Lovely Avignon

Crikey I'm so far behind. I am mostly keeping up with the writing up of each day, it's sorting the photos and then putting it all together somewhere where I have an internet connection that can handle uploading it all that becomes tricky. For example, where we are presently staying, we can only use the internet down in the shared rooms, so you have to pick the times when it is less busy (and we are actually here). Right now the Euro soccer is on Germany vs. Netherlands, so everyone is yahooing down in the bar and up in the dining room it's pretty quiet :) Also my eyes are much better and only 50% zombie-like now, which also makes doing this kind of this towards the end of the day much less of an exercise in torture.

ANYWAY Saturday the 2nd of June...

We had a cruisy morning sort of by accident because we fluffed about too much packing up to get the 10am train, so had to wait until the midday one. We'd already decided to take the taxi back to the station, mostly due to Greg's fresh sunburn on his back from the day before which made carrying his pack rather unpleasant. Luckily checkout wasn't until 12 so we were able to mooch about in the hotel room after breakfast, taking advantage of the free wifi and squeezing a few more hours of relaxing in before we were on the road again.

The weather in Sete that morning was cool and cloudy, which was weird after three nights and two days of nothing below about 23 degrees... But never mind it was apparently 31 degrees in Avignon where we were headed...

The taxi ride was fine, managed to bluff my way through by learning the word for station hastily...

The train trip, 1.5 hours long, was a bit less pleasant than previously. Turns out when you're on a train without a seat reservation, there's no guarantee that you'll get a seat! The first half an hour was an awkward cram in with our bags next to a lady with rather bad BO. At Montpellier we dived into some seats before the second wave of passengers got on, and then had to endure the anxiety of watching a dodgy looking chap sit near where our bags had been stashed. He kept grabbing them to move them around and stuff and it made for nervous watching. Greg moved them somewhere safer as soon as it was feasibly possible...

Later, when the train was less busy!

Then we were in Avignon. Roasting hot, buzzing with crowds Avignon on a Saturday afternoon. Thankfully, finally, our hotel was a mere five minute walk from the station. We were greeted by a very lovely lady and air conditioning. Got our room, got a map and the lay of the land, and then tootled up stairs to dump our stuff and create a plan.

The Australian woman we had met in Barcelona had recommended to us a place called "Tartines'" for some good cheap eats, and as this place also appeared as recommended in the guidebook, we made it our first stop for lunch. Tartines are basically "stuff on toast". It was nice, and different, but not life-changing. The setting, in a square away from the crowds and underneath shady umbrellas, was rather good. 

The guidebook had a suggested walking tour so we figured that was a good place to start. We walked up the main street, teeming with people and high end shops. People were shop shop shopping til they dropped!  

This picture is a poor representation of the amount of people there were...

We got to the main square and admired the square itself, filled with cafe's and even a merry-go-round, and the various old Avignon buildings including the Palace of the Popes. 

Interestingly, at some point there was a French pope and he decided that Rome was far too dangerous a place to live, so he shifted his whole outfit to Avignon. Obviously a Pope can't live in just any old dingy place so a rather grand palace was built. The Church continued to be based there for a few more Popes until the Vatican got annoyed and decided the Popes should be back in Rome. For a while there were two Popes (or one Pope and one AntiPope), a French one in Avignon and an another one in Rome,until they eventually sorted it all out. Apparently the Roman Catholic church don't really like to remember “the Avignon years”...

 

The Palace of the Popes

The Golden virgin mary at the top of the tower on the church attached to the palace.

As an escape from the baking afternoon sun, the crowds, and also because the guidebook suggested it, we decided to visit the Petit Palais, attached to the Pope's Palace and also a museum of medievil church art. Really quite interesting stuff but by the end of it I felt quite 'Virgin Mary And Baby Jesus'-ed out. Of all the various stories and people from the bible they could have painted, that one was by far the favourite.

The museum itself was an old, architecturally interesting building, as well as the exhibits themselves.

This was the style of most of the paintings inside (as they were all from the same era and Church-related...) 

A lot of the pictures were of the Baby Jesus grasping Mary's boobie in a way that can only be described as 'anatomically uncomfortable'. Shocking as this kind of image is - particularly as a religious image - back in the day the idea of the Virgin Mary breastfeeding and nourishing Jesus and therefore God essentially was a perfectly acceptable to thing to celebrate and place images of all around your local church.

The portrait of Gregory we found in the museum was surprisingly lifelike...

The artist's image of Judgement Day. Fairly grim for those who didn't say their prayers.

I believe this one is quite famous. That's all I got.

Outside, the gravel in the courtyard had been worked into funky art. 

Nearby, local teenagers took turns breakdancing to loud music from their beat box. Did Avignon get frozen somewhere in the early 90's?

Once we emerged it was getting late. We decided to head back to base. At base, we asked the friendly hotel lady where the nearest supermarket was. Then we went on an adventure to the supermarket to get some water and a new toothbrush for Greg. While there we also purchased som French snacks (muesli bars of some kind some things Greg called 'French Toffee Pops'). Entertainment while waiting in line was the Topdeck tour group of young Australians, Americans (and possibly the odd Kiwi, but they were keeping quiet/drowned out) buying booze so they could all get wasted “Oh yeah, lets grab some vodka and orange juice or something!” One Aussie girl called out.

Seriously? You're in Provence and you're going drink vodka??

Ok, I'll stop being such a booze snob...

...but seriously?

Also making me grin was the the guy with the backwards cap, board shorts, orange singlet top and jandals in front of us... it was like the supermarket was a weird portal back to Australasia.

Supermarket achieved we went to the train station to look into the possibility of a morning excursion to l'Isle of Sorgue de something, as they have antique markets and fairground vibes going on on a Sunday morning. However sadly the only morning train was leaving at 6.50am and then there were no more until 14.00! This was contrary to what the hotel lady had said, but we decided even if we were missing something and somehow magically there were trains if you turned your collar the right way and showed the train people the secret broch that there was plenty to keep us busy in Avignon itself for most of the day, and if not down time is always good.

We popped back to base again for a predinner relax and I swatted up in the guide book on a good place for dinner. There was a restaurant recommended both in the guidebook and by the hotel lady so we decided that would be a goer. At hungry oclock we spruced up and headed out for L'Epice and Love (Epice means spicy and sounds like the English “Peace” making the name sound like “Peace and Love” - a deliberate play on words by the English and French speaking restaurant owners).

The restaurant turned out to be a tiny place on a backstreet decorated with dim reddish light and candles on the table, and walls covered in wire sculptures and various cooking implements hung from string in the window (egg beaters, cheese graters and the like). The waitress was a lovely girl who spoke French and English and was happy to explain the menu to us (but I did ask for a table to for two please in French first!!). We as usual got the menu, and a bottle of wine, and enjoyed yet another fabulous French meal. 

 

The dessert was cute – there were two different chocolate items on the menu and I got one and Greg got the other. When they came out mine was in the shape of a heart and Greg's was the ying/yang symbol for peace – Peace and Love!

Peace...

...and love!

Pleased with another successful day, we headed back to the hotel for sleeps.