Sur le pont d’Avignon

We went to Avignon 2weeks ago. A city surrounded by towering walls, full of narrow streets and known for it's half bridge made famous in the french nursery rhyme 'Sur le pont d’Avignon' which translates as 'On the bridge of Avignon'. Apparently it originally was sung 'Under the bridge of Avignon' and it was where men would meet certain ladies for 'dancing'...hmmm, so that's what they called it back then.

Avignon is also famous for it's popery. At one point there was a split in the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church, and one faction made it's home in this French city. For a long time it was an independant state to the rest of France, like the Vatican is to the rest of Italy. So they built the 'Palais de Papes', when we visited it was VE day and there was a big military parade with the old soldiers lining up with their flags. There were also lines of military types with shiny buttons and guns, but the humourous thing was that the musical accompaniment was a young persons marching band, and thgey were all giggly and embarresed to be there.

One of the high points of our daytrip was the visit to Le musée du Petit Palais with it's outstanding collection of mainly religious Italian and Provencal paintings from the late 13th to the early 16th centuries. Some of the paintings were breathtaking, others just plain confusing. But we found one that has to be the funniest depiction of baby Jesus we've ever seen. I wonder why he's grinning so much? This picture is worth enlarging, you can see his happy tiny teeth. I think he seems a little bit too old to be still posing for this type of portrait!