A VISIT TO PROVENCE FRANCE

    Our second to last stop on the cruise was in Marseilles France.  We had been there before and had been ashore to see the local sites.   This time we decided to actually take a ship sponsored tour.  Hard to believe since we usually avoid those but we had some specific things in mind.  Provence is hard to get to on you own so we took the tour.  It was the one stop and then a drop off do your own thing type.

    I have always heard of the Roman aqueduct that was built

Roman Aqueduct

in Provence and that was the first of the 2 stops.  It was an impressive site with the three tier arches.  The water came from a spring and the entire system was about 50 kilometers to the fields and towns where it was used.  The entire change in elevation for the aqueduct was 12 meters.  How they could slope the thing so perfectly still boggles the mind.  This location with the tiers actually took the water over a river.  It was another one of those you need to see the photos to really understand it.
     The second stop was in Avignon, and the bridge from that

Avignon "Pope's" Fortress

Sur La Pont

old French song "Sur le pont .. ."  The other main thing was the palace that the Popes used for about 50 years.  Their was civil unrest in Rome and the newly elected French pope decided to stop here.  It was a long time before they returned to Rome.  The palace was more like a fortress that had been added to.  This was one well done self tour.  The audio guide provided so much information that it was almost hard to listen to it.  That and the stone steps up and down and up and down was all we could take after the 2 hour bus ride.   Very well done but we hit the information overload point.  I think part of it was that it was a very barren place with just stone walls, floors, etc.  All the furnishings went back to Rome.  It was totally devoid of artwork.  A very interesting place and we are glad we went.  Back to the ship to prepare for an even longer day at Cinque Terra.