Bonjour mes amis!
I've been sharing with you about our Winter Break in Provence. I hope you're not tired of it already, because I have lots more to show you. But first, let's have a little breakfast, or Petit Déjeuner, as the French call it.
The Bed and Breakfast we stayed in treated us to our Petit Déjeuner every morning, a typical French Breakfast...
Coffee & Hot Chocolate
Croissants & Baguettes (every French meal has baguettes!)
Fruit, Yogurt & wonderful Homemade Jams (Confiture, in French)!
Delicious...and we never tired of this! Our Hostess set the table every morning so beautifully, with different linens, dishes and colors, every day of the week. It was a nice surprise every morning. I'll share a photo of the Table from one of the mornings...
Okay, now we're ready to go explore Avignon, France. It's quite a famous city, and I'll take you to two sites today...the Palais des Papes (Palace of the Popes), and Le Pont d'Avignon (the Bridge at Avignon), also known as Pont Saint-Bénezet.
First the Palace...
This Palace was the seat of the Christian World in the 14th Century, and nine Popes served in this Palace/Fortress, each one adding his own stamp on the place, expanding and improving along the way...
The photo below was taken in the room where the treasures were kept and guarded, and it included an underground area where heavy stones covered the gold to secure it. Dr. J and Jewelius decided to throw in some Centieme for fun...
We always take note of French Signs. Dr. J joked that this sign meant that you can't bring in cokes or hamburgers, but french fries are okay...haha!
Since we couldn't really get a good picture of the whole Palace, here is the model...quite a place!
Views from the top...
This is a view to the Pont d'Avignon, that I'll show you next...
Some last pictures as we left the Palace...
The Pont D'Avignon/Pont Saint-Bénezet is a bridge that was built in the 12th century, after a young man named, Bénezet, revealed that he had been divinely inspired to build a bridge across the Rhone River. Unfortunately, the Bridge was damaged many times over the years by flood waters and war, and finally, could no longer be repaired. There were originally twenty-two Arches, and only four remain.
In case you're wondering, we were not playing with phones or video games here. Jewelius and I were listening to the English Audio guide while we walked along the Bridge...
*** Jewelius asked me to update the false information just above...HE was listening to the Audio Guide in French, not in English! You Go, Jewelius! Sorry for the error...
There's a Chapel under these Bells...
The view from the Bridge to the Palais des Papes...
The Rhone River...
There's a Song that was written about people dancing on the Bridge (in reality, they would have only been allowed to dance under the Bridge), and this has made the Bridge quite famous all over the world. I'm including a link to a youtube someone made a couple years ago, that you can listen to by clicking HERE. You can see the English Translation of the words. I'm pretty sure most French people (including children) know this song. It seems to now be used as a Nursery Rhyme...
Did you enjoy the little dance
Until tomorrow...I'll bring the croissants...
Have a "Jewel" of a day!
Jan
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