Observations:  Virtually no one is wearing masks here. I have seen very few masks when outdoors in any of the cities.  Also the day we boarded the ship we were told we would have to wear masks when in public areas; however, the next morning we received a memo stating that mask wearing was no longer mandatory on the ship! Hooray!  Unfortunately the poor staff still do wear masks. We also learned that staff members, when they first board the ship, must quarantine for 5 days before interacting with the guests.

Our first stop on this journey is Marseiile, France. The problem is that this is the nearest port to Provence, France where there is simply too much to see and do. One of the benefits of Regent is that most of their escorted tours are free, with only a few offered at an additional cost to their customers. For example 16 tours are offered when we are in Marseille, of which only 3 require extra cost. They range in time from 3.5 to 8 hours in length. It is an almost impossible task to pick which of the offered tours we wanted to take. Our group guideline is pick what interests you;  do not worry about what others are doing. Yvonne kindly lets me do most of the picking and I selected the trip to visit Avignon (and the Pope’s Palace) and the mountain town of Les Baux. It leaves at 8 AM and lasts 8 hours-a long day, but hopefully well worth it.

The disembarkation for tours has been running smoothly. We are asked to go to the theater at select time to receive our bus boarding passes. We wait until our tour is called and we proceed off ship to our bus. The process for leaving and returning to the ship has changed. They now are using facial recognition rather than scanning your room key. Seems to work quickly. The tours have not been overly crowded-less than 25 people per bus. The buses are new and modern.

Our trip to Avignon was about 1 hour but it was pleasant with some commentary provided by the local tour guide who was leading our group. I expected Avignon to be a sleepy little mountain town. I was very wrong! It has a population of 93,000 people of which about 15,000 live in the old district. Its place in history revolves around the fact that from 1309-1377 it was the seat of the Catholic Church, rather than in Rome. This happened because a French pope was elected (Pope Clément V)in 1309. The new pope, fearing Italy was too dangerous, moved the papacy to Avignon, where he could enjoy a secure rule under a supportive French king. He, and six subsequent popes, built a huge palace during their residency and that is one of the main reasons people visit Avignon today-to see the Palais des Papes (the Pope’s Palace). It is the largest gothic palace in Europe according to Rick Steves. As a result of their efforts Avignon grew to become a city of 25,000 people in the 14th century! The other main attraction in the area is the remains of a 12th century Bénezet Bridge on the nearby Rhône River.

We toured the huge palace which is mostly empty now. I was awed by how large it was. You have heard the phrase ” it is good to be king”, well, it is also good to be a Pope. They lived well, even back in the 14th century!

From there we drove to another famous medieval city, Les Baux-de-Provence, situated on a rock outcropping where the remains of a fortress built from the 11-13th century stands. It is one of the most visited medieval towns in France. The views of the surrounding valleys from this village is stunning; it is certainly understandable why forts were located at locations such as this.

Returning to the ship in late afternoon we met for cocktails and formed a team to enter the daily trivia contest. We started strong but faded in the end only getting 10/15 correct answers- not enough to win “Regent points” which can later be used to win prizes, like a coveted ball point pen or even a tee shirt! One of questions we missed was what do the numbers on a roulette table add up to?  Answer tomorrow!

Since we are in the main dining room yesterday we decided to have dinner tonight at the Italian “pop-up” restaurant which occurs every evening at the site of the buffet. Given all the fancy dinnerware it is hard to imagine how this location normally serves as the buffet area for breakfast and lunch.

The entertainment this evening was English vocalist, Karl Loxley, who had appeared on The Voice(UK) and was coached by Tom Jones. He sings both opera and popular tunes and was quite good.

Tomorrow we will be in Barcelona, Spain.