Decompressing and Planning
After Africa
12.06.2018 - 15.06.2018
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2018 Tanzania
on greatgrandmaR's travel map.
Decompressing
After my trip to Tanzania with J. my youngest grandchild, I was discussing with her mother (my daughter) a riverboat cruise that I thought I would like to take on the Rhone. I wanted to revisit the places in Provence that I had been to in 1964. These were the photos from that visit.
===August 1964, Thursday===
Today we visited Avignon, Arles, Les Baux, and Aix en Provence.
Cliffs along the road to Avignon
Plane trees along the road
When we visited the Riviera and Provence, I had a Michelin guide book. The guide to the sites to visit was only available in French, which I can read a little bit. 
Statue on top of Pope's Palace
This is the biggest Gothic palace in all of Europe. It was built in the 14th century and was completed in only 20 years by popes Benedict XII and Clement VI when Avignon was the seat of the papacy.
At the time we visited, Avignon was not very well known and was off the normal tourist track. Thirty-some years after our visit, UNESCO designated it a "World Heritage for Humanity" site. Now, the Popes’ Palace is one of the most visited monuments in all of France. The walls of the Popes’ Palace are flanked by four towers - some of which are 170 feet tall
Entrance
Walls of the palace
Doorway
From the Great Chapel there is an entrance to the loggia where through the large Fenêtre de l'Indulgence (Window of Indulgence) 
Indulgence Window
there is a view of the Great Courtyard. From this window the Pope used to give his blessing to the assembled faithful.
Courtyard
Now, the visitor can see over 20 rooms, scenes of historic events, in particular the pope’s private chambers and the frescoes painted by the Italian artist Matteo Giovannetti.
Jardin des Doms near the Pope's Palace
Grotto in garden
Bob eating lunch
Looking over town
Sur le pont d'Avignon, L'on y danse, l'on y danse,
In English: On the bridge of Avignon, One dances there, one dances there,
[I always thought that it was under the bridge but three people have told me that it is On the bridge]
The song was popularised by Adolphe Adam who included it within his operetta "Le Sourd ou l’Auberge pleine" (1853). The above photo, which I took in 1964, still shows some of the little islands under the bridge.
According to legend, this bridge belongs to St. Benezet. As a young goatherd, Benezet heard a heavenly voice ordering him to go to Avignon. He crossed the Rhone by ferry, and in midstream announced that he was going to build a bridge. This was distressing news for the ferryman, who, bent on eliminating unfair competition, tried to toss Benezet overboard.
Undaunted, he marched in to the Avignon cathedral and again announced in a voice loud enough to be heard over the Mass, his intention of building a bridge. He was ejected.
He waited outside, repeating his story to the faithful, until the bishop, determined to prove that Benezet was an evil lying child, pointed to a huge rock, and asked the boy to pick it up. Benezet did so - lifting it as if it were a pebble.
Convinced of the truth of the miracle, the city built the bridge. Over its second pier is the little Romanesque and Gothic chapel dedicated to St. Benezet, who later became a priest.
Bridge from Promenade du Rocher de Doms in 1964
The bridge was built between 1171 and 1185 (first in wood and then in stone). It was finally put out of use by a catastrophic flood in 1668. It was not destroyed by either one of the World Wars.
Looking down river
Walls of town
Looking across river to the Fort Saint-André in the town of Villeneuve-les-Avignon
Looking across the river
Roof tops of Avignon
Walls of Avignon
King Rene's Castle in Tarascon
Castle moat
Castle
Collegiate Church of Saint Martha
Looking across road to road to Van Gogh's insane asylum in Saint-Remy
We visited the "Antiques of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence".
The Mausoleum of the Julii
The mausoleum of Glanum is a cenotaph erected in memory of Caius and Lucius Caesar , grandsons of the emperor Augustus 1 . Gallo-Roman monument erected between -30 and -20 .
Arc de triomphe de Glanum
The Municipal Arc of Glanum is a Roman arch located in the municipality of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence in the Bouches-du-Rhône. It is one of the oldest arches in France
Overlooking Les Baux
Les Baux looking across the parking lot
I was interested in Les Baux because bauxite, the ore from which aluminum was extracted was discovered here in 1822 by the geologist Pierre Berthier (who named it for the city). Charles Martin Hall invented a process to extract aluminum from bauxite at Oberlin in Ohio in 1886. That's where I went to school and we had an aluminum statue of Charles Martin Hall in the vestibule of our Chemistry building.
Unfortunately for France, the ore has been completely worked out; France now imports most of its bauxite from west Africa although they might still have been mining it when we were there in 1964
I was told that Dante wrote his description of Hell based on the twists and turns of the rocks in the landscape of Les Baux. 
Dante's Landscape
Other artists and writers have also viewed the fantastic landscape and subsequently written or painted works where this landscape has figured.
Desolation of Dante
«No one passes through Les Baux without a sense of true nostalgia, for here, more than anywhere else, the labours of time show what becomes of the most ambitious undertakings: ruined walls and breaches onto the void. The stones of man’s proud constructions devoured by the sun and wind. Only traces remain of their ambition, fears and solitude»
(T.Fréchier)
In the city in 1964
In early times, it was quite common to settle on a hilltop where a fort could be built to defend the town. But the fortifications could not stand against modern cannons.
Ruins
In the words of Mistral, the Lords of Les Baux were "never vassals". He was correct, since they were among the most powerful feudal lords in France’s Midi who ruled 79 fiefs with an iron hand for five centuries, crushing all insubordinance. They claimed to be the descendants of one of the three Magi, Balthazar. The evening star (Saint Estelle) was the sixteen-pointed star on the coat of arms of the Lords of Baux.
We might look at some events that occurred before Les Baux was finally overcome by France. For nearly twenty years, Raymond des Baux waged the Baussenque wars (1145 to 1162), fighting the Count of Barcelona for the earldom of Provence. He was known as "the scourge of Provence" - he found throwing prisoners off the top of the castle to be an effective solution. At the same time, Les Baux was also the location of the famous Courts of Love where poetry and song were occupations for the inhabitants.
Cats over a doorway
The castle was destroyed by Louis XI (in 1483). The most famous governor was Constable Anne de Montmorency, embarked on considerable restoration work, and the town saw a return to splendour. The Constable had the Treasury archives transferred to the citadel from Aix, where they were under threat from Charles V’s troops.
However, the castle and city walls were eventually destroyed under Richelieu’s orders because of the rebellious Protestantism of the Manville family who managed what had by now become just a barony. The ramparts were defended for 27 days but in the end they surrendered. Less than two hundred years later, Les Baux at last became the marquisate of the Grimaldi royal family of Monaco.
Now the village has been painstakingly restored and several buildings in the village are classified as "Historic Monuments." When we were there, it was still in the original ruins. 
Fortified City Falls to Canon
Fields
Valley below Les Baux
Ruins on the hill
The Alyscamps is a large Roman necropolis, a short distance outside the walls of Arles, France.
Entrance
Bob walking between the tombs
It was one of the most famous necropolises of the ancient world. Roman cities traditionally forbade burials within the city limits. It was therefore common for the roads immediately outside a city to be lined with tombs and mausoleums. In the case of Arles, there were five necropolises, situated on each of the main roads leading to this city. The Alyscamps was the most famous of the five and was Arles' main burial ground for nearly 1,500 years. It was the final segment of the Aurelian Way, a road that connected Rome to Arles and which lead up to the city gates. Alyscamps was used as a burial ground for well-off citizens, whose memorials ranged from simple sarcophagi to elaborate monuments.
Me being resurrected from a tomb
At one time, Alyscamps would have been much larger. Originally it was the largest collection in western Europe of marble sarcophagi outside Rome. The best sarcophagi have been removed to various churches and museums of Arles. The small amount now visible is what is left after looting during the Renaissance, and the 19th century installations of railway lines and a water canal.
The Alyscamps was the subject of several Van Gogh paintings. We visited in 1964. In 1981, the Alyscamps was classified a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as part of the Arles, Roman and Romanesque Monuments group.
Bob walking along ahead of me
We got to Arles at the end of the day, parked and walked into the Roman Theater. Arles Roman Theatre, known as the Théâtre antique d'Arles, is an Ancient Roman theatre in the Provence town of Arles which would have been used for a variety of theatrical shows. When we were there, they were using the site for a photo shoot.
This theater was probably constructed in the late first century BC to early first century AD, during the reign of the Emperor Augustus (27 BC–14 AD). Quarried for its materials in the Middle Ages, Arles Roman Theatre was only really rediscovered in the nineteenth century. By this time, only a fraction of its steps remained together with the orchestra and two solitary columns.
Now one of Arles’ UNESCO World Heritage sites, Arles Roman Theatre is the venue of an annual festival.
Theatre from where we parked (our car on left)
Entrance
Models in the theatre
Columns that remain
Bob walking ahead of me
This picture is of the amphitheatre, which was built around AD 90. It ranks among the great amphitheatres and could hold 20,000 spectators. Gladiator fights and animal hunts took place here until the end of the 5th century.
We really had a rather good day altho the tours of the Pope's Palace etc. were exclusively in French and so not much of a success (Bob does not speak French). Otherwise we had a good stay.
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Planning
J.'s older sister A. said she would really like to go on that cruise because she had been studying French in HS was was interested in all things French. She wanted to speak French and hear people who were French speaking French. I knew that Bob wouldn't want to go, so I started making plans.
The river boat part of the cruise would be taken on an AmaWaterways ship called AmaCello. My normal cruise travel agent did not want to handle a river cruise, so I booked with Vacations To Go. By November 2018, I had the following plans
Pre-Tour Hotel Check in: June 24, 2019 (3 nights)
Hotel Name: Renaissance Arc de Triomphe
Tour Begins June 24, 2019
Tour Ends: July 7, 2019
Post-Tour Hotel Check in: July 4, 2019 (3 nights)
Hotel Name: Le Méridien Barcelona
These plans were subsequently modified somewhat. Since the family was gathering for a cruise from June 8th to the 14th 60th Anniversary Cruise we decided that A could stay with us instead of flying back to Houston with her family. Then we could fly out on the 19th of June
The cost for the trip was substantial. It included flying out the 19th of June, the 20th to the 24th in the hotel in Paris before the tour started, private tours of Paris, the cruise itself from the 24th of June to the 3rd of July, the post cruise hotel to the 7th of July. For each of us the cruise and pre and post hotels was $9,400.00
My granddaughter's air fare was $5,076.00 plus $178.00 to select her seats
My air fare was $3,117.00
Insurance $714.85
Posted by greatgrandmaR 13:04 Archived in France Tagged barcelona paris france avignon les_baux dante aix_en_provence speaking_french popes_palace st_benezet antiques_st-remy alyscamps river_boat_cruise
And yes, definitely on the bridge, not under it (that would be 'Sous le pont') Looking forward to reading about this cruise 
I got a kick out of looking at your Avignon photos from 1964. I was there in 1963 and didn't take any photos (I didn't even have a camera at that time), but I later wrote a story about it: https://operasandcycling.com/evenings-in-europe-and-asia/
by Nemorino