90 - People in stone houses shouldn't throw glasses - Avignon, Baux de Provence, & Arles

Tuesday, June 25

It took more effort than expected to make it out of bed and lug the suitcases down the ample stairwell but I did eventually succeed.  I left my bags in the bagagerie, planning to come back with the car rather than lug them across the cobblestone streets to the parking lot.  My stuff deposited, I resolved to make a quick visit to the Palais des Papes; afterall, why bother coming to Avignon if I wasn't going to see anything.  

Inside the palais is a completely self guided tour with a tablet.  I don't remember if we went inside the papal palace in high school: the building is big and impressive from the outside but surprisingly spartan inside so maybe I simply forgot.  Here's hoping I don't forget again, the place featured a few frescos (a newly learned word for me: it involves painting on the material before it dries) but it seems much of the grandeur in the palace has either burned or been moved off to other places.  But I learned a bit of the history and politics (or at least had more of an appetite for it this time).

The courtyard now serves as an event space; I suppose some things don't change.

 

This window served as the pope's soapbox for addressing the public in the courtyard

 

A nice quiet cloister aside from the starlings chirping up a storm as they flit about

 

Why set up shop in Avignon?  Feuding between the French king Philippe le Bel and the Catholic church results in an attack by the king on the Italian pope's palace.  A couple years later, a French bishop is elected pope and he spends much of his time in France to smooth things with the secular government; this includes dissolving the Knights Templar (the order, not the individual knights).  Anyhow, Avignon made for a good place to seat the pope due to being in church-controlled lands, being close to the France, and having the Rhône to facilitate trade and travel. 

 

A quick wikipedia search reveals that the film "The Two Popes" isn't about how popes coexisted in both Avignon and Rome for 39 years.  To maintain legitimacy, they had negotiated which lands and people each had control over but couldn't come to an agreement over who was the sole pope despite each seat changing hands several times.  Hilariously, the council in Pisa even elected a 3rd pope in the hopes that a 3rd party would bring unification.  "Oh yeah, this'll help"

The tablet was a neat tool but I wouldn't have minded the museum actually having things rather than play Myst-emon GO.

 

Check out the vaulted ceiling in the treasure vault!  I wonder how much wealth is needed to distinguish between a vault and a hoard.

 

Some genuine stone coffers i.e. money pits

 

I took a bit of time to explore the garden, which offered a view of the treasure vault windows well sunk into the tower's walls.

 

I don't think I've seen an artichoke flower before...

 

🎵One long staircase just going up, and one even longer coming down.  And one more leading nowhere just for show...🎵 Though this one leads to a pigeon.

 

This room was converted to suit the needs of the court: sometimes it was a banquet hall but sometimes it would have the council of clergy sealed up inside until they elected a new pope.  Walls and stairwells were added & removed to meet the function.

 

A daytime view from the castle rampart; the Rhône looks a little different by daylight compared to last night's view.  The walkway to get here was extremely narrow due to scaffolding and lighting for whatever event was being held in the courtyard.

 

Naturally, the tour finished in the gift shop; I was wondering what's with the deep stair well here.

 

From the palace, I made a quick stop to the Pont of Avignon.  I rushed a bit seeing the bridge and didn't realize there were audio guides available; oh well, guess I'll make do with what was on the plaques.  Besides, I was getting eager to move on to my next stop of the day.

Sur le pont d'Avignon, l'on y danse, l'on y danse

A small shrine here is dedicated to the sheperd Bénézet, who received a vision instructing him to build a bridge across the Rhône to Avignon.  He spent his life rallying people to the cause and raising funding.  Once built, the bridge was too narrow for moving cargo and thus was more of a pedestrian foot bridge for pilgrims. 

 

The current bridge is only a fraction of the original length.  The bridge was likely only allowed to be construction by the powers at the time for its use in controlling traffic on the Rhône. 

Getting the bags was a pain; the guy wouldn't let me drive up to the hotel so it was a bumpy, tiring drag from the hotel to where I managed to park the car.  I'll need to re-evaluate how I choose hotels this trip since I'm carrying significantly more baggage than usual.

Next stop, Les Baux de Provence, a recommendation from coworkers.  Someone said it's been called one of the most beautiful villages in France; I'm not sure if that's entirely true but it was charming.  Les Baux is situated on a limestone plateau extending out from the Alpilles.  At only a few hundred meters tall, they provide a great view of the surrounding low lands clear out to sea; the surrounding Alpilles areas also served as limestone quarries.  

  Reaching les Baux involved parking on a fairly steep slope and then walking up.  This gate was used by the locals for descending into the valley to fetch water because the plateau the city is built into doesn't have a spring. 

 

Lots of old stones were showing wear and tear in this town, I found the holes added a certain charm to the place but I imagine they would've made the town a nightmare for someone with trypophobia.  

 The princes of Monaco once held control of les Baux de Provence, given it (along with other lands) for their aid to Louis XIII; hence a plaza named after a prince of Monaco.

 

Sorry, ladies, I don't make the rules; I just interpret them.  And clearly this church is a no underwear zone

 

Apparently this was called the vale of hell because the landscape reminded somebody of Dante's description of Hell.  Seems a bit harsh for what is now a touristic area mais à chacun son truc

 

Les Baux de Provence doesn't have a water source, so a giant cistern was created which is now partly occupied by an art exhibit.

Walking through the town, it's evident that it's quite a nice little village.  The narrow stone streets suit the stone buildings well and provide a quaint atmosphere that's perfumed by the frequent soap shops. 

 Les santons, Provençal little figurines.  Once only tiny saints and nativity scenes, these little decorations now come in all shapes and patterns.

As I walked through town, I kept thinking back to Bonifacio.  A different view but a similar type of town.  I did a picnic lunch out on the plateau, munching sausage and cheese while contemplating olive groves, vineyards, and a cool breeze.  

 The view out across the olive groves with a cool breeze was superbe.

Smoked cheese and a sausage with mushrooms/cèpes for my meal out at the edge of the plateau.  No luck with finding bread in town

A plaque mentioned this area serving as a rain collection point for filling the town's cistern; it's interesting that, like Bonifcacio, the town also didn't use up the entire plateau but maybe that's related to keeping some space for public utilities.  Throughout antiquity, the town only had one entrance/exit primarily used by townsfolk to descend into the valley for water or allowing trade in.

 

The names "les Baux" comes from the Provençal word for cliffs.  I guess it's an apt name for the place.

 

Maybe this view is why people have called this one of the most beautiful villages in Provence.  From the Alpilles, farmable land spread a decent way south but much of what we see today was also marshland converted to farmland.  Way off in the distance I could make out a few sky scrapers of Fos-sur-mer situated between a big pond and the sea. 

I finished with a tour of the castle ruins.  They've added several siege engines on the grounds and appear to have fairly frequent medieval themed events for children.  The amount of carved stone rooms was impressive.  Sadly, the castle was razed at the order of Cardinal de Richelieu: hundreds of years of building destroyed with a few well placed casks of gunpowder.  I didn't follow the political explanation exactly: the townsfolk agreed to have the castle destroyed but agreed to pay the king for it; but couldn't afford the debt payments so the king ended up getting the razed castle in the end anyways.  I feel like I'm missing a small piece that makes it make sense.  

 A new bug (for me) spotted; at first I wasn't sure if it was a butterfly, a hornet, or even a humming bird

 

The trebuchet was introduced to Europe by the crusaders based on exposure to those found to the east during the crusades.  Per the plaque, the name traces its roots to the Occitan word "trebuca" meaning "that which brings trouble".  Also per the plaque, this is the largest trebuchet in France but I feel a claim like that can only, itself, bring trouble.

 

Leading up to the castle, there was a mix of carved and built spaces.  It had me wondering what was carved out from stone and what was assembled from stone blocks.  The troglodyte homes even had shelves and wash basins carved into the walls.

 

My studies in French have often made me question my own understanding/interpretation of English but this one really did a number on my head.  Un belier is a male sheep.  You know: curling horns and likes headbutting stuff?  Yeah, that's the one.  Guess what we call them in English: a ram.  Guess what we call the siege engine in English: a ram.  How is it that the same pattern exists in both French and English?  Does the word come from the noun (animal) or the verb (what the animal does)??? 

 One of the access ways to the castle from the outside, apparently defenses were oriented around this port and it included a set of fake doors. 

 

This isn't the highest point of what the ancient castle would have reached but it still offers a decent view of the town below.

 

Les Baux was founded by a few wealthy and influential Provençal families that bounced between Provençal, Bareclonan, and Anjevin control.  The house of les Baux received income from a variety of other lands besides those immediately surrounding the cliffs.

 

I wonder what the life of an olivier would be like.  As in any other type of agriculture, I imagine there's more involved than just waiting for money to grow on trees.

 

The castle's cistern was an above ground basin that used a porous wall as a filter.  Also, the castle features an "Escape Game" involving people solving puzzles scattered around the castle grounds.  The theme of the game is the secrets of Alix des Baux, the last descendant of the family who ruled over les Baux; when she died without an heir, the castle came under possession of Louis XIII who delegated the land to an ally.

  

A stone pillar built into the stone of the castle's base?  Maybe the notches on this served some other function?  There was also construction/renovation going on so the tour of the castle grounds couldn't go much further in that direction.

 

It's a shame the castle was razed, it must've been an impressive fortress.  As defensible as Les Baux's position and geography is, it seems sieges are usually won by attrition and economics rather than fire power and thickness of walls.  At least until we were able to drop high explosive ordinance from above.

 

 

The place looks different now: the main entrance has been moved to the far left where the wall was knocked down to conjoin with the road/parking lot.  Oh, and while some olive trees remain in the foreground, instead of farms those are now chic vacation rentals.

 

Turns out the wall peppered with square holes was a roosting place for the town's pigeons, used for food, messages, and fertilizer. 

 

Two bricoles and a couillard: more mobile defense artillery.  The couillard uses counterweights for firing but the bricoles were 100% womaned.  Teams of up to 20 women could fire 12kg projectiles up to once a minute. 

Surprisingly, there were a few goats in a field nestled in the crook of the cliffs between the castle approach and the town below.  Maybe people do live in this town?

 

On the way out, there was a film presented going over the rough history of les Baux ; it was a nice recap before leaving and the dark cavern was welcome break from warm air.

There were no water fountains in Baux, so I ended up fairly dehydrated.  I took one look at the Carrier des Lumieres, where light shows of art are projected onto the walls of an old, abandoned limestone quarry.  It would have been cool but my parking was expiring and I wanted to get a move on to pay a short visit to another town I'd visited back in highschool: Arles.

One last look at the quaint streets of this fortress town.  I don't know if people actually live up here, all the shops were 100% geared towards tourism.

 Oh neat, turns out bauxite is named for les Baux!  1821: a weird rock is found in the region of les Baux de Provence and is found to be rich in aluminum.  Weird to think how pervasive aluminum is now given it was only discovered 200 years ago.

Walking to les carriers, I got a closer look at some of the surrounding rock formations; maybe that vale of hell name wasn't so far off.  The landscape was certainly weird with various holes and seams in the rock either formed naturally or from ancient quarrying.

I kinda wish I'd had spare time to see the light show, the map indicated that the quarry is quite large

 

Arles is different from how I remember, which has me seriously questioning what I was doing on my high school trip.  It is a thriving city, not the quiet shoulder-high wall town I recalled; I quite liked Arles.  Compared to the madness of Avignon, I found Arles very approachable and could see the downtown area being a place people would want to live.  I arrived too late to go inside any of the attractions, but I relearned about how the people of Arles had incorporated housing into the Arena.  I paid a visit to the Place du Forum where I remembered the café Van Gogh painted was; sadly, the café was closed today.  So I had a glass of wine (with some olives to munch) nearby to relax and reenergize a bit before my drive to the hotel.  

 

The area of Arles wasn't as big as that of Nîmes but it had a different look to it too.  Arles also had a wealth of other Roman ruins: a theater, a bath house, and even a crypt.

 

 

Like in Nîmes, people had built up and lived in the arena at one point; I guess the preservation efforts here weren't the same as those in Nîmes and more of the signs from being lived in have been left behind.  Which is fortuitous for us: these buildings aren't as static as we sometimes like to think they are and capturing them at different points of time tells a broader story. 

 

It was too late to enter the theater but I was able to press my face against the fence grating to take a peek.

 

The courtyard of the Van Gogh community cultural center; good thing they had a good picture to work off of for replicating the scene.

 

Le café la nuit, standing where the subject of Terrase du café le soir was

 

The evening snack of champions

 

Taking a quick walk through a different part of town heading back to the car lead to some interesting finds like a windowsill cat, a central gutter in the street, or a colorful dead end.

 

The main gate to the walled city must've been an impressive display back in the day.

You'll have to excuse me for keeping both ears for the self-portrait

 

The drive to Marseille went pretty smoothly until I entered Marseille.  Once the highway ended and I was driving the streets of Marseille, it seemed like it was suddenly the wild west of roads: I couldn't make out any lane markings, people were double parking, and scooters/ebikes were all over the place.  I breathed a sigh of relief when I finally made it to the hotel; unfortunately, the hotel's parking was back up a 1-way street I'd just come from and involved taking a car elevator.  The good news is that I found ample parking in another public parking lot two blocks down that charged roughly the same rate.  

I opted to avoid paying for breakfast at the Ibis hotel but started to second guess myself when I discovered the nutella dispenser.  It even has a button for delivering 15 grams of deliciousness at a time.

 

A stroll after dark revealed that this area of town is very well lit up at night; plenty of fancy buildings with accent lighting.  The temperature was perfect for walking around at night too.

On the hunt for a late dinner, I walked along some nice pedestrian areas near the old port and found a place to serve me a traditional bouillabaisse.

 

 

The harbor looks great by night with all that light.  There's so many small craft here, it kinda boggles the mind.

Marseille has a reputation in France; all my coworkers told me to be careful whilst visiting.  Part of the reputation comes from the city having the some of the highest gun crime rates in France but another piece of it is a reputation of the Marseillais to be brash, loud, and often confrontational.  A quick google search shows the 2017 homicide rate in Marseille at 3.5%; but I'm from les États-Unis so I think I'll be fine.