We spent hours in the Palais des Papes, in Avignon, the Vatican of the north, where the battling Popes took refuge in the 13th century. The guide book says it Is devoid of furniture but that’s not what you go for. The stark beauty, grandeur, and enormity of the palace is un-imaginable. There were many moments to just sit quietly in the spaces and try to absorb the stories held in stone.

The meeting rooms, dining halls, and worship areas are opulent of space but empty of all else. With one small exception, there was a treasure chest along one wall and as I approached I felt an energy field. The presence was stronger than I have felt in a long time. Move away and no energy, move in for the vibration. The time travel iPads that all the visitors are given said there was a fire in that spot hundreds of years ago. The ashes and smell of smoke are gone but there is an essence of something that remains. Or?

 

Fact check: In 1791 during the French Revolution it became the scene of a massacre of counter-revolutionaries, whose bodies were thrown into the Tour des Latrines in the Palais Vieux.

Over time the church would spare no expense to add a wing or another huge palace building that it thought that it needed. The tax collectors worked full time to enrich the coffers and manage the vast holdings of the church. They had their own rooms with vaults under the stone floor to bury the treasure. At one point there were over 1,500 people working here in the name of God. It’s about money, power and influence in the country. The war was for domination of the holy kingdom. This was not a place of worship for the pauper, it was only for the pleasure of the Papacy and I’m unclear how the people fit in to the scheme.

Maybe mortality is part of the story here. Man can never be immortal so he strives for to create things that will outlive him by centuries and willing to spend vast sums to accomplish it for the glory of God.

Avignon, April 9th 2018