History

So I'm reading a book, off and on, about the History of France. It's appropriately named the History of France... Anyway, it starts off something like this, although I'm completely making this up...

"So the Gauls were fierce fighters and all that, then they got conquered by the Romans, who built a city called Aix-en-Provence on an even older Gallic city and ruled the area."

I mean, that's a summation. But Aix is mind bogglingly old. It appears in the first chapter of a history book! I've never lived in a city that old - unless you count Memphis in a history of the Yellow Death in... Memphis... Or maybe a history of the cotton industry, I bet Memphis would feature heavily in that. (And music, but we might not make the first chapter of that book, either.)

But I left beautiful Aix to visit a city even more beautiful - Avignon.

Avignon is home to the Papal Palace, and, through politics incredibly difficult to understand, was the home of the Pope from 1303 to 1378 (or 141...something, depending on which Pope you followed in the Papal Schism). It's complex, and a prime example of politics and religion.

But it also resulted in a huge building.

HUGE.

There, in all it's rather stout glory, is the

Papal Palace.

And below are lots of children dressed as Russian dancers for the "We are the Future" round-the-world exhibition that mostly feature Russian children. At least I think they were Russian, since they sang, spoke, and received instruction in Russian, which the French are not known for speaking particularly well.

But I've never been quite so put to shame by 11 year olds before. They were amazing.

But back to history - I've realized a strange interest I didn't know I had - giant rooms.

This is the Tinul, where they held banquets for the guest of the Pope. I'm standing in the area where they would keep the food warm - separated from the rest by a giant wooden wall. The Pope would be at the far end, on a dais, eating all by himself. Poor guy.

He'd also be the only person in the room to have a knife. It was described as "delicate and ivory." Consolation prize for eating all alone?

Big room #2 - The Ecclesiastical Court -

capable of handling up to 8,000 cases a year. And you better hope they ruled in your favor, because they were infallible and you had no where else to go if they didn't.

Have I mentioned I love Gothic Arches?

Imagine this filled with enough people to take care of 8,000 cases a year. And 10,000 letters! Mind boggling. And when this was in use? America = not even discovered.

But I've been living in a 2,500 year old city for five months - what's 700 years?

So then it was over to the Pont d'Avignon, the Avignon Bridge, that was rather unimpressive actually. But it did result in the creation of a saint - Saint Benezet. As a poor shepherd boy living in the mountains, he heard the voice of God telling him to build a bridge in Avignon (the British guy telling me this story on the headset got into being the voice of God quite a bit). So he goes down into the city and starts to spread the word. Like most prophets, people laugh at him. Eventually, he shouts out in front of the visiting Bishop (maybe Pope? this is in like, 1050, 1100) "I've been sent by God to build a bridge!" Everyone laughs at him, and some local leader responds, "If you've been sent by God, pick up that stone and lay the foundation stone yourself!" And he points to a giant stone left over from building the city walls. Naturally, Benezet picks up the stone with the help of God, walks to the river, and chunks it into place.

You can't not build a bridge after that...

Saint Benezet is now the patron saint of architects.

And then to the Petit Palais museum, which featured three floors of iconic art. It was awesome, but by the end, my eyes were glazed over with gold. They also held a "surprise Botticelli." And I say that because I was just strolling through the museum and walked right by it the first time, came back searching for it, turned around, and there it was in the least visible, least likely place. It wasn't exactly in a well planned out spot. Pretty sure the curator for this museum had little to no knowledge of museum layouts.

But it was awesome, and I got to geek out to all the art. I realize I mumble to myself in art museums, excited about the changes in style. "Ooh! The Byzantine-style halo! And look at the beginning experimentation with perspective!" This wasn't helped by the fact that I was the ONLY person in this museum.

The a little flanning, a little appreciation of the giant wall surrounding the city, and home for the night!

I love this wall. Maybe it's not just "big rooms" but "large constructions in general." This wall was REALLY COOL and actually did go around the entire city.