Small Bears "en Vacances" Part 6. An Adventure in Avignon

As I hope you will have read in my previous posts, Hanley and Endon had been enjoying their adventures but, when we reached Avignon, it was my turn for a day out.

Polar helped me into the Bear Bag and carried me off the ship.  I was really delighted to find that we were exploring the city by land train!

All our human friends climbed aboard, with Grizzly and Polar getting seats at the front of one of the little carriages, so I had a great view.

It looked as if there was even the option of a commentary in Bear if you used the audio guide, though Polar said she thought that was probably a guide in French for human cubs.

Soon we were running alongside the city walls.  I thought we would go in through one of the big gateways, but instead, we went through a narrow little entrance.  There was just enough room for us to squeeze in!

We wound through the streets and squares of the city, which looked very elegant, with nice fountains and apartments with shutters to keep them cool in summer and warm in winter.  I wondered why we didn't have shutters on our houses in the UK, as they seem like a very good idea to me.

Then we went up a big hill for a view across the Rhone and of the famous Pont d'Avignon.  I don't know why it has a song about it, as it is not a very good bridge because it doesn't go all the way across the river.  We were told that the big tower on the other side belonged to the King of France in medieval times, when he had wars against the Pope, which sounded to me like a very bad thing to do.

Then we came down the hill to the square in front of the biggest and most famous building in the city, the Palais du Papes (Pope's Palace).  There were some lovely buildings in the square including some nice cafes where I thought we might stop for some cake, but Polar said we were going into the palace for a tour.

"It looks more like a castle than a palace," I said, because it did.  It had battlements, towers and very thick stone walls, and seemed rather a scary place to a small bear.  

"That's because it was a fortress as well," our guide explained.  She explained that in the Middle Ages there had sometimes been two Popes rather than just one, as well as the Pope often being at war with the King of France.  

This was all very, very confusing to a small bear, as I thought the Pope was supposed to be a good and holy person.  Luckily, there were things I did understand, like the need for a big kitchen to feed all the people who lived in the palace and I liked the lovely wall paintings we saw.  

Polar wasn't allowed to photograph the originals, but did take some pictures of copies so I could share them in my blog.  Our guide said they were painted during the Renaissance, when there were lots of artistic things happening, though there were still lots of wars.

Although they are many hundreds of years old, they are still really beautiful.

We couldn't visit the whole of the palace, as it is huge, but our guide showed us the most important rooms and courtyards.  There were flocks of swifts whizzing about between the towers.  I waved to them but they were swooping around so fast I don't think they saw me. 

Polar and Grizzly decided to leave the group when it was time to go back for lunch, as they wanted to see if they could get to another very famous historic site that afternoon.  

On the way to the tourist information office, something very bad happened.  Someone tried to take Polar's purse out of the Bear Bag!  Luckily, it isn't kept in the main pocket, because that's for bears.  

When the zip got opened and some fingers appeared that didn't smell like Polar's, I nipped them!  That must have made the person jump, as Polar felt something pulling on the bag and turned around to check it.  She was very worried when she found the zip was open, but there was nothing missing and she gave me a hug for being such a good guard bear.

The tourist office people said we could get a bus to where Polar and Grizzly wanted to go but, when they got to the bus station, they found the tourist office lady had misread the timetable and the bus she had told them to get only ran in the summer holidays.  Luckily, Polar was able to get the last two places on a small group tour which went there. 

"Hanley Bear will be jealous when he hears about this trip," she said.  "We are going to see some more Roman things."

I wanted to go back to the boat and fetch him, but there wasn't enough time.  Polar promised we would take plenty of pictures to show him.

We had a nice guide who was originally from England but had spent many years living in Italy and France and raised his family there.  Our first stop was a town called St Remy.  There are the remains of a big Roman settlement here as it was on an important Roman road called the Via Domitia, which went all the way from Rome to Spain.

We had a close look at a triumphal arch and a monument, with scenes from battles carved on it.  I couldn't believe they were almost two thousand years old!

The next stop was a little hilltop town called Les Baux, in some really rugged country, with steep gorges and high limestone mountains.  

I would have liked to spend longer there, as there were shops selling nice sweets, including nougat, made with with honey and almonds, but Polar said the highlight of our afternoon journey was still to come and we had to get back to our mini-bus.  Luckily, there was time for Grizzly to buy us some nougat!

Our final stop was the Pont du Gard, a huge Roman aqueduct which used to take water from the mountains to the city of Nimes.  I asked Polar if it was really, really old and she said yes, it was also nearly two thousand years old. 

Polar, with me in the Bear Bag, walked quite a long way along the valley for a view with the sun on the aqueduct, while Grizzly walked out onto the more modern bridge beside it.  The only thing that made us sad was seeing how little water there was in the river and how dry the countryside was.

Then it was time for our guide to take our little group back to Avignon.  We were all sad not to have had more time to explore this city, but the boat was due to sail again that night.  Perhaps we will visit again one day? 

We all had a laugh at the name of this company who supply things to the cruise boats!

That evening, we had a raffle on the boat and Polar bought tickets for us bears.  We almost won a new bear friend; instead, Endon's ticket won Polar a pretty cloth shoulder bag which she now uses for light shopping but will make a great summer Bear Bag if only a couple of us are going on an adventure.

Sadly, it was almost time for our last adventures in France.  I have a couple more posts to write for you about those, so look out for them soon.