he?

Margaret decided to try too.

A view of the tops of the fortifications

Windows of the old dining hall

Mom and Dad joined in the fun too. :-)

A view of the city from the top of the walls.

Before we left, we watched a demonstration of medeival weapons.

Cameron's future job.

(Posted by Shannon)