This afternoon after lunch, we drove up to Avignon. I had brought two watches back from the UK for Pauline, but both of them inconveniently needed battery replacement and Avignon is the nearest city with the relevant watch agencies. Plus, we had wanted to visit again for some time.

Fortunately, Magnus, whose leg is sore and needs to rest it, seemed happy to sit where he was. Usually, when he suspects that we are going out and won't be left behind, he will spring up, stalk us, and then cover the door, wagging his tail vigourously, with his front legs a little apart, and dropping his head like a bull waiting to toss a matador over his shoulders. But today he gave us the 'see you later' look, so we were OK to leave him behind.

The car parks around the walls of the old city were again chock-a-block with at least 20 cars patrolling until lucky when another car parked right in front of them left. We had previously used a 'park and ride' car park, which is five minites away with frequent buses, but this time, we found one literally over the river from the city entrance across one of bridges in Isle de Piot, an island in the river, which was even closer. I am sure that most of the cars that we encountered in the car park were still circulating, when we arrived back by bus at walls of the city.

Before entering the walled city, we walked up to the Pont d'Avignon (also known as Pont St-Bénézet) made famous by the  traditional French song about people dancing on the bridge with the following repeating verse:

Sur le pont d'Avignon,
L'on y danse, l'on y danse,
Sur le pont d'Avignon
L'on y danse tous en rond.

While I am sure that many people know this, I didn't know that the bridge is incomplete, which makes it practically useless - apart from dancing and charging tourists Euro5 to walk along it. It was built and rebuilt several times between the 1100s and 1300s, but was difficult to maintain. So when it last collapsed, they did not bother to rebuild it. It used to have 22 arches, but now only four, which probably means that it spanned the river from bank to bank crossing the Isle de Piot. 

Having done our cultural duty, we went into the city and found the watch shops quickly. It is a real pleasure to walk around Avignon as it is a handsome city architecturally and whatever the era of buildings, they are mainly constructed of sandstone, so nothing looks out of place. The Popes' Palace dominates the town and there are many attractive streets and squares. The city is now dressed for the coming festivities and people are out and about Christmas shopping.