Avignon; The Popes Palace

I was able to go on the trip to Avignon to see the Pope's Palace with the Travel Portfolio class twice while I've been here since I am, or rather was using the palace as reference for my pages in Visual Storytelling II. It was really impressive, if not as....High Gothic as I wanted it to be.

Regardless, I really thought that the general history behind why the pope moved there because of all the turmoil in Rome at the time and all the changes that had been made to it over the years because the Popes that lived there kept adding and changing things was really interesting. When we were able to actually go inside, I think the most interesting thing, and most disappointing thing is that during the revolution the palace was sacked and looted so none of the original furniture is still around.

Very inconvenient since I needed interior shots of what the rooms would be set up like for my comic. At least with the interiors I was still able to get a sense of just how big (or small in certain instances) that some of those rooms would be in a castle.

Oh also there were a few rooms with the frescos still on the wall, that unfortunately yet understandably so we could not take any pictures of, but it was really cool to see all the colours and patterns in the rooms like the popes bedroom and such.

On a side note, Avignon...is kind of ghetto, just saying. and the inner city has this large stone wall surrounding it which I find kind of cool. Had to protect the Pope and all that you know.

















Here is a shot from the very top of the Pope's Palace. There was a tower like structure at the top where an archer could have been situated and I wish I had had more time to stay up there and get some more photos for reference, but sadly I literally ran up to the top snapping pictures as I went and then bolted back down. I'll just have to steal photos from a few of the other students that had gone up there sooner and had more time to take photos.


Lastely, while not nearly as historically significant the rest of the things that we saw in Avignon, but just as cool is this graffitti of Bender and Zoidburg from Futurama that we saw near the parking lot where we parked the vans. I thought I would share this find.