David's Diary: Wednesday, November 21, 2001

Avignon, France

We have been waiting for a number of parts to arrive for Dragonsinger and they have finally made their way to Port St. Louis and Yacht Services. It is hard for us and hard for the work crew at Yacht Services to work around each other when there is a lot of work to be done on the boat. To give ourselves a break and to let Yacht Services have complete access to the boat, we have decided to take a three-day trip to the nearby city of Avignon.

Avignon is one of the major centers of the Provence region of France. The city is most famous from the 1309-1377 period when the pontifical court (i.e., the head of the Roman Catholic church) became French and moved to Avignon. French popes succeeded each other during this time and the Palais du Papes was built as suitable accommodation for the grand style, which they lived.

We spent yesterday driving through the countryside and getting to know Avignon. Today, we started out with a visit to the Palais du Papes. While all of the decorations and furnishings have long disappeared (the Palais was a prison and military barracks until 1906), it is not hard to imagine the Palais in its glory during the 14C. Kevin and Allen were more interested in how the Palais was defended and we imagined all sorts of battles as the Palais was often under siege.

Pont St-Bénézet

After our visit to the Palais du Papes, we walked up to Rocher des Doms, a beautiful garden at the top of the bluff overlooking the Rhone river. We played in the park, climbed the rock walls, and walked around enjoying the views over the Rhone. We then walked along the ramparts, the walls that protected the city, to Pont St-Bénézet, an ancient bridge that crossed the Rhone.

Rhone River

Pont St-Bénézet has existed since 1177 and was one of the only bridges to cross the Rhone. At the time it was built, it marked the separation between French and German territory. Originally constructed with 22 arches, crossing the largest mid-river island on the Rhone, it was finally destroyed in a great flood of the Rhone in the 17C. Today, we got to walk out on the remains of the bridge and visit the Chapelle St-Nicolas, which was built on one of the bridge's piers. The Chapel honors seaman that work on the river. We hope that it might also bring good luck to a traveling Canadian family on a sailboat in the Mediterranean.

University du Avignon

For lunch we stopped at a small restaurant in the old part of town. It turned out that the manager had spent a year as the catering manager for the Sutton Place Hotel in Toronto. With this brush with Canada encouraging us, we did some shopping then found the one English bookstore in Avignon. We spent an hour finding a few nuggets among the thousands of used books in the Shakespeare book store.

Afterwards we headed outside the city ramparts (the ramparts completely surround the old city of Avignon) with the intention of walking back to our hotel. But on the way we discovered the University of Avignon. As Karalee and I both attended the University of British Columbia, and met and fell in love during our time there, we have a special bond with any university. We took a detour through the grounds and as Kevin and Allen speared leaves falling to the ground, Karalee and I felt warm reminders of a formative time in our lives. University was a defining point in our lives; much like we think this year away will be a defining point for our future.