Historic Vienne, France

Being on the water will always be an important part any cruise experience, and not just because we seamlessly glide between ports.

Julie and I stretched out in lounge chairs on the Sun Deck to enjoy our sunny afternoon cruise from Tournon to Vienne.  If we had a French Balcony or Veranda, we might have enjoyed the views from our room, but we like getting up on top, where having to duck occasionally to stay beneath low bridges is part of the fun.

Upon arrival, we took the included afternoon tour of Vienne with a cheerful, knowledgeable guide.

Our first stop was the Cathédrale Saint-Maurice, which our guide pointed out was named after the martyr St. Maurice, as is Switzerland's world-renowned St. Mortiz (German spelling).  Maurice was an Egyptian who became a soldier in the Roman army, rising through the ranks to a position leading the Theban Legion.  It was in Gaul (the Roman name for France) that Maurice and his Christian soldiers first refused to sacrifice animals to worship pagan gods, and then refused to harass local Christians.  His commander, Maximian, punished Maurice's brigade by killing one in ten of his Christian soldiers.

When they still refused, another decimation (as this type of punishment was called) was executed.  It was at the Roman outpost of Agaunam that Maurice was among the martyred, and that city eventually became known as St. Moritz in his honor.  I'm sure you know, St. Moritz is a luxurious ski resort that you may have seen in the movie House of Gucci. 

Saint Maurice was also the patron saint of the Holy Roman Empire.

Back to the Cathedral itself, it was here that Pope Clement V held the Council of Vienne in 1311-2, from which he issued the papal bull abolishing the Knights Templar on behalf of King Philip IV of France.

The Gothic exterior of the Cathedral, which on our visit was obscured by scaffolding for refurbishment, contrasts with the Romanesque interior, a rather unique combination.

Because of our train ride in Tournon plus our afternoon cruise, the Viking-included tour of this historic city was limited to 1 1/2 hours, so there wasn't time to see everything assuming we wanted to be back on board in time for another gourmet dinner.  The ruins of a hilltop medieval castle, for example, were simply pointed out at the end of a street as we walked on to the next major stop in our tour, the Roman Temple d'Auguste et de Livie (Temple of Augustus and Livia).

When the Roman Empire fell in the fifth century, the Temple became a Christian church, with walls built inside the columns.  In the end, St. Maurice proved to be on the winning side of the cultural battle in which he sacrificed his life.  Of course, the French Revolution brought a new era, and it became the Temple of Reason in 1792.

One of our own founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson lived in France from 1784 to 1789, negotiating important treaties and trade agreements with European powers.  During those years, TJ visited Vienne and reportedly loved it. He replaced Benjamin Franklin, who served as ambassador during the war years of the American Revolution.

While it is obvious that the American Revolution inspired the French "Third Estate" to wrest power from their own monarchy, less obvious is the fact that France's backing of the fledgling United States at the urging of Franklin brought a heavy financial burden that exacerbated financial problems for the monarchy of France.  That led to higher taxes and the famous "Let theme eat cake" attribution to Queen Marie Antoinette, fomenting revolt against entrenched royal and papal power.

In any case, when Jefferson returned home to Virginia, he brought his love of Vienne in the form of a building design of this converted Temple to Augustus.  You will recognize it as the template for the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond as well as other municipal buildings in the United States.

Viking Daily reported that "the centerpiece of Vienne is the 13,000-seat Roman Theater on the slopes of Mt. Pipet, said to have been buried from the 4th century until its rediscovery in 1922." Interestingly, it was not included in our Viking-sponsored tour, presumably clipped by time constraints, or perhaps to diversify offerings in Vienne after having visited a different Roman Theater earlier on our cruise in Arles.

We made a stop at the lovely Hotel de Ville, which in French means city hall, where our guide told an amusing story about two backpackers who spent the night there, apparently believing it to be a hotel in the American sense of the word.

France is always proud of its artistic achievements.  We stopped to appreciate a large mural dedicated to the arts.  The backdrop is a clue to where we went next.

Vienne, a city of 30,000, remains most renowned for its Roman ruins, even as the setting for that painting, and we soon found ourselves at Jardin de Cybèle, an assortment of Gallic-Roman partial structures and streets about 2,000 years old.

It seems to have been an ancient neighborhood, with arcades of a portico leading to the forum, which is a public gathering place where I imagine debates about philosophy and politics among other activities. There also is seating for a theater of some sort, possibly honoring the goddess Cybèle, whose likeness was found on a fragment of a bas-relief sculpture of her, which is where the garden gets its name.

Cybèle was a Greek goddess who predated the Romans by at least a few hundred years.  Romans often allowed locals to keep gods and goddesses from their past, applying the traits of similar gods from their own pagan traditions, as they did in Bath.  The locals might have used the Roman name Magna Mater in that time.  She was an earth mother, not unlike Gaia or the Minoan goddess Rhea. Note that it was 20th Century archaeologists who attributed the name to the face on the sculpture fragment.

While we were there, two young teen-aged boys were video-taping themselves running through the ruins, jumping in a way that might look impressive on youtube, I presume.  They looked like they were having fun.

Being centrally located in a city along the Rhone, this old neighborhood was discovered beneath a hospital demolished to make way for a newer one built nearby.

We could have remained in Vienne like some others did rather than returning to the ship.

There are plenty of restaurants, including sidewalk bistros and Michelin-starred restaurants, though I believe that night when our chef aboard Delling served the best Beef Bourguignon that I've ever tasted.

As frequently happens for us and presumably most others, by the time we did the well-organized tour, we felt we had absorbed about as much beauty and information about the village as we needed for this trip, and the idea of returning to the ship to freshen up for happy hour followed by dinner lured us back to our home-away-from-home.

This may well have been the night when I joined a "Name That Tune" team with four strangers in the lounge after dinner.

Julie hyped my musical knowledge. so they called me a ringer, which we took as our team name, "The Ringers."

It was actually Julie, sitting right by me but at a different table, who came up with a song after I would say less than a second of violins that could have just as well been from Flight of the Bumblebee for all I knew.  I still don't know how she got that one, though she didn't know the actual name.  She sang a partial verse in my ear, and I recognized it as Livin' On a Prayer by Bon Jovi (extra points for knowing the artist).

Other than agreeing on some answers, I don't think I came up with any other answer the team did not know without me.

This being a rather sophisticated river cruise, after a few glasses of excellent local wine with dinner, contestants were asked to do the chicken dance in order to win extra points, so the room briefly looked like Old World Village during Oktoberfest.

After a Fats Domino song, extra points could be earned by a couple from the team getting up to do the twist.  Neither of the women officially on the team volunteered, so Julie did, dancing with a man from our team.  I'm not sure that she was officially on our team, but we were allowed to have up to six members, so she would have been legit under the rules.  From a room full of teams, we finished in second, but more importantly, for the next couple of days people knew Julie as the twist girl.

Atop the hill at the end of the street you can catch a glimpse of the Medieval castle ruins.

Palais des Papes in Avignon

If you enjoy historic novels and movies set in France, you understand there was a strong bond between the French monarchy and the Catholic Church.

That alliance took a treacherous turn in the early 1300's when King Philip IV plotted to eliminate the Knights Templar as part of his own selfish designs, which I wrote about in a blog from our Azamara Holy Lands cruise a few years ago.  There's a link here, if you're interested in learning more about that.

Long story short, Philip the Fair --- that's "Fair" as in handsome rather than Honorable --- wanted a more pliable Pope.  At that point, apparently the French monarch held more sway than the Catholic Church itself.  Prior to Portugal and Spain beginning their explorations that led to great riches, the King of France was their most powerful and loyal ally.

By hook and by crook, the King managed to angle a French Bishop into the Papacy in 1305. Pope Clement V refused to report for duty at the Vatican in Rome, because, according to our guide, he said Rome had become too violent.  Perhaps Rome was like one of our modern US big cities with a District Attorney funded by George Soros, but the primary reason was that Rome is about 900 miles from Paris.

In that era long before motorized vehicles or paved highways, an overland roundtrip that took about 40 days to two months was required for the King to get a fast-tracked answer from the Vatican.  With his "yes man" Pope in place, Philip the Fair would want Papal approvals as soon as possible.  Avignon is only 360 miles from Paris.

Construction of a new Bishop's Palace (Rook?) in Avignon had begun in 1252.  Avignon became the Seat of Western Christianity, and upon completion of the palace in 1309, Pope Clement V moved into what became known as Palais des Papes (Palace of the Popes).

The Popes that followed apparently found the original palace (which had been built on the site of a former fortress and church) too small for their purposes, which in addition to being the center for spiritual guidance for the Western Catholic Church apparently demanded large banquets for nobles and religious leaders who lived like the aristocracy.  The new palace dwarfs the original one in ornateness as well as size.

A golden statue of the Virgin Mary was placed above the Cathedral Notre-Dame des Doms in the 19th Century that's next door to the palace so that it would be taller than the Palais des Papes, presumably for religious reasons.

Popes ruled the Western Catholic Church from Avignon from 1305 to 1376.

Between parties and ceremonies (or perhaps they should be seen more as conference tables where big decisions were hammered out), seven successive Popes who reigned from Avignon played important roles in the history of the Catholic Church and the world, including negotiating treaties and also several crusades, right up through the last Pope who led the church from Avignon.

Oddly, despite aiding and abetting the despicable devastation of the Knights Templars by King Philip IV, Pope Clement V launched another crusade to the Holy Lands.  Led by the Knights Hospitaller, the plan changed en route.  Instead of going to Jerusalem, the Knights conquered the island of Rhodes, which had been under Byzantine (Eastern Roman Empire) control.

My thought is that the Knights decided to take advantage of the chance to get out of France rather than possibly face the fate of the Templars.

Urban V, the sixth  Avignon era Pope, tried to reunify the Western and Eastern Catholic Churches (in the Eastern Roman "Byzantine" Empire).  They had been divided in 1054 in what was called the East-West Schism.  He came closer than any other Pope had, but he died after 8 years of Papal power, in December of 1370.

His successor became Pope on December 30, 1370.  After six years, Pope Gregory XI moved the papal court back to Rome in 1376.  He died in 1378, succeeded by Pope Urban VI.

Another conclave that opposed Urban VI selected Robert of Geneva as Pope, to rule from Avignon, Pope Clement VII.  The Rome-based church called him the Antipope, but much of Europe considered Clement VII the legitimate Pope.

This began a 40 year period called the Western Schism.  Upon his death in 1394, Clement VII was succeeded in Avignon by Antipope Benedict XIII.

In 1409, a third Pope was named in Pisa.  Suffice it to say that the Western Schism ended in 1417 with Benedict XIII ex-communicated, though even then Avignon had claimants to the Avignon title of Pope.

And you thought the 2020 election in the US was a mess!

Most of the lavish marble and gold finishes, artwork and furnishings were long ago carted off to the Rome, so for the most part the rooms are bare walls, but no doubt it was once as grand as anything at the Vatican.

The vaulted ceiling above the voluminous banquet room is now wood but once gave the effect of starlight above attendees, with shiny deep lapis lazuli jewels reflecting candle light from below.

From the exterior, the enormous Palais des Papes looks more like a majestic castle than a humble rectory for a man of God, and the Popes certainly lived like kings.  Imagine how imposing it must have seemed hundreds of years ago, when most buildings in the town were one story and made of wood. 

 

That grandeur explains why the French Revolutionaries, weary of being pawns, not only beheaded royals and many nobles but also decapitated statues of saints, as we would see in Lyon.

Circling the old town of Avignon is a tall, massive wall that stretches for 2 1/2 miles.  The reason the wall looks ancient but remains in excellent condition is attributable to the restoration work led by 19th Century architect Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc.

On the morning of our visit, various tour groups followed assigned guides from the ship through the city gate to Palais des Papes.  

We enjoyed walking around and through Palais des Papes, hearing interesting tales and descriptions along the way.  By the time we finished, we were pretty well worn out, but our guide took us around the village, coming to a 20-minute stop in the central market, which reminded us of Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia.  

Julie and I went outside to browse through antiques at an open air flea market and at shops with merchandise on sidewalks.

Just before arriving back to the ship, Julie and I bid farewell to our guide and walked along the water to see what remains of Pont d'Avignon, a 12th Century bridge known throughout the world ---- though I had never heard of it --- because of a children's song, "Sur le Pont d’Avignon," about people dancing on (or more correctly under) this bridge, which at the time of its construction, was the only way to walk across the Rhone between Lyon and the Mediterranean Sea.

We were exhausted.  Standing for a few minutes after walking a hundred feet makes a long walk doubly tiring.  After another delicious lunch on Viking Delling that included fine wine, we were ready to enjoy views of the river from lounge chairs on the sun deck with our faces in the shade and the golden Provençal sun warming our bodies beneath the azure blue sky.

The next thing I knew, Julie was waking me up to say that if we wanted to go back into the old town to see the free art museum I wanted to visit, we needed to get going.

The museum was easy to find, and while it certainly is not the Louvre in terms of quantity or quality of artworks, much less size and grandeur of the building itself, it was a great experience.  We particularly appreciated the beautiful sculptures. 

We had thought we'd see more of the village, but instead decided we would really rather return to the ship for 5:30 coffee, followed by happy hour and another feast of fabulous French foods.

I believe there was an excursion to the winery developed by the Popes, which makes delicious wines made from wines of that particular appellation, and also one to Pont du Gard, but I think we absorbed about as much as we could from our day in Avignon. 

View from Behind of Palais des Papes

High Kitchen Ceiling for Ventilation

Taxes were based on the number of windows,
so some windows were covered and replaced
with pictures.

The original palace was relatively plain.

The tracings of art found beneath paint.

Once hidden paintings restored pointed out
by our guide.

 Musée Calvet