Avignon

We made it to the flea market quite early. In fact, some of the stallholders were still setting out their wares. But there were only about a dozen, and it was mostly old clothes, shoes and portable phones. However, Diana did pick up a Ralph Lauren powder-blue polo shirt for 1 euro, so that was a success.

We walked along Carnot street and admired this Art Nouveau fountain, though it was not playing.

The real centre of Avignon is the Place de l’Horloge, or Clock Square. Here you find the impressive town hall, and also the Opera. The clock itself is difficult to spot, hidden away on a tower behind the façade of the town hall. But we found it. We hoped the figures up there would get moving when the clock struck, as they often do in Holland, but no such luck.

Close by is the Papal Palace and the Cathedral. Very impressive, and much visited. We have done the tour before, and decided to skip it this time.

But we did decide to go to the art museum, the Petit Palais, at the top end of the square.

It is an impressive building in its own right, for example with this chapel ceiling. The permanent exhibition is mostly Italian religious art from the 14^th, 15^th and 16^th centuries.

The high point of the tour – and there were very few other people looking around – is a Botticelli room, with this wonderful Madonna and Child.

On a slightly lighter note, we liked this painting, entitled Madonna to the Rescue. The Madonna, a super heroine of  yore, is about to whack the devil who was clearly tempting the young.

Once out and with time to kill, one member of the party opted for a quiet beer in the shade, while the other headed for the broken bridge. But finding that you have to pay to walk on it, she returned to have a beer too. This jazz-playing busker helped assuage the disappointment.

Then it was time for lunch at the restaurant of the Pope’s mustard maker – La Moutardière du Pape. The dish of the day was a pork chop with mustard cream sauce,  accompanied by carrot puree and a mushroom souffle. And very good it was too.

After lunch, to burn off a few calories, we climbed to the top of the papal gardens overlooking the river and the city. The views certainly repaid the effort. Unfortunately the battery of the camera had given up by this stage and although we took some shots with the phone, we have not discovered how to upload them to the blog. 

Back on the boat we found that the electricity supply here won’t support our washing machine, which is a bore. But on the credit side, our friends Norman and Pat arrived from Beaucaire, and rafted up alongside us, in the absence of other space.

The forecast for tomorrow is promising, so we will probably head off north.