South of France (Day 4)

Our final day trip was to Avignon.  We visited the Palace of the Popes and the Avignon Bridge.

I'm doing a student count to make sure everyone made it on the bus.
Lots of counting to 26 (plus 3 kids).

The bus driver stopped at a viewpoint from across the river so we could see the Palace and the Bridge.  We also got to see a lot of people rowing.

Early in the 14th century Clement V moved the papacy from Rome to Avignon.  He and his successors built the Palace of the Popes as the seat of the Catholic church.  It was used as the pope's residence until the 1370s (and two anti-popes lived there for another two decades).

Luke (who is hidden behind Libby) made it a goal
to talk with one of these students since he thought
she hadn't talked to him enough.  Lucky her, he followed
her around all morning.

View from the top of the palace.

What's more disturbing about this picture?  Isaac leaning over the edge
unsupervised or Isaac showing all of us his back-side while we laugh?

No touching.

Usually on day trips we get to a location and everyone goes around on their own and then we plan to meet at a certain time.  That means groups of students go around together and then our family goes on our own.  On this day, a couple of these girls asked if they could go around with us.  I thought they were kidding, but no they stayed with us all day.   It was fun to have them around and it helped keep the kids in line.  I think they learned an important lesson, travel as much as you can BEFORE having kids.

Luke trying to photo bomb.

After getting some lunch, we walked over to the Avignon Bridge.  The bridge was built between 1177 and 1185 and was originally 900 m long.  Only this small section of the bridge remains.  The rest was destroyed by floodwaters (I think - we watched a video about it but it never clearly said what happened to the bridge, or it said in French and I didn't understand).

A drawbridge getting on to the bridge.

I'm the king of the world.

We saw this designer toilet paper in a small shop in Avignon.
I'm not sure who buys designer toilet paper.

The Avignon Bridge has a famous French children's song about it called Sur le pont d'Avignon.  Warning: The tune is catchy and you'll have it in your head for days.