Avignon, Monaco, and Nice

This morning we were asked to have our luggage ready at 6:30 a.m. for a 7:30 a.m. departure, even earlier than yesterday.  We had a long way to go today.  We began driving south through the Provence region of France, known for among other things its lavender, nougat, and Côtes de Provence rosé wine.  We stopped at a rest area, and Bruno returned to the coach with a bag of nougat he had purchased, which he passed around the coach.  I don’t believe I had tasted that particular confection for many, many years, and it was surprisingly delicious.  The Côtes de Provence rosé wine was something we would be sampling over the next few days.  “It is against the law to drink anything else in this part of France in the summer!” he told us, and we tried to heed his advice at every opportunity.

We could see mountains off to the east, now, the beginning of the Alps.  Bruno told us that one reason why Nice and Monaco (our destinations at the end of the day) were so popular was that you could drive for an hour and be skiing in the Alps. 

Our next stop was Avignon, a city set on the Rhône River, which in the 14^th century was the seat of several Catholic popes.  It remained under papal rule until 1791 when it finally became part of France, and that legacy could be seen in the Palais des Papes (Popes' Palace) in the city center, which was surrounded by medieval stone ramparts.  But the first thing we saw in Avignon was the famous Pont d'Avignon, which is the subject of a French nursery rhyme dating back to the 15^th century and which is for some reason embedded deeply in my mind.  Perhaps Miss Satterlee (see post of July 11), who taught her students many Christmas carols in French that I recall to this day, also taught us this song:

Sur le Pont d'Avignon
L'on y danse, l'on y danse
Sur le Pont d'Avignon
L'on y danse tous en rond.

(On the bridge of Avignon
We're all dancing, we're all dancing
On the bridge of Avignon
We all dance in circles.)

It is a bit of a mystery exactly why anyone may have danced on this bridge across the Rhône River, which was washed away in the late 1600s.  Only part of the medieval structure remains, and we could see its ruins as soon as we left our coach to visit this charming little city.

The Palais des Papes was very impressive, and we were left as we had been on the previous day on our own for several hours to explore the area, which was filled with little shops and cafés.

It was here that Martha bought, among other things, some lavender to bring back home.  Bruno had told us, “Your dirty clothes, they might start to not smell so good at some point, so put a little bag of lavender in with them and they will be just fine!”  We had lunch at a little café in a cobbled pedestrian courtyard, accompanied with a glass of the Côtes de Provence rosé recommended to us. 

In addition to lavender and good wine, Provence was known for the Côte d'Azur, what  we call the French Riviera, and for Monaco and the city of Nice, the jewels on that beautiful coast and our destinations for the night.  We drove to Monaco first and caught out first glimpse of the Mediterranean Sea, gleaming that special azure, a color I have not seen anywhere else.  

We went through several tunnels cut into the stone.  Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a sovereign city-state bordered by France to the north, east, and west.  It also happens to be the place where perfume was invented, and was much appreciated I am sure by the people at the time, who generally bathed only twice a year (if they needed to).  It was believed at the time that bathing was an unhealthy thing to do.  Property here is worth €60,000 per square meter.  Bruno provided a hilarious account of the inner political intrigues and scandals of Monaco and its monarchs over the years as our coach driver maneuvered around the narrow streets of Monaco and finally parked in a huge parking area located under the city.  Why waste precious land for parking above ground?

We disembarked and went up a series of escalators and elevators to the Saint Nicholas Cathedral, or Monaco Cathedral, where Prince Rainier and Princess Grace (the American actress Grace Kelly) were married.  Inside the cathedral, among other royalty, were the modest graves of the Princess and her husband.  It was a beautiful place, surrounded by tropical palm trees and flowers.

 
During the course of the day, I had developed a scratchy throat and a dry cough, which I attributed to the air conditioning in the coach.  We left Monaco and drove back to Nice, and I felt just fine when we got off the coach and walked to an outdoor café for dinner.  We sat with some new friends, Brenda and Susanna, and thoroughly enjoyed an al fresco dinner paired with cold Côtes de Provence rosé, which seemed to be the only sensible thing to drink in what were becoming increasingly warm temperatures.

We arrived finally at our hotel in Nice, the Holiday Inn, which was more spacious than some of our other accommodations, and with which we would become closely acquainted over the course of the next few days.