Avignon France - The Walled City That Was The "Vatican" For 100 Years

The Pope's Palace in Avignon France

450 miles - 3 hours - by train

Yesterday we left Paris by high speed train to spent 10 days in the South of France. It took 3 hours and 450 miles before we arrived in Avignon. The weather mainly is a big change - we went from 65 and cloudy in Paris - to 95 degrees - 33% humidity - and a beautiful clear blue dome sky. As they say - it is a dry heat. 

We rented a nice apartment with pool inside the city's enclosed walls. I will do a separate story about this AirBnB. It is very nice - 3 BR - 2 BA - 3rd and 4th floor - with a roof top terrace with a private pool. The building is hundreds of years old - but the renovation is recent and beautiful. It has a wonderful kitchen/dining room/living room with a fireplace. There are spiral steps going up to a loft on the 4th floor. Lulu and I have a master suite with our own bathroom. 

Avignon has 90,000 people - but only 16,000 people live inside the original downtown wall. It is on the Rhone River close to where it enters the Mediterranean Sea. There is a special climate category called the Mediterranean Climate. It is similar to Los Angeles without the smog. This city has been occupied since 300 AD. It has been occupied by the Phoenicians - Romans - Arabs - Greeks. In the 1300s - the popes lived here. In 1377 - when the Pope chose to move back to Rome - a new Pope was elected to stay here for another 28 years. Things were not always perfect in the Catholic Church. It was a battle of the network popes. 

The downtown plaza inside the wall is really beautiful. It has theaters - city hall - hotels - museums - and lots of restaurants. Food prices are much better than back in Paris. We make 2 meals a day in the apartment - and eat one meal out. 

Today we took a tram tour that went up into the castle and downtown through the narrowest of alleys. 

This is day 46 of 60 of our EuroTour 2021. We have been informed that we can now travel into London and not be required to be quarantined. We will have to show our Covid Passport - and get a covid test before and after the trip. We love London because Lulu taught there for 10 summers for FSU. Our tickets to go home from Paris are for August 29th. We can change them - but we plan to hit that target. We want to be home for the Notre Dame at Florida State football game on September 5th. 

Our cab to the train station

6 of us ride in back

Our train car - Paris to Marseilles

The dining car for a snack

the Alps in the distance - solar panels

Farmers' fields

The Alps

Old VW camper turned intoned trailer

Food truck

The birthday couple - our pool

We live on this street in Avignon.

Sunflowers

Our street is tiled

City Hall

Theatre

The old Bank of France

Green Cross means pharmacy

A slide the castle

Garden in the castle

Kids found a fountain

Castle on other side of the Rhone

The Rhone River flows south

Vineyards

In the palace courtyard

Entrance to Cathedral

Cathedral

Pope's Palace in the 1300s

Boy he really looks old

Tram in tight alleys

Shops - not a lot of shoppers.

Ruins along city wall

City has 12 gates

Pope built the wall in 1300s

Modern College for Young Girls

Theatre

Jim Morrison Grave in the Pere Lachaise Cemetery - Day 40 of 60

KATA TON DAIMONA EAYTOY - Greek
“True to his own spirit"

Red Dot - We live here
Orange Dot - Napoleon's Tomb
Blue Dot - Catacombs of Paris
Purple Dot - Marie Curie Tomb
Green Dot - Jim Morrison Apartment
Yellow Dot - Jim Morrison Grave

Morrison's grave and the
Pere Lachaise Ceremony is messy

It was a themed day. First we planned to visit The Catacombs - and then - the Grave of Jim Morrison. Unfortunately - we did not pre-book tickets for The Catacombs - so it was sold out - and we were left out. So we took the subway and bus to the Pere Lachaise Cemetery. It is a mecca for those that idolize the lead singer of The Doors. 

In 1971 - Jim Morrison was living in Paris with his girlfriend Pam Courson. The Doors had a string of 6 top selling record albums. Morrison was battling alcoholism and a bout with the law. He was recently arrested in Miami for indecent exposure on the stage. He died suddenly from a heart attack caused by drug overdose. All of his wealth was willed to Courson above. They lived in an apartment not far from this cemetery. He was buried without an autopsy. The mystery has caused a lot of conspiracy theories. Morrison was 27. In that short time period Morrison - Jimi Hendrix - Janis Joplin - and Brian Jones of Rolling Stones all died from drugs. They were all 27 years old. A couple years later - Courson - also died of a drug overdose at age 27. The wealth was eventually split up between her family and Morrison's. 

It has been 50 years in July since Morrison died. Lulu and I were honeymooning in Miami Beach when it happened. 

Morrison's father was in the military - so they moved a lot. He lived in Melbourne FL and eventually went to Florida State University for a year. He appeared in a recruiting film there. He finished his degree at UCLA. The Doors had a string of rock and roll hits - including Light My Fire. The Doors closed two years after he died. 

Pere Lachaise is an incredibly spooky cemetery. It goes on for blocks and blocks. Most of the graves have mausoleums - many of them have open doors. Graves are stacked up sometimes over 6 deep. The most unusual thing to me were the names on the graves. Out of the thousands of surnames - I could only identify a couple of them. It is like running into a different universe.The only other name I recognized was Oscar Wilde - I know he is a writer from Ireland. 

The cemetery helps prepare me for a trip into the Paris Catacombs. In those tunnels under the city - the bones of 6 million French are stacked like cord wood. We hope we get in there before we come home. 

This grave had bronze arms

This grave was cast iron

Some are sky high

Morrison's grave is in
a tiny space

Strange names - almost Tamaqua

Row and rows - drawers and drawers

Trying to escape 

A giant pyramid went 10 feet down

This one had a metal jack on it

The tree had to be 100 years old

Bronze rusts to green

Streets paved in stones

Grass was unkempt

Packed like sardines

This wasn't Mark Twain

So skinny - it looked
like an outhouse

At least it had 
running water

Bronze top hat and tails

This guy has been lying here
since before I was born

Some pretty stained glass

The door was wide open

Unusual names

Oscar Wilde's grave
surrounded by glass
because people would kiss it