We Wandering Walkers: Adventure #4: FRANCE! Castles, Palaces, Roman Ruins and More

(Before I even get started, be warned: this is a long post, and I could have written so much more. At the end are photos that I wanted to share, but couldn't bore you with mid-post. Enjoy!!)

So. Europe. Traveling. It's kinda like the United States except that when you're driving in a car each border means you're in a different, totally cool country (not a new state) which could mean a myriad of different things. Oh, and it has castles and stuff...so really it's not like the United States at all...

...but yes. We can get in a car and drive, and within about 3 hours we can be through 3 different countries. It's coooool!

So, with this in mind, while living here, we plan on getting out and seeing us some awesomeness. We decided to break the non-German ice with our trip to The Netherlands in January, and in early March we decided to take a trip to France. Woohoo!!

This is something I think of when I think of our visit to France...amaaazing bakeries!

Berkley's parents, Les and Corinne Walker, are serving a mission for our church in Lyon, France. With them living less than 8 hours away by car, it was a gimmie that we were going to visit them!

We left on a Thursday, mid-morning, and decided to break up the drive a bit by taking a small detour that would take us to a CASTLE in Luxembourg.

3 hours in. Castle. Boom.

Tiny little Walkers, big huge Castle

This castle, known as the Vianden Castle, was the first real castle I'd ever been in, and I learned a ton!
First - I don't know what I was thinking castles were for all of these years. Maybe to house princes and princesses?? Stupid Princess Bride and Disney false indoctrination! But castles are FORTRESSES, with a purpose. Meaning their made of rock. Thick. Rock. Walls. Meaning people you don't want to get in can't get in. Meaning it's cold. And dark. And dank. And cold and dark again. But still really, really cool.
Another main take-away that I got from this trip is that pretty much every Medieval structure you run across (like a castle) was at some point left to fall into ruins or destroyed, then (often) used as a quarry for stone, and then rebuilt sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century because someone was like, "Hey, castles are the coolest! Let's rebuild this thing!!". Yes, a lot of the original stone still remains, architectural records have been preserved, and so the restoration makes it basically how it originally was, but...yeah. Rebuilding, restoration, and renovation are for real when it comes to ancient structures.

This particular castle, the Vianden Castle, and was originally built around 1100, then added onto and changed here and there over the next 2-3 hundred years. The additions and changes are no surprise, really. Think about it. When we move into houses that are 60 years old these days, we renovate them, thinking, "man, this place would be a lot better if we just..." and *poof*. Changes.
But yes, this castle was pretty well used and maintained through the years until about 1800, when it was sold and began being used for scrap building materials. It didn't take long, however, for people to realize their mistake, and restoration of the castle began in the 1850s, progressing slowly, and being halted occasionally by things like WWI. It proved it was a castle indeed, however, when it was successfully defended against in 1944 during a Nazi invasion. Cool!

FEZZIK! The portcullis!!

Bridger loved the castle. He couldn't get enough of it. Juniper loved the big, open spaces, and running, running, running, with lots of echos.

After what felt like a fast 3 hour stop we hopped back in, and drove the rest of the way to Lyon, arriving late, but happy at Les and Corinne's home.

Oh, man, was it ever-so-good to see Les and Corinne. They are as wonderful as ever, and even more. We love them.

So happy to see Grandma!!

Early the next morning, Corinne sent me to a nearby bakery to get some local Pain au Chocolat - which was amaaaazing - for breakfast. I want you to imagine a rich, buttery, warm melt-in-your-mouth croissant, and then fill it with chocolate. That's what these were, and they were awwwwwesome. Just one ho-hum thing about living in France, I guess!

We spent a fun morning and lunch with Les and Corinne, and then you know what? Berkley and I left.

Without the kids.

Don't worry, it was planned. Some wonderful friends offered to watch them overnight, and we took them up on it!

From Lyon we drove to Avignon, France. It was a beautiful drive, and so fun with just Berkley and I.

So, why Avignon? First, it's a cool, walled city, and second, it just happens to be the home of the Palace of the Popes.

By Tognopop - Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12715172

What? I thought the Popes hung out in Rome at the Vatican, right?

Well, it turns out that Rome was not always the home of the Pope. In the beginning, the Pope actually didn't really have a home-town. He just traveled around a lot. Actually, to save ourselves some time here, I am going to just refer you to this Wikipedia page, where you can read about it if you'd like. But basically, the Popes lived in this palace for about 70 years during the 14th century.

See that tall tower above me? Palace!

When we arrived, Berkley and I parked outside of the walled part of the city, and walked to the Palace of the Popes. It was a HUGE castley-palace, dominating the city, so even though the streets were narrow and winding, you'd occasionally catch a glimpse of the palace, which we used to orient ourselves.

We didn't use a map...we just walked toward it, and when we did come to it's base, I felt like we were walking through a man-made slot canyon to get to the entrance!

I wish I had more photos of the Papal Palace, but the truth is that they just do no justice to the actual thing! It was massive, and all I could think about was how it was built with no power tools...insane.

Some weirdo leaping through the main courtyard

After our visit to the palace, we walked to the place we'd booked through Air BNB and would be staying for the night. It was a tiny little apartment (we didn't need much) in a small alley way with good food nearby. It was kind of surreal to be there, imagining the many hundreds of years that people had trod on the very streets and alleyways we were treading on, how life inside a walled city meant a certain amount of safety, but on the other hand, an unavoidable crowded life, and how it was unique and beautiful in its own way. We had Jean Pierre, our host, snap a photo for us before he took off.

We decided to take a walk through the city at night, and afterwards ate at a small, very French little diner right by where we stayed. It will be a fun memory forever, and I couldn't have enjoyed Berkley's company more.

Saturday morning we 8 o'clock (*gasp!*) then hopped in our car and headed to Orange, France, where we were excited to see one of the most intact Roman Amphitheaters in the world.

IT. WAS. SOOOOCOOOOOOL.

Tiny Berkley in the middle of the massive Ancient Amphitheater of Orange

Really, indescribable. As we walked from where we had parked to where the amphitheater was, we just saw this massive, massive wall. A wall that had been there since 25 AD. I didn't realize it when I first saw it, but it was the actual wall of the amphitheater, from the outside.

The Orange amphitheater was originally constructed around 25 or 50 AD. It was inexplicably massive, and could seat up to 10,000 people, like this:

By Culturespaces / Les chorégies - http://www.theatre-antique.com/, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3148847

After i'ts completion, it was used as a theatrical stage for a long time - until about 390 AD - at which time Christianity had become the official religion of the Roman Empire. Basically, with the authorities found out what kind of plays were being performed there (which had become pretty raunchy) they shut it down. 30 years later it was pillaged by the Visigoths and the roof (which seems unbelievable to have ever even existed) was burned, and it was stripped of most of it's precious stone, such as the marble that originally covered the wall behind the stage. After that it was used as refuge during medieval wars, and at one point was even turned into it's own neighborhood, constructed of many layers with official STREETS running through it. When restoration officially began in the late 1700's it took years to "evict" all of the inhabitants and clean the amphitheater out.

Today, the wall and its columns seen in the photo are still original. While a lot was pillaged, there was a ton of stuff that was found during the archaeological excavation that went on during the restoration, including the big chucks of Caesar's statue, which has now been restored and placed back in it's home in the wall. (See Caesar? He's so happy he's waving to you!)
Here's a little video of us inside. The acoustics were unbelievable. You could just stand down in the center of the stage (which was wider than a football field is wide) and speak (not yell) in a loud, clear voice and easily be heard from the top. Unfortunately it was windy so you can't hear me, but I was probably saying stupid stuff anyways so I am not sorry :)

Up behind the many, many steps is a large hallway where people could take breaks from the show, the heat, the crowd, etc. It was cool to walk through hallways I know many Romans and people of that ancient time also walked. It was just such a cool, surreal place to be!
While in Orange we also visited a cool museum where we saw more stuff from the original amphitheater, walked to the Roman's Triumphal Arch (an arch erected in cities that they had officially conquered) and had a lunch where communication was extremely difficult, but the food was delicious nonetheless.

On our drive back to Lyon, we decided to stop in a smaller city called Vienne and climbed to the top of the tallest hill. this is what we found:

Europe is amazing.

Before we knew it, we were back in Lyon! The kids were excited to see us, and we were all excited to be back together with Les and Corinne. They fed us delicious food, of course, and we played on the living room floor with the new Legos.

On Sunday we attended church in the morning. Church in French is even more confusing than church in German, but the people are just as nice :) After church, lunch, and naps we headed out to the other side of Lyon to find yet another Roman amphitheater (not as big, and no back wall, but still amazing), and a huge Basilica. The kids frolicked (you know...just frolicking in Roman ruins...no big deal) we climbed around, and Bridger decided that he needed to perform.

Juni and Grandpa Les

Monday we spent the morning with Les and Corinne around another really cool part of Lyon, where we found a cool statue, lots of unique shops, another incredible bakery, and a tasty lunch.
Can I just pause here on the travel log, and say how much I love Les and Corinne and how BLESSED we are to have been able to visit them? They took the kids to the aquarium where they bought lunch and a souvenir, they took them to the coolest Carousel I've ever seen (Jules Verne themed), Corinne spoiled me with chocolate chip cookies, real brown sugar, Maple Syrup, refried beans and more.

They played with the kids on the floor, painted with them, sang with them, inspired, them, and made them laugh. I couldn't ask for more fun, or more loving in-laws. They are good friends, amazing parents and the best kind of grandparents. Bridger and Juniper adore them, and we love, love, LOVED our visit.

And then...of course...we had to say goodbye. We broke up the drive home by staying the night with some good friends that live near Nancy, France (which I had to call Nancy, Francy, of course). They gave me a welcomed reality check by laughing at me when I said I hadn't made many friends yet ("of COURSE you haven't! You've only lived here for 2 months!!) and their home was warm and full of love. Thank you Anthony and Delphine!

Enjoying the courtyard of a random, locked-up castle
in the middle of nowhere!

We also learned the valuable lesson that maybe it's not the best idea to just drive to a random castle found on the GPS in the middle of Germany. We found it (eventually) and while it was cool, it was under private ownership, meaning it was all locked up, there was no food anywhere (we survived on the last of our peanut butter and bread) and the town felt abandoned. Oh well!

Alright - so, if you managed to read this to the end, good for you. You earn a gold star. And thanks for bearing with me! There's so much more I left out, but if you'd like, you can scroll through some photos below. Basically, France is amazing. End of story :)

Vianden Castle

Cool armour, and a chest made by an apprentice of a locksmith to show
that he was ready to start his craft on his own. So cool!

Kids, playing in an oven

Part of the kitchen

Berkley and Bridger in the chapel, looking down through a large opening into the kitchen below (strategically placed for warmth)Only the wealthy could attend church here - everyone else had to be down hang out in the kitchen below!

Chain mail on an old mannequin they tried to make manly by gluing hair onto the chin...nailed it.

Kitchen!!

Happy Crew!

A bedroom. The bed behind me would sleep two people who slept sitting up. CREEPY.

Avignon and the Palace of the Popes

Walking the streets of Avignon

The slot canyon!

Giant Banquet Hall

The Pope's bedroom

Photo of when the palace was used as army barracks

Ornately carved doorway. The heads of everyone was knocked off during the French Revolution...except for the people depicted to be burning in hell...