Sundays are like holidays in France.
The Palais des Papes!
Once inside, we paid for an audio tour that took us through the different rooms/halls and the eras of each of the Popes who reigned from this palace. I would love to give you a spectacular overview of everything we learned, but that would have required me to take notes during the tour to remember everything. So... sorry. haha
Inside the palace walls: the courtyard
Everything was about size and grandeur for the popes; size just happens to be the only thing that still exists today
Inside the first room
In a lot of rooms in the palace one can find these sizable wholes in the stone floor. Why? Well its a great place to hide money and important documents!
In one of the finance-related rooms there was an original ceiling, and you can really SEE its age.
Looking out at the city from the Pope's view
A lovely sun-garden
The floors of the entire palace were once made of hand-painted tiles. These ones are of the original color scheme and design- except there must have been hundreds of thousands of them to cover this big building!
I found this interesting: there used to be a lot of frescos in the Pope's Palace. On the right of this picture, you can see an original fresco that comes in two pieces stacked on top of each other. But on the left is the "skeleton" of the fresco set right next to it- it's hard to tell in the picture but they were definitely identical in person.
A pensive place
Now here's a grand structure! This room used to be the glorious dining hall used for celebrations and royal gatherings. There was an excerpt on the audio tour where a man listed the ingredients required for one of the Pope's more over-the-top feasts. I wish I could list them all to you, but I can't remember the whole list. I can say that nearly every animal we eat today (pheasants, pigs, goats, cows, chickens, etc) was included [as whole animals and by the thousands] and for bread the feast required...... 94,000 loaves!
Avignon from the servants' and cook's small kitchen window
This room used to be covered in elegant tapestries and riches of all kinds because it was a ceremony hall. Here, the pope presented selected individuals with specific honors (like a gold-dipped rose for a soldier) or elaborate gifts to win their favor (for instance, to influence a young prince to marry this woman and not that- basically so the Pope would have his hand in the government as well as the church).
Popes
One of the last rooms we walked through was this enormous service hall. This was one of my least favorite rooms because I felt that it was completely ruined by a modern art gallery on display all around. It was the weirdest juxtaposition of eras and the purpose completely went over my head. I tried to appreciate the art and the room, but neither could be appreciated at the exact same time!
One of the huge stained glass windows in the hall
An example of some of the art on display in the hall- RANDOM!
In another room we found this garb from back in the day...
All of the popes
Looking down at the courtyard we started in
Finally, we ended our tour by heading up to the palace rooftop for a great view of the city!
Aleca climbing up just a little bit higher
You know it's a massive palace when you can look at one half of it while standing on the other half.
That's where we took pictures, videos, and goofed off our first day here
And there's Mr. Elephant still standing on his trunk for no reason! (P.S. Is it just me, or are the café tables and chairs the best part of the picture?)
The live entertainment here is pretty awesome. :)
Ahh Avignon
And there be the same two guys from our first visit to the palace
Lastly, we ended our tour in one of the oldest parts of the palace; it was a big hall that had an original fresco still intact on one portion of the ceiling. It was very cool to see but I think we were ready to step out into nature away from the stone and the cold at this point
Back outside we walked around one of the sides of the palace admiring all of the old architecture around there.
I love this picture- in it you can see real Roman ruins, Aleca standing in front of them in her cutest outfit ever, and a trio of street musicians to the left
Finally, our last act of coolness in Avignon was lunch. We bought sandwiches and brought them back to the palace to eat on the steps in the shade and watch the people. It was the perfect way to end our stay here.
We were able to shop a little bit after lunch- Aleca bought some very pretty smelling lotions for her older sister who's serving our nation in the military right now (Aleca wanted her to be able to have a girly moment when she takes off her combat boots and smells those lotions) and I bought some postcards and fresh lavender to bring home with me. Unfortunately, we cut ourselves really short on time and had to hustle it back to the hostel to grab our bags and then sprint to the train station. The guy at the front desk of the hotel was nowhere to be found when we first arrived and that set us back even farther. I thought I was either going to break my ankle or throw up by the time we made it to the train, but the most important part of that statement is the second: we made it to the train! We had plenty of room and air conditioning in our seats, so we were able to relax right away and enjoy that we were not going to have the same bad train experience as a couple of days ago. All that was left was to appreciate the simply gorgeous French countryside on our way back to Pau.
Lionel was at the station to pick me up (like always) and he gladly offered to give Aleca a lift back to the residence halls as well. The three of us chatted about the Palais des Papes and the lunch cruise on the way, and then Lionel and I headed for the house. The two of us somehow got into a very interesting conversation on the ride home when the subject of Lionel's children came up. I had thought for the whole month of January that Lionel didn't have children, but at some point I made a comment to Christine and she thankfully corrected me. Lionel as two or three children of his own, all in their late teens or older, and he has been cut off from them by his ex-wife. Lionel sort of laid out the situation for me in the car on the way home and it just made me so sad: just from my three months with them so far, I know first hand that Lionel is a great father and that he completely deserves the opportunity to be a father. The whole situation is just not fair and breaks my heart...
It was dark when we pulled up to the house and I was well ready for dinner. But I wasn't able to eat right away because I was immediately introduced to a new houseguest: Christine and Lionel's close friend's son Côme (pronounced like "comb"). Côme was an utter gentlemen, kissed me on both cheeks, and said he was enchanted to meet me. Oh boy. I found him to be fairly attractive (about 24) but very difficult to communicate with and exhausting to be around. He was a really nice guy but super-intelligent to the point of being awkward. He didn't lack in confidence but he didn't pick up on the cues when he was laughing too loud, or speaking way too fast, or talking in a jumbled rush, etc. This was especially difficult for me as I was not accustomed to Parisian accents, nor will it ever be possible for me to understand and respond [accurately] to such casual French. I just tried my best to listen hard and respond politely and not let him get me too anxious. Also, Côme would be staying with us for three days- I could handle that.
*Side note: I was all the more put off by Côme's presence when I heard that Lionel was hoping our close proximity would spark some crazy romance. Oh Lionel.....*
We had a typical dinner tonight with nothing too fancy or out of the ordinary. The dessert, however, was fabulous: Christine out-did herself today by making an apple layer cake! The method to the cake was this: thinly sliced apple placed in a layer; a layer of butter, flour, sugar/cinnamon; another layer of thin apple; repeat until you're ready to shoot yourself. At the end, press the mound down to completely flatten it and force the butter and juices to mingle and soak up. Then you bake it into the heavenly dessert Christine served to us tonight with a little sweet cream on the side! Yummy!!
She was very proud of the outcome on this. =)
Another fabulous weekend in the books!
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