Avignon is a lovely city on the Rhône River, famous for its bridge and Palais des Papes. The kids at school all know the song ‘Sur le pont d’Avignon, l’on y danse, l’on y danse, sur le pont d’Avignon l’on y danse tout en rond’. Well, I visited that famous bridge! It’s especially interesting because it only goes partway across the Rhône! It was very grey when we first arrived, but turned into a beautiful sunny day! (we’ve been SO lucky with the weather-touche bois!) It is actually called the ‘Pont St-Bénézet’ and was begun in 1177 by a shepherd boy, Bénézet, who heard ‘faerie voices’ telling him to build the bridge. The ‘Palais des Papes’, Popes’ Palace, was an amazing, fortress-like palace, a sort of mini-Vatican, built over the ruling terms of the seven French Popes (for most of the 14^th century). The papacy moved from Rome to Avignon for political reasons, they minted their own money, had their own bakeries and fortified themselves against the French