Another 55 miles / 90 km travelled today. Not a lot but it is very, very hot and I stopped at the various places I cycled through, plus I took a lot of photos. I cycled through the Drome, the Ardeche, over the Rhone via a bridge closed for repairs, and through Orange before finally coming to Avignon.
Avignon is another very atmospheric place. The ancient streets have the same feel for me as places like Vezelay and Venice. the sense of people having live lives and of the ghosts of past life is almost palpable. The Palais du Papes is even today an symbol of absolute power. I cannot even begin to imagine how awe-inspiring it must have been to the medieval traveller or pilgrim who would have already been in even greater awe of the papal power it represented then we might imagine today, before being confronted with the sheer dominance of the scale of the Palace’s construction.
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