In attempt to use some of the $150 of onboard credit I decided to take a tour arranged by the ship to Avignon, the Palace of the Popes and Les Baux.
There were 25 people on my bus. Luckily it was cold, windy and out of season, so there were not many other groups in town. We started by having a guided tour of the Palace of the Popes. It was interesting to hear the history behind the palace and that the Popes left Rome for a period of time. And after the real Pope returned to Rome they elected a fake Pope to live in the palace.
After the tour we had 90 minutes of free time. I walked back to the bridge to take some better photos. I saw an observation platform and hiked up to it. Eventually I got back the the Palace of the Popes as the park I was in circled back to the palace. I wandered around a bit in town until noon.
At noon we took the bus to Les Baux. The tour guide walked us around the town and told us a little about some of the local souvenirs as we walked by the shops. We went inside a small church and she told us about the different arches and the fact that no one in the area builds houses with windows on the north side of the building because of the strong winds. Les Baux seemed like a tourist trap. They did have a castle on the top of the hill, but we didn’t have enough free time to explore inside it.
In the evening we made use of our bottles of sparking wine (I built a pyramid with the empties) while I recorded the sailaway.
We had dinner in the Manhattan room. I had prime rib again. The bars were very quiet as everyone was preparing to disembark tomorrow.
