Villas and Popes- Relaxing and Stressing in Southern France

Collared Dove

 After our trek into the French Alps we headed south to Avignon where we had rented a villa with a group of friends. It was a scorching hot day with a heat warning to boot. We ended up overheating on the ride down south.

Waiting on the side of the highway

Luckily we made it to an emergency phone. French highways have pull off areas with right orange phones to call tow trucks or emergency vehicles. We were close enough to get a tow to Avignon where we got picked up. 

Emergency phones in France

The French countryside is quite relaxing and lovely and the villa was in the middle of stretches of orchards. The weather stayed hot and the pool at the villa was lovely. With a whole group of us renting the villa was actually quite affordable. One afternoon we took a short hike up to the nearby Monastere fortifie de Thouzon. The old ruins sit atop a hill in the area with a view of the entire lowland area around it.

Monastere fortifie de Thouzon

After the weekend relaxing at the villa we returned to Avingon and had to stay an extra night in the City of Popes waiting for the verdict on the car.

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The city is known for being where the popes fled to when they left the Vatican. The castle of popes is in the center of the city and near where we stayed along the Rhone River. The city is quite spectacular with thick stone walls enclosing a historic town.  I didn't do any tours of the inside but it was quite nice just to walk around for the day and look at the architecture.

Palace of Popes

Church behind the Palace of Popes

Uphill the Castle of Popes sits on top of the hill overlooking the river below. The views are behind a small manicured garden with ponds, the Rocher des Doms.

View of the Rhone behind the Palace of Popes

The views also include a view of Pont d'Avignon. Pont d'Avignon is a historic medieval bridge with only 4 arches remaining, but it is one of the biggest attractions in the city. It is quite impressive that it is still standing in relatively good condition for how old it is. Tourists pay to literally just walk out onto the bridge. I thought the view looking at it was good enough.

Pont d'Avingon

The part of the city I stayed in was very touristy, but the ice cream and crepes (hey when in France might as well be stereotypical on occasion) were as fantastic as I remember from my visit to France in high school.

Our car wasn't ready to go and we needed to get back to catch our flight so William drove us back to Les Herbiers through the night and we got a train to Bordeaux the next day.  I will say that cabs in France are extremely expensive and cabbing from the train station to the airport was over $60 for a 15-20 minute drive. As a Canadian I am really not used to those prices and I will NEVER take a cab again in Europe!