Day 2 ... Inside the Walls of Avignon (Palais des Papes & Tour of Pont Saint-Bénézet)

Palais des Papes (Palace of the Popes)

View of the palace from Pont Saint-Bénézet

Pont Saint-Bénézet ... spanning the Rhone between Villeneuve-lès-Avignon & Avignon was built between 1177 and 1185. This early bridge was destroyed forty years later during the Albigensian Crusade.

Bikes of Avignon

 

Arrival in France

After arriving at Charles de Gaulle I walked across the airport to the train station.

 

Avignon was a few hours away via the high speed TGV train.

I was the first one to arrive at Château d'Avignon (real name ... Château de La Vernède). Nineteen of us should be pretty comfortable in this huge 10 bedroom, 11 bathroom villa. Sandy & Larry's 50th wedding anniversary celebration has officially begun!

 The grounds are beautiful but I was ready for a nap.

 

Sunny Sunday

I have the BEST guard dog!

The weekend wouldn't be complete without a trip to Panera Bread. Why is Stella eating a bone?

Because whipped cream is for dessert!

 All of these snacks sure makes a pup thirsty.

Backyard duck family.

I stopped to shoot a peeling tree on our walk to the forest. Stella was very interested in the lizards running around it.

Swimming & Splashing

Google wanted to race. Nice tail!

 

Stella was quite the swimmer today. She had a blast chasing the squirt from a super soaker.

 

Wheaten or Jaws?!?

 

How could she possibly stay awake after a full day of swimming?!?

Long Walk

Stella went to the groomer this morning to get her summer cut. After work she wanted to take a long walk so she could show off her new hairdo.

 We went to the forest & on the way, I shot some nice details ...

Rustic rusty bench

Manhole cover

My tuckered out pup! Time to rest up for the weekend!

Spring Park Coffee

After the photo workshop, we went to Spring Park Coffee, a REALLY cool coffee shop in Green Cove Springs.

They have an amazing variety of coffee specialty drinks. I had an iced Tag-a-Long (espresso, peanut butter & dark chocolate). Next time I'm going to try an iced Almond Joy (espresso, almond, coconut & dark chocolate).

Awesome! LOL!

Photo Workshop

Today I helped Mary teach a photo workshop at Camp Chowenwaw Park in Green Cove Springs. It would be cool to go back & camp out in the treehouses. I can't believe I didn't get to shoot any pix of them. This wasn't our workshop cabin!

We had a beautiful cabin with 2 large meeting rooms, a kitchen & 2 bathrooms.

I didn't realize that dragonflies come in different colors ...

This light blue one was pretty cool!

Fishing?

These mushrooms look like sea urchins.

I hate spiders but there were some really cool webs!

Happy 4th!

There's nothing more American than a classic Airstream!

... and a dip in the pool!