Avignon and Chateauneuf-du-Pape

"Sur le pont d'Avignon, 
L'on y danse, l'on y danse
Sur le Pont d'Avignon
L'on y danse tous un rond"

"On the bridge of Avignon
We're all dancing, we're all dancing
On the bridge of Avignon
We're all dancing round and round"

Loreen started signing this song the night before we got to Avignon and was really disappointed that the bridge of Avignon is mostly destroyed. Originally constructed between 1177-1185, the bridge was essential to the pilgrimage route from Spain to Italy. It was made up of 21 piers and 22 arches and by the late 1600s most of the bridge had collapsed. Now a world UNESCO Heritage site, the remaining four sections give a picture of how imposing and magnificent the bridge was in it's heyday.

Avignon Bridge

Today, an exciting moment this morning when we opened the curtains to find we were anchored to another cruise boat and it's bedroom window was right beside ours. Thankfully their curtain was closed so we did not scare anyone!! 

After we took an Avignon city walking tour where the big draw in Avignon is the Palais des Papes, ( Palace of the Popes). This Place was home to the Popes and the head of the Catholic Religion during the 14th century. The Palace is also a UNESCO World heritage site and the place is absolutely huge.  

  

About half of the front of the Palace.

The palace is filled with places to worship, both inside and outside in squares, and numerous rooms and halls that were needed to house the Pope and all the clergy and support staff.

One of the interior Squares

Even though the city itself was surrounded by some three miles of defensive walls, the place itself was also fortified with defensive walls lined with arrow slits that would allow the archers to shoot into the enemy. These arrow slits not only faced outwards but were also faced inwards so that any rebellion by people inside the palace area could be stopped.

Defensive walls facing into the palace square.

Next we visited Chateauneuf-du-Pape wine country. This region grows 6,000 hectares of grapes and there are 322 wineries. It was more beautiful than we could have imagined, with great tracts of vineyards reaching over the hills and into the valleys. 

Chateauneuf-du-Pape landscape

Chateauneuf-du-Pape is one of the most renowned wine regions in France. The land is hilly, rocky and they still bring more rocks up from the rivers to lay in the vineyards. The rocks are essential to the terroir of these wines as they capture the heat during the day and hold the heat into the night helping to speed up the ripening process. As with all French wine areas, the Chateauneuf-du-Pape area is restricted to specific grape varieties in the wine production. Eighteen grape varieties, I only recognised about four of them, are allowed and there are no restrictions on how they are used or blended.  Therefore a red blend could have some white grape variety in it. The main grapes used are Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre. 

After touring the countryside we went to a small village to do some tasting. It being a holiday in France, most shops were closed, but it seemed one out of three shops was a winery or tasting room. The tasting shop we attended was a modern facility, with a large front shop area and two tasting areas in the back where the wines were aging in barrels. 

The Winery

The tasting area

Unfortunately, the wines were not to my palate, and I was happy to learn that some of my new wine friends agreed with me. Not saying they are bad, just not "my cup of wine".

As for the wine and chocolate tasting, it was very well run by the onboard wine master. We tasted three wines, a dry red, a medium dry white and a sweet white. Each wine was sampled with three types of chocolate, a dark, a milk and a white. While it was all very interesting and very informative, the best combo for me was the dry red and dark chocolate, I think I prefer my wine and chocolate separate. Maybe chocolate and cognac would be better!