Today was another beautiful
day. We woke up in the little town of
Viviers. It is a small town, built on a
hill with a population of only 3500 people.
The town gets its name from vivarium – where it was a food and supply
centre in the 5th century.
Mom and I went for a short walk
before our hike started today. We had a
great view of the St Vincent Cathedral.
It is a Romanesque style cathedral that was started in the 12th
century. It is the smallest cathedral in
France.
With the group we hiked up,
through the tiny stone town, to the Madonna statue on the top of the hill. It was a great little hike through the
trees. We were able to see the entire
town that is protected – so that all the houses and renovations have to be
approved. It was a beautiful view.
After the hike, we were able to go
into the small cathedral and listen to an amazing organist play for our group
in the cathedral. It was pretty
awesome. We also got to climb up the
tiny, circular stairs right up into the organ itself. We were able to climb up and see the amazing
organ right up close. Pretty awesome
view of the entire church from there too!
We had such a fun time after the
cathedral visit! We were able to play Petanque (les Boules) with some locals! It was aweseome. I had forgotten how to play and I really
quite enjoy it. It is kind of like bocce
ball. Made me happy. We had a great team and it was super great
that the other team was interested in playing as well.
Mom, dad, and I took out the bikes
and peddled past a couple of bridges on this super quiet path we found next to
the river. There is an 800km path called
the Velo Route (or something to that effect) that goes from Genevia down to
Montpellier. I am so interested in doing
that in a couple of years. It would be
such a great way to see some of the smaller villages in France.
We sailed (is that still the term
if it is a power boat?) at 1:30pm today and the top sun deck hasn’t been opened
because of the really low bridges. Some
of the bridges are clearing the boat by less than a foot! It is really cool to watch the bridges go
over. If the river was any higher, we
wouldn’t make it.
We also went through the deepest
lock today. It was 75 feet deep, 39 feet
wide, and 59 feet long. It was pretty
cool. Very weird to think that all that
water is being is held up by a metal gate!
Eeek…
It has been a nice, relaxing day
in the sun and on the boat! After dinner
and a few drinks, mom and I decided to head out into Avignon. We had docked during dinner and it is a
beautiful city at night. The entire city
is surrounded by an amazing wall and the entire old city is inside. It was so great to see all the people out in
the centre eating and drinking – it was so warm. Yeah!!
-Allison
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