Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Vienne and wine tasting


Roman theater
temple of Augustus and Livia
cathedral of St.  Maurice
chapel of Notre-Dame de Pipet


At the Chateau de Piereeclos near Macon, we did a wine tasting. I was not too impressed as I have done other tastings and they tasted much better and had food with it.  This wine tasted like cough syrup, the old kind we had to take when we were kids before they sweetened it.  The only one I liked was at the end, a very sweet cordial.  The highlight of the trip was the farm dog that burst into our tasting.  She was very friendly and just wanted some loving!  It probably didn't help that I was starting to get sick, and starting to get my period.  Ah, mamma mia!



Thursday, July 21, 2016

Viviers and Tournon

Viviers coat of arms.
Viviers plane trees.
Both these medieval towns are part of the Ardeche region, between Lyon and Avignon on the Rhone River.  I don't remember much about them, except that the plane trees are everywhere, not just in Viviers.  In Viviers we saw an elderly man feeding three cats. They sat in front of his door waiting.  Then he came out
Tournon war memorial.

Tournon on Rhone River.

with food for them.  I don't know if they were stray cats or not, but that was what I was interested in.  There is so much history and so many medieval towns like this everywhere in France.  I suppose they were built along the rivers, like our towns were built.  Maybe if I had written all this stuff down I could have remembered.  Not even wikipedia has much info about them.  Oh, well.  They were still pretty and quaint little towns to visit.  But I wouldn't want to live there, so far away from any big city.  Yikes.   

Monday, July 11, 2016

Avignon


 These pictures do not do it justice, but Avignon is known for the palace of the Popes.  From what I understand, during the 1300s, the pope at the Vatican was French, and he wanted to move the head of the papacy to his home country, especially as  the Roman Empire was crumbling by this time.  So for about a century,  


 the papacy was in Avignon.  Here they built a huge palace for the Pope, to rival the Vatican.  There was even a wall around the city, of which still is present today.  But the people wanted the Roman pope to be in Rome, so he moved back, and this palace is now a museum.  The town is 

somewhat now preserved as a medieval city, with some modern shops and restaurants.  Here my mom and I found the best biscuits, so we were happy to finally do some shopping, as in the day before in Arles, the shops and restaurants were closed.  I have no idea why.  They just seem to close up shop whenever they feel like it, and rue the poor tourist who is hungry!