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Published: June 28th 2010
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golf
cinderella story...about to be..masters champion Started my day off right with a typical French meal. Hit up the local supermarket for a baguette and a wheel of munster cheese and headed over to the park near where I would meet my host a little later on. Sat out on a bench and enjoyed my meal on a beautiful morning and enjoyed how many other people I saw either walking around with their own baguette or having a little meal similar to mine. My host, Christophe, picked me up in his car by the tourist office at noon and we drove out to his place in the suburbs. I had noticed that the weather here was a little cooler than I expected and after talking to him I found out why.
The Provence is notorious for its strong winds which the locals call Mistral. You know it's bad when a region has to come with their own name for it. It has been incredibly windy for the past three days and at first I figured I was just having bad luck but after talking to Christopher I found out that it is like this all the time. He absolutely HATES it too, especially since he is
inside
inside the palace from a Guadaloupe, a French island down in the Caribbean. That's a pretty bad trade off and could feel his pain. It was pretty funny to hear him and his friends mutter "F***ing Mistral" under their breath each time the wind blew something away from them or knocked something over. I love how they swear in English haha. Christophe works at the airport nearby as a quality manager for a small airline and also does a little flying as well. He got called into work a little after picking me up to do a check-up on some aircraft so I got to go along for that. I was amazed at how lax the security was to get out onto the tarmac and into the small plane. We just walked right through without seeing or being stopped by anyone. Went out there for a bit and hung out with his colleagues who I had met a little earlier having lunch. By the way they were all drinking beer during their lunch break ha. Something you would NEVER see in the U.S.
He ended up having to stay at work till later in the evening so I took the bus back
courtyard
courtyard into town to check out the city. I was a little disappointed by what I saw after hearing so many good things but the town is definitely worth going to for a day. It still has the medieval walls that encircle the entire downtown area and are still in great condition. Checked out the Pont Benezet, a bridge that used to go north across the Rhine river but now only makes it about 2/3 of the way across before stopping abruptly. It's still in use which is the amazing thing (no, not true). From there I went and checked out the main attraction of the town, the Palace of the Popes, a massive construction that used to be the residence for the popes who ruled from here many years ago. The scale of it is amazing but there really isn't much inside anymore. I ended up taking the tour anyways but was bored almost immediately. I was more interested in why the audio guide I got was a 16 in. talking device resembling a mobile phone from the early 90s. It was massive! I didn't see too much but ended up working on my golf swing a bit in the
bridge
3/4ths of a bridge chapel and gardens.
Spent the evening at this music festival with Christophe and a few of his work buddies. Apparently every city in France has some sort of music festival on this date. I think its because it's officially the first day of summer but could not confirm. Either way it was a pretty good time walking around the city at dusk listening to a few different bands. Another good day but I was ready to get out of Avignon and head north to Lyon for another CS experience.
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