Paris River Cruise (October 2023) Viking

  Avignon, France Part II Our afternoon tour in Avignon was inspired by a recommendation from Kimberley and Nate who had recently spent their honeymoon in France and also visited Avignon and the Pont du Gard - one of the wonders of Antiquity.  It is the finest remaining example of an ancient aqueduct and was built almost 2000 years ago by the Romans. This architectural gem, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is in a beautiful, unspoilt, natural setting.  What a great recommendation this was....these pictures will tell the story.  The olive tree featured in one of the pictures is over 1000 years old!  Only half the life of the aqueduct. The bridge has three tiers of arches made from  Shelly limestone  and stands 160 ft high.  The structure's precise construction allowed an average gradient of 0.39 in 598 ft.   Pictures with proof that "we were really there" also give you a wonderful perspective of the size of this...

 Avignon, France Last stop on our Paris River cruise with Viking.  And definitely not the least.  We were scheduled to visit the Pope's Palace on our morning tour and the amazing Roman aqueduct on the afternoon tour. On our walk towards the Pope's Palace and just a short distance from where the ship docked, we visited the surviving arches of the  Pont Saint-Bénéz or Pont d'Avignon, a medieval bridge spanning the Rhone ( built between 1177 and 1185. This early bridge was destroyed forty years later in 1226).    The bridge was abandoned in the mid-17th century as the arches tended to collapse each time the Rhône flooded making it very expensive to maintain. Four arches and the gatehouse at the Avignon end of the bridge have survived. The north side of the bridge with the Chapel of Saint Nicholas Pope's Palace :  Between 1309 and 1377, during the Avignon Papacy, seven successive popes resided in Avignon (rather than Rome) and in 1348 Pope Clement VI...