BOXES 86-87: Back to Southern France

The Pont du Gard is one of the more amazing sights of Southern France: a remarkably well-preserved Roman aqueduct across the Gard River. (True, "remarkably well-preserved" applies to quite a few structures in Provence, including the Theatre Antique of Orange and a couple of places in Nimes that I wrote about recently in BOXES 82-83.) I hadn't expected to be back in the region so soon, but a combination of opportunities had developed after my 1973 trip: my sister was going to be attending a summer program in Avignon in 1974; my mother was considering a first trip to Europe, meeting my sister in Paris and going on to London; my Swiss architect friend Heinz, a roommate in New York in 1972, had finished up his job in NY and after a round-the-world trip was expecting to be back home in Zurich; and a Northwestern friend was planning to visit Turkey and suggested we might meet up in Istanbul. With all these invitations to connect with family and friends, a month in Europe was hard to pass up.

I took very few photos during the 1973-74 school year. The few in my slide boxes include another shot of University Hall on the Northwestern campus:

. . . and several of the brand-new Pick-Staiger Concert Hall. The building itself is handsome, though my slides indicate I was mostly fascinated by the photographic possibilities of reflections in the windows:

I can't identify the location of one other shot from Evanston that fall. My interest obviously was in the distortions in the panes of glass and in the geometry:

In those years I usually visited New York during winter break; in '73 I took only one photo, a street scene (W. 14th St.) with a touch of Christmas conveyed by the trees for sale:

And back in Ohio for Christmas I likewise took only one photo. Viewers of previous posts won't be surprised that it's of Ellen and Donya:

My next photo is of Ellen as well, but now a summery scene, with a fortress wall of Avignon in the background:

It was great to spend several days in Avignon, where there was much to see, and a great part of the experience was being included in the "board" of Ellen and some of her fellow American students: the dinners at the very large table of a local Provencal family, with real Avignonese home cooking and a chance to listen to the Southern (half-Italian-sounding) dialects at the table. Dinners always began with an aperitif of pastis (the anise-flavored liqueur turned cloudy when diluted by water), and while I don't recall specific meal items, tomatoes, eggplant, garlic and cheese were always prominent.

Of course, any visit to this town would include the Pont d'Avignon, celebrated because of the folk song, though no longer reaching all the way across the Rhone:

And almost as famous, the Palais des Papes (from days when a rival pope set up office in Avignon):

Here's a view of the park (and myself) near the Palais and above the Pont d'Avignon, with Fort St-Andre perched high above the Rhone on the opposite bank:

That photo might work better cropped, except for the softening of focus:

Later that week we went across the river to see the fort up close:

From there, the views of Avignon are pretty impressive:

I see that I also took a picture of a cloister, perhaps within the fort:

Our one excursion beyond the immediate environs of Avignon was out to the Pont du Gard, with a stop at Arles on the way back. For this we needed to rent a car. That spring, back at Northwestern, Mark Coleman had given me some lessons in driving stick shift around a parking lot, so I felt prepared to rent a stick Renault at the office in Avignon. (I would still have preferred an automatic, but if I recall correctly, there wasn't one available at the office.) As for the drive out to the aqueduct, you can ask me in person for the details; since I naturally have no photos to show, I'll just say I was a nervous wreck by the time we got there. (And I'm surprised to see that according to Google Maps it's only a half-hour drive.) But the drive to Arles (45 minutes) and then back to the rental place (another 45) went a bit more smoothly. Here are some more photos of the Pont du Gard. In the second you can see Ellen standing underneath one of the arches.

And below is a view from the very top, where you can cross the bridge over the Roman stones (the water flowed just underneath), plus a view looking over the side. I wonder if people are still allowed to walk across the top level, as you see in these pictures.

In Arles we looked at more Roman ruins. (If we sought out Van Gogh locations I don't have any memory of it.) Arles has its own impressive amphitheater/arena, but my photos are of the remains of another site, the Theatre Antique:

We also visited the church of St Trophime, with its magnificent Romanesque portal and cloisters:

Back in Avignon, the only other pictures I took are of the courtyard of the Calvet Museum with its peacocks:

Then we were off to Paris to meet our mother's flight from the States. In the next post I'll show the pictures I took in Paris and London (just a few), followed by my first visit to Switzerland.