French Reflections
It has been a week now since i came back from France. The holiday was quite short (as always) to visit all the places i was intended to see. But its all worth the tedious journey. Our first stop was Avignon where we stayed for 4 days. It is the administrative, economic and cultural capital of Provence. And here are the jewels of Avignon…
The Palais des Papes
“The most beautiful and strongest house in the world”. The Palace of the Popes, built between the 14th and 18th century is the biggest existing gothic palace in the world. It was the official residence of nine Popes when Avignon was then the capital of the christian world. 25 rooms were held open for public to discover the splendour of this Pontifical domicile.
Saint Benezet Bridge
Legend has it that the young sheperd Benezet heard divine voices instructing him to build the bridge. It was the only crossing point along the Rhone River, the natural boundary between the Kingdom of France and the Holy Germanic Empire. The bridge was destroyed by Louis VIII during the Albigensian Crusade and was rebuilt in the late 13th century. But raging flood waters damaged it and was definitely abadoned in the 17th century. From the 22 original arches remained only 4 today.
The Popes that Reside in the Palace
The Palace is primarily the work of two Popes, Benedict XII and his successor Clement VI. From the 9 Popes, i can only take the pic of the 8 coz the 9th was nailed at the corner wall on the right side.
Palace Roof Top
To reach the uppermost top of the palace, one must be of good health and really fit coz the winding stairs are quite steep and real high. You can see at the background the golden statue of Mother Mary.
The Bell Tower
Just one of the numerous towers of the palace where it used to hang a voluminous bell. After a big fire during the late 18th century, the palace was almost to 70% ruined. It was restored to its original form only after the the middle of the 19th century.
More pics next post. Got dizzy resizing these pics to fit my blog. Am still not satisfied, have to learn more on how to place the pics in some places rather than just the far left side of the blog. Anyway, im improving i think…
nice pictures
Comment by paolomendoza — May 20, 2007 @ 6:57 am
Beautiful pictures Curacha! The place looks very medieval. I think I went there but just for a few hours when I went to Europe way back in 1993. I remember nga in Jerusalem class there was a time that there were 2 popes… one in Rome and the other in Avignon.
Comment by Toe — May 20, 2007 @ 8:35 am
hey, the river looks so clear and calm. great pics! and you’re looking good…enjoy talaga byuti mo dun ha! kulang na lang ng prinsipe dyan sa tabi mo sa tower ng palace. hehehe…
Comment by carey — May 20, 2007 @ 8:47 am
>>paolomendoza
thanks…and for dropping by too.
>>toe
yup! i also learned its history when i joined the sightseeing tour.
>>carey
ngek! looking good nga la naman prinsipe..ano ba yan!
Comment by curacha — May 20, 2007 @ 11:05 am
wow! I had goosebumps just by looking at the pics of the popes…very medieval indeed. I wonder if a movie was filmed in this place.
Anyway I’m glad you had a good time Curacha
Comment by verns — May 21, 2007 @ 2:22 am
I love Avignon! Did you dance on the bridge?;-)
Comment by Sidney — May 21, 2007 @ 2:25 am
The place looks lovely. I’m sure you had a blast there.
Comment by Abaniko — May 21, 2007 @ 4:46 am
very nice pictures.. oh and by the way..
say your pics embeded code is like this…
just add
style=”float: left”
or
style=”float: right”
within the bracket, after the url to attain the desired indent..
Comment by Ymir — May 21, 2007 @ 9:09 am
>>verns
the place is really rich in history…am not aware though if a movie was already shot in this city.
>>Sidney
i cant dance on the bridge, the weather was unfriendly, it was dripping the first 3 days of our stay there.
>>Abaniko
it would be more enjoyable if we had a nice weather…it was rainy and windy when we were there.
Comment by curacha — May 21, 2007 @ 9:11 am
>>Ymir
ok, i’ll try to insert the code u gave. thanks. i still have a lot to learn…..
Comment by curacha — May 21, 2007 @ 9:15 am
Ang ganda naman ng Avignon. Makes me ask how come I’ve never heard of this place before; considering how historical it is.
BTW, good progress sa pics installations…You can put inside the pic tags alighnments like:
align=”left” OR align=”right”
If you want it to be centered, you may perhaps adjust the size of the pic so that it’s width is nearly the width of the post…You can actually adjust first the size of pics using Paint program..
Comment by Major Tom — May 21, 2007 @ 9:22 am
>>Major Tom
I am using irfanview to resize the pics before uploading it. Try ko nga rin yan Paint program mo.
Comment by curacha — May 21, 2007 @ 9:05 pm
great pics
Looks like the weather was great as well 
Comment by bw — May 22, 2007 @ 3:00 am
>>bw
no, the weather wasnt good at all. It was rainy and windy as well.
Comment by curacha — May 22, 2007 @ 5:42 am
ganda naman dito… sana makapagtrabaho na ako sa ibang bansa ng makakita ng ibang scenery. hehe…
Comment by kiko — May 29, 2007 @ 3:09 am
>>kiko
yeah, maganda scenery dito sa europe at napakalinis pa. salamat sa dalaw.
Comment by curacha — May 29, 2007 @ 7:35 am