Quaint Town Of Viviers By Sunlight / By Dark
During the middle of the night you could hear the rain, and all day as we sailed south towards Vivier it was U-G-L-Y and cold outside. But no sooner had we docked a little after lunch than the clouds parted, and the sun came out making for a gorgeous day! But before we go any further - a HUGE shout out to our very own Stanley Cup Champion Florida Panthers who are hosting the Boston Bruins tonight on Opening Night where they will raise the Stanley Cup banner. We hate missing games, especially Opening Night....but having a such a wonderful time, we'll make the sacrifice. But we'll be at the next home game next week!
On with the tour....I'd remembered this town before, and what I remembered most were three things. How windy the "Mistral" was; the barren trees lining the walk to the city square; and the gradual climb to the Cathedral with the amazing overlook. Well....two of the three were the same :) We no longer met our guide, Alwine (put an "H" at the front and it's produced "Halloween") than we turned into the tree covered lane, and voila....NOTHING BUT GREEN leaves. I later asked Alwine about this and she said oh for sure they are completely bare in the early spring - when we were here before. One thing I just love about cruising the rivers of Europe are the medieval towns with the old streets that make you feel like you are back in time over 1000 years ago. Very much like this today. We saw two old, medieval houses of note. One was a butcher's house - one of many that were identically designed for the family and the animals - and the "House of the Heads." The latter was a huge complex owned by a rich man who wanted so badly to be a noble. His story ended when he led the townspeople to overthrown the Catholic church & cathedral. But when the Catholics were restored to power he was arrested, beheaded, and drawn & quartered....YIKES! As we gradually climbed higher and higher in the village we came to the guardhouse and gate in the fortress walls surrounding the cathedral and then climbed to the cathedral itself. It is THE smallest cathedral in all of France. But it has a very interesting story as it's architecture mirrors the history of the village. Then we went outside to the terrace overlooking the village and the river. Hard to believe how high we had climbed. Descended back to the ship to top a lovely afternoon, chatting with Alwine all the way down :)
Right after we finished our dinner we set out on the "Vivier Ghost Walk" excursion. To be honest there wasn't a lot of "ghosting," but it was exceptionally entertaining! And while our in-character guide took us on largely the same tour we'd been on this afternoon, she did have a different spin, we did see some things we didn't see before, AND we were highly entertained by actress Claire Harrison on two separate occasions, the last one of which was with our great friend Steve playing a major role. It was great fun on a chilly night and an excellent end to a very good day.
Tomorrow we sail into Avignon for a morning tour of the Pope's Palace & City Tour; then sail to Arles, our final destination for a city tour that will feature a Roman coliseum.
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