Palais des Papes

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The next stop was Avignon.  This city has an interesting history and is a place that we’d been looking forward to see for a long time.  It sits on the Rhone river and owes its existence to being the seat of the Papacy for 350 years.  The Popes, when they decided to leave Rome in the 14^th century put up huge walls around the city which still exists today and built a massive gothic palace (Palais des Papes) on a rocky outcrop in the middle of the city.  We wandered around the palace grounds and took some pretty spectacular photos of this impressive monument which was added to by nine successive Popes, some of whom were known as anti-popes because when the Church decided to relocate back to Rome, they decided that the French countryside was better.

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Wandered down to the Pont d’Avignon which is a half a bridge (not much use) over the Rhone.  Boring.  Don’t bother with it.