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The Pont d'Avignon
I know, I know, ANOTHER bridge! The TGV is a very fast train. When you pass another of its kind, all you see is a blur. This is the way we travelled to the south of France, specifically the town of Avignon in Provence. After watching 'A Good Year' with Russell Crowe, Kev and I decided that we needed to include Provence in our world trip...quaint, rustic towns and fields of lavender...seemed like our sort of thing. In retrospect, we would have felt more Provencal by staying in the country. As it was, we only saw fields of lavender in pictures. However, we did plenty of touring around quaint, rustic towns and had our fair share of baguettes too.
We arrived in Avignon on a sunny afternoon and decided to explore the town a little. Being a little over sight-seeing after Paris, we opted for a more casual approach to the whole tourist thing...simply wandering around and stumbling upon sights rather than looking for them. If you have the time, I think this is much nicer cos you seem to appreciate things more. We saw a pretty half-bridge called Le Pont D'Avignon and the Palais des Papes, complete with lovely views of the city. The
palace served as a home for the Pope in the 14th century when he left Rome for a time. Can't remember why...maybe he was on holiday like us. Avignon is a walled city; full of beautiful buildings and generally bustling with locals and tourists. It served as a great base for our Provence adventure. Unfortunately, dining was quite expensive, so we never got close to eating authentic French cuisine while we were there (not including crepes and baguettes and camembert and pastries of course!). (Actually, the first night we ate pizza in an Irish pub. How's that for high French cuisine!)
One highlight of Avignon was discovered before we arrived. In searching for accommodation on the internet, we had the opportunity to sample the best of the worst English I've seen. Actually Turkey might have been the worst, but this was pretty good...from one website that will remain nameless....
"Certaines saw on the park, park of the city; others giving on a street calm, very momentary, not intended in priority to the pedestrians.
Dans a choice deliberated our rooms is not equipped with television for peace and the rest on each one.
Old building of the
Ducks in Avignon
Another masterpiece in Kev's 'reflections' collection 18th century which belonged to a baronne.It was be transform a first once in printing works until into 1960, date to which Mr. and Mrs. Bertet have buy and arrange the masonry in hotel, they of have ensure the exploitation until in 1995. Thereafter they transmitted the trade to their Martine daughter who exploits it since with Roger, her husband."
Needless to say, we didn't stay there.
On our second day, we took the advice of our friendly hotel staff and took the bus to Isle-sur-Sorgue...saw a little Provencal countryside on the way...my favourite sight being the brilliant red poppies. Made me think of Sting's song 'Children's Crusade' which came into my head practically whenever I saw a poppy...just like 'Fields of Gold' did when we saw canola fields in England. Anyone who knows me well knows that I have a song for everything...which is why we supplied constant entertainment for each other by performing animated renditions of "Little town...it's a quiet village...everday, like the one before..." and "after all miss, this is France!..." Sorry if you don't know what I'm talking about.
Back to the provincial life...we enjoyed a morning in Isle tasting the delights of
Mmmm...baguette
One of my favourite French words! Along with crepe... the Sunday markets. Kev was in heaven...surrounded by bread and cheese and salami and fruit and olives...and then sampling them all at our chosen picnic spot by the Sorgue river...very picturesque! We then hopped on another bus to the nearby village of Fontaine de Vaucluse. It is a pretty place. with the main attraction being the spring that emerges from the mountain just outside of the town. We followed the tourist pilgrimage to the source of the waters and were rewarded with a very cool sight...some of the clearest and most colourful water I've ever seen...light blue at the source and fluorescent green as it continues downstream. Very pretty.
The next day we indulged ourselves by having a day off...we've discovered that you need these!! We ate and slept and read and did our laundry...perfect!
Off to Aix-en-Provence after that, which we had heard was pretty and we wanted to enjoy more Provencal markets... Aix is apparently Provence's 'premier' market town. Weren't that impressed with the markets but enjoyed roaming the streets and taking photos of the very pretty buildings and the countless fountains in squares. We went to visit a church too, but apart from a few
Fontaine de Vaucluse
Green water and blue husband really unique experiences in churches, they tend to blur into one after a while... most are elaborate and beautiful and full of religious art and artefacts. And we are reminded again of how good we have it at home with a church that is full of life and full of Jesus!
Our last day trip was probably the best! We started at the Pont du Gard...a Roman aqueduct that is very impressive! We managed to get there before most of the tourist buses, so we wandered around in relative peace. After another meal of crepes and waffles (still not as good as the Eiffel Tower ones...), we took the bus to Nimes...another town packed with Roman architecture. The highlight was the arena, which was beautiful and very well preserved (the Colosseum in Rome had nothing on it in terms of intactness...) and the audio-guide was particularly informative. We learnt all about gladiators and bull fighting. Most inspiring though, was hearing about the Chrsitian martyrs who died in arenas like this one...apparently lots of people came to Jesus as a result of watching Christians bravely face their death because they refused to deny their faith in Jesus. Very cool. We
Church in Avignon
Another clever night shot of Kev's also went up a Roman tower, the Tour Magne (or tourist magnet as Kev translated). Beautiful views of the city! We finished the day off at another old Roman building in town (the name escapes me), once home to something important, now home to a tacky 3D movie about the brave people of Nimes from the past. We did get to wear 3D glasses though.
Elle has faltered, so here is Kev to finish off her blog... Well, Provence was fantastic. I think for that classic country experience you need to stay away from the cities (ie all the places the guidebooks mention) and find a small place in the middle of nowhere. As it happened, we saw and tasted a lot of cool stuff. The markets are the best, the buildings charming, the people lovely, the soft serve ice cream multi-flavoured and incredible, and puts all other soft serve we've tried to shame. There's also a lot of Tintin over here. Thanks France! Next stop, Italia!
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Maria Dunning
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WOW again!
I look forward to each blog, it's like reading a good book you can't put down, I'm now forwarding to a few of my friends, hope you don't mind, they also look forward to sharing your travels, I can't wait to read about Africa! ENJOY! Maria