Our last excursion to Provence began on a sunny, Friday morning at around 9am! We all arrived at the train station in Dijon where we had a direct train to Avignon, our first stop in possibly the most beautiful region in France! We arrived in Avignon in the late morning and checked into our hotel which was right next to the most famous historical site in Avignon, Le Palais des Papes (Palace of the Popes). Now you might be a little bit confused about why there is a Papal Palace in Southern France, but don’t worry I will explain later. After checking into the hotel we
went to lunch at a restaurant which faced Le Palais des Papes and since it was about 80 degrees outside we were able to sit outside and enjoy our lunch. At lunch I played my new favorite game which is guessing what country each table is from. It’s more fun to play this in very touristy cities because almost every table will have a guide book open on the table so all you have to figure out is the language of the guide book. We saw one couple with a guide book in English and we guessed they were either from England or from Scotland because of the way they were dressed. Before I came here I didn’t believe that Americans were so easy to spot in a crowd, but it’s true, usually the Americans tend to be the ones that look the most lost and also you can usually tell by the way they are dressed because they tend to not dress as nicely as most Europeans. Also because of the stereotype of “backpacking around Europe,” if any tourist has a backpack you can be almost 99% sure that they are American. This does not mean that American tourists are doing anything wrong; it’s just funny how much we, as Americans, tend to not blend in. After lunch we went to have our tour of Le Palais des Papes which 
was AMAZING!! We had a great tour guide who gave us so much interesting information. I took notes afterwards so I would be able to remember it all when I wrote my blog. The popes were in Provence from around 1309-1409, and they were there at a time when Provence was not part of France yet. The first pope in Avignon was Clement V (a French Pope elected in Rome) and he chose to come to Provence for two reasons; one was to escape the civil wars in Rome and the second was to come to France and stop the King of France from threatening the Catholics. Before coming to Avignon he went through France, and once he had felt like he made enough of an impact to stop the King from threatening the Catholics, he came to Avignon for safety. So that is the story of how the popes ended up in France, but after that our guide explained to us more about the palace and also how the Papacy ended up back in Italy. Benoît XII began building the palace while he was Pope and his part of the Palace took 11 years to build, then Clement VI expanded the Palace
and that took another 7 years, which means in total the Palace took 18 years to build. This Palace was the largest gothic palace in all of Europe, and its construction helped to make it the center of culture of Europe. The architects of the Palace came from Paris, the ceramics on the floor came from Spain, and the artists who did the frescoes came from Italy. Both Clement VI and Benoît XIII brought the best of the best to come and construct their Papal Palace. Clement the VI didn’t only expand the Palace, he also bought Avignon and so it was land of the church until the Revolutionary War in France in 1789 when the revolutionaries offered the people of Avignon liberty, equality, and fraternity and the people of Avignon thought that was a great offer, and so they finally became a part of France. Also during the revolutionary war the revolutionaries unfortunately destroyed a lot of the 
Palace because it was a symbol of the bourgeoisie, but the city of Avignon has restored a lot of the palace so it still looks beautiful today. Some of the most impressive parts of the Palace were the frescoes, the chimney, the treasure tower, and the pope’s window. The frescoes were in surprisingly good shape, especially in the pope’s bedroom, and it was amazing to see paintings that old that still were very colorful and hardly faded at all. Since they are in such good condition we were unfortunately not allowed to take photos because they didn’t want flash to fade them any further. The chimney in the palace was also very impressive (just above) since it was so incredibly tall, and is one of the tallest chimneys in the world. Our guide
compared the pope’s window (above to the right) in this palace to the precedent of the window that the Pope looks out of today onto St. Peter’s Square; similar to the Pope today, this window is where the Pope in Avignon would give his benedictions on big religious holidays like Easter and Christmas. The most interesting thing we saw on the tour was the Treasure Tower (to the right). It wasn’t interesting in terms of appearance but in terms of how the Palace was structured. There were three treasures held in this tower; the money, the library and the Pope. There were windows opening to each treasure and it was just interesting to think about what they considered as treasures back then because of course the Catholic church had a lot of money, books at the time were very precious, and the Pope was the leader of the Catholic church thus making him very valuable as well. The end of the tour was when we finally learned how it ended up that the Popes are no longer in 
Avignon, but in Rome. Pope Gregoire decided to leave Avignon during his reign and go back to Rome, but in Rome they didn’t want a French pope, they wanted an Italian pope, so Gregoire returned to Avignon and for 40 years there was both a French and a Roman pope. Then the Emperor decided that there should only be a pope in Rome because that is where the first pope was buried – Saint Peter – so the French pope ceased to exist and that is why we now have only a Pope in Rome. After this incredible tour we went to the Palace Gardens which were beautiful and had a fantastic view of Avignon. After that we headed back to the hotel to rest a little bit before dinner. We had dinner at a small but great restaurant where I had a great salad and some pasta with real shavings of parmesan – the first legit parmesan I’ve had in France.
On Saturday we headed to Arles where we had another guided visit. Julius Caesar founded the city of Arles in around 46BC, and many Roman ruins still exist there today. We visited the Roman Theater first which was incredible and still surprisingly in pretty good shape. We then visited the Roman Amphitheater which is the 20th biggest Roman Amphitheater in the world. They had to remove city walls in order for the Amphitheater to be built, and it was built in the reign of Augustus near the end of 1st century AD. Here they mostly had the fights of gladiators and fights with animals as well
which is why there is a big wall to protect the audience from the fighting. We learned that the gladiators did not have a very great life because they were worked extremely hard and they were not legally allowed to refuse a fight. They would also get abused by their “guardians” who were basically their coaches. So even though there room and board was paid for and they had the choice of whichever woman they wanted, their life wasn’t really all that easy. After seeing all the Roman ruins we went to 
two sites where Van Gogh painted. Van Gogh lived in Arles from 1888 until his death. You can see the yellow cafe in Arles which he painted in his famous painting entitled Le Café de Nuit (The Night Cafe), and you can also see the garden where he painted Le Jardin de l’Hôpital (The Garden of the Hospital)- the photo of the garden is way at the end of this post. That was the end of our guided visit. Afterwards we got to walk around the HUGE market in Arles where we bought some lavender soap which is the quintessential souvenir from Provence. We then left for a town called Saintes Maries de La Mer where we ate lunch on the beach and then tanned on the beach and even saw in the Mediterranean. It was in the high 70s and the water was SO warm…I finally got to experience the stereotype of the warm Mediterranean. After the beach we went to another town called Aigues Mortes where we stayed at the most luxurious hotel I’ve ever stayed in. There were four girls to almost every room and we had huge beds, a bathroom with two shower, robes for all of us, our own pairs of slippers which we got to take home and small bottles Clarins shampoo and conditioner. At this hotel there was also a pool, a hot tub, a sauna and a hamam (a Turkish Bath). We were so sad we were only staying for one night, and the next morning it was so hard to leave!
On Sunday we woke up and had our breakfast outside in this garden at our amazing hotel, and then at 9am we left for Baux de Provence which is a little village up in the mountains. All weekend we had been hearing about this wind called Le Mistral which is a wind that comes from the Alps. Everyone in Provence kept complaining about how bad it is, and I thought to myself how bad could wind really be. Well we found out on Sunday, it was TERRIBLE! When you were walking a gust of wind would come up and would practically blow you to the side. I almost lost my purse a few times because it would almost blow it off my shoulder! This wind was scary, it must have been at least 30 mph. Besides the wind, Baux de Provence was beautiful! It was a cute little medieval village, and we had time to just explore on our own there! A few of us
went up to the Castle which was fun to go see but because it was from the Middle Ages it was pretty torn down. We were able to climb around it though and go up on top of the towers for amazing views! Then after exploring the castle we went to lunch and then we headed back to Avignon and got on our train to go home!! It was a great weekend and a fabulous last excursion! I think Provence was definitely my favorite region in France because it was so beautiful and full of cute, little towns!! I suppose technically this wasn’t my last excursion since we are going on a day excursion with our Professor Michel when he arrives but it was our last big excursion which means that our time here is quickly coming to an end. I only have two weeks left in Dijon, and while I am so excited for traveling afterwards with my mom and then to return to Seattle and see everyone, I am still sad that it is over because it has been a fantastic semester here! My host family will be the hardest to leave because I have no idea when or if I will ever see them again! At least Nathalie, our director, is coming to Tacoma in October so we will be able to see her again soon which will make leaving just a little bit easier!!
I’m off to study for my 11 FINAL EXAMS and finish a paper for our Political Science Class!
A bientôt!
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