Avignon June 8

Hello everyone,
Another busy day in Avignon. We started off visiting the Notre Dame des Doms Cathedral, another magnificent structure, then went to the Pont d'Avignon where we did the full audio tour of the history of the bridge, it was extremely interesting. There are only four arches of the bridge still standing of the original 22 when it was first completed in 1185. It has had a chequered career, it was almost completely destroyed on the orders of King Louis VIII during a three month siege back in 1226, it has been rebuilt a number of times since but kept getting washed away during floods, the final of which left the bridge as it is today. On the Barthelasse Island, under one of the arches of the ruined bridge,there was a cafe with music whose dances were highly popular, and which inspired a song even more popular. Thus originally one danced "sous le pont" (under the bridge) not "sur le pont" (on the bridge) d'Avignon as in the famous refrain sung throughout the world today. The proper name of the bridge is Saint Benezet Bridge he was the shepherd who had a vision to build the bridge and as legend tells it he picked up a huge rock and put it in place to become the original foundation. He was not a technical man and did not take place in the constructionof the bridge but was an excellent fundraiser. He set up a religious order whose role it was to manage the bridge works and to raise the necessary funds. He also built a hospital for the sick and needy travellers. This in turn (long story) was how the Corpus Christi Procession came about. We always took part in the Corpus Christi Procession in Brisbane, a major event, every Catholic School took part, a very beautiful event actually. The Archbishop always gave us a holiday the following day. We then did a half day tour in a minibus around Provence, visting some very pretty villages including Gordes, Roussillon and Les Baux de Provence, and then to visit the massive Roman aqueduct built around the time of Christ and still in perfect structural condition. This was a beautiful day. On the bus we met another Aussie from Geelong who turned out to be a contractor who does a lot of work for the City of Melbourne, I know the company very well and give them a lot of business but I had never met him previously. It's a small world after all. We will sign off before you all get too bored. Sabine and Sam.