Sur le Pont d'Avignon


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October 9th 2007
Published: November 6th 2007
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Sur le Pont d'AvignonSur le Pont d'AvignonSur le Pont d'Avignon

Lorenza does her rendition of the song
9th October 2007 - Avignon

I printed out the words to the song “Sur le Pont d’Avignon” so we could be childish and sing it when we found the bridge. Avignon was a lot bigger than I expected. Found the bridge and ran through a rendition of the song. We found out in the museum that people did not actually dance on the bridge in times long past, but they often held fetes and danced and drank on the banks of the river on the opposite side. So the song really should be “Sous le Pont d’Avignon” or even "a côte de le Pont d'Avignon" or something like that!

We then took a look around the Palace of the Popes, which was the centre of the Roman Catholic kingdom for sometime.

Afterward we found a café at beer o’clock and rested our weary feet. Being a tourist can be tough, especially on the soles of you poor old feet. At least all the walking helps to partly work off the effects of all that wine, beer and food on your waistline.

After the beers we set forth in search of the restaurant Florence had recommended. It took us a while to find it and we got a few different versions of the directions from various people we asked. We were rewarded for our persistence with a really nice meal and some nice local red wine. French cuisine and wine definitely deserves its excellent reputation and the prices were much more realistic than in Positano.

I was also happy to be in France for the fact that I could exercise the head full of French I had been saving over the last year. Sure, I am not fluent and I make lots of mistakes but it is fun trying. Mostly I find that French people are very forgiving of the mess I make of their language so it is always worth giving it a go. Plus, it gives them a laugh to listen to me mangle their language with my Aussie accent.

Even though we got back to Arles very late, Florence met up with us for yet another drink. Surely she was not getting the impression that all we did was spend our spare time drinking and eating? It was our last night in Arles and we thanked her profusely for helping make our visit here so much fun.

10th October 2007 - Farewell Arles onto Alsace

Florence joined us for breakfast, she took the day off work (swapped her RDO so she could say farewell). We really enjoyed meeting her and gave her a few modest gifts for being so hospitable. By the time we return to France again she will probably be living and working in Paris so this will hopefully not be our first and last meeting.

Florence, Melissa and Lorenza left Al and I to pack the car, while they headed to the local market. It was raining lightly but this did not deter their enthusiasm for more market browsing. The bill was paid and the car was packed, we said our final farewells to Florence and headed toward Marseille.

When I programmed our destination into our pocket navigator there were three airport choices near Marseille, all with similar names. I selected once and off we went. When “Ken” announced you have reached your destination it was obvious we had found a very small airport for light planes (ooops!). So, off we went again and finally found a much bigger airport 15 minutes down the road that
around Avignonaround Avignonaround Avignon

palace of the Popes
looked much more like the place we had landed at a few days before. Luckily we had just enough time to return the hire car, check in for the flight and grab a bite to eat and a coffee before departing Marseille.

Not long after landing at Strasbourg we spotted my cousin Jean’s green bus pulling into the car park. It was great to see him again, following his introduction to Al and Melissa we all climbed onboard. Jean set off the wrong way down a one way street heading toward the motorway, we realised his error before anything disastrous took place, did another lap of the car park and were safely on our way toward Colmar (on the correct side of the motorway - phew).

It was great to see Beatrice again and arriving in Niedermorschwihr really feels like coming home in a lot of ways. After settling in we enjoyed a huge meal and caught up on the family news. A few glasses of schnapps set us up for a good nights sleep.



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