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Published: August 23rd 2009
We made it!
After the exhausting episode with Delta Airlines, believe it or not, we still had a one hour delay before leaving JFK. At 4 pm on Friday (we were supposed to leave Atlanta at 3 pm on Thursday) we departed and had a pleasant flight (except we had to rewatch the same movies that we watch the day before) to Paris, Charles De Gaulle.
We arrived in Paris a little late, around 4:30 am to a very quiet airport. I guess this was good news for us as we were the only ones at the airport and our luggage arrived promptly. We were ready to begin our trip by about 5:15am. We found our way to the train station at the airport and had to wait until 6:10 until the ticket office opened. We were able to change our now scheduled train to Arles (that we barely reserved while in NY) to an earlier time and we now had 15 minutes to navigate our way through the train terminals (of course we didn't do the right thing the first time) and found our way to Station 6 were we boarded the high speed TGV train to Avignon. our first
class cabin was clean and we easily found our assigned seats. The train ride was fast, quiet and very clean. So quiet that I didn't think we were allowed to speak as no one made any noise. We passed miles and miles of farmland, sunflowers, cattle, sheep. The countryside was beautiful. We even found our way to the food car and had a much needed cup of coffee (espresso avec creme). The train ride was 3 hours and we arrived in Avignon by 10 am. We found the bus ticket office (at the train station) and purchased tickets to take us to the center of town. It was a short ride and luckily we found a map at the train station and I was able to find the street of the bed and breakfast that we reserved the day before. It's amazing here when you reserve a room. The B & B doesn't take credit cards and all they needed to hold a room was my name, address and phone number. All they ask is that you pay them in cash after your stay.
Michael and I headed towards Cote Square, the bed and breakfast Maxine found doing her internet
search for us. (We couldn't have done it without you Max!). We found our way quickly through the winding streets and within 10 minutes found Rue de Crucifex, the street we needed, but we couldn't find the right house number, # 8. We were across the street from the University of the Arts (we were surrounded by the theatre district) and were very lucky that a woman approached us to help us find the right house. We were so close only 1/2 block away and we found it! We buzzed and our hosts, Veronique and Frederick were so friendly. We arrived earlier than we had planned and they allowed us to drop off our luggage, as our room wasn't available until 2 pm.
Off we went, tired and confused with the time change but we began to explore the beautiful city. We wandered around and walked so many streets. The streets are small and change names often and at times we felt like we were walking in circles but the people were so helpful. We couldn't go anywhere without the city/street map and people would stop and show us were we were on the map so we could navigate our
way to our next stop. We had lunch at a little cafe ( I had the plat du jour - fish, vegetables and carrot puree) and Michael had a ham and cheese sandwich. After lunch we made our way to Plae de L'Horloge, the square that was filled with outdoor cafes, lots of tourists and a beautiful merry-go-round. From here we walked to Palais de Pape and the bridge, Le Pont Saint-Benezet. (This is the French version of London Bridge, known for a childs song.) It was very hot and humid and we were so tired that we barely made it back to Cote Square by 3 pm.....we took a shower and a nap! We woke by 6 pm, not really refreshed and only slightly re-energized and tried to acclamate ourselves to French time. We met the other B & B houseguests, they were French but lived in Switzerland. He worked as an accountant for Ralph Lauren in Switzerland. Then Veronique gave me an email from Maxine saying the the bank had frozen our funds because of suspicious activity (we couldn't figure out how to take the right amount of money from the ATM!) and we had to call the
bank. Luckily, the Ralph Lauren guy (I forget his name) had a phone that could call the US and he let me use his phone so I could straighten out the problem (despite calling the bank a week before we left to tell them to expect us to use our cards in France!). So, that problem was solved (whew!). We had fun chatting with our newly made friends. They were going to dinner and asked us to join them but we decided to head off on our own and try a restaurant recommended by our hosts, Cuisine & Comptoir. We walked a few blocks and found the square with this and several other restaurants filled with tables and people. It was a beautiful evening. Michael had a foie gras terrine, risotta de gambas and frambois cheese cake. I had onion tarte (with sardines and tampenade) and Coquille St. Jacques with mashed potatoes. We had a bottle of Cote Du Rhone. After dinner we continued to walk the streets and see the night life. We found a little creperie and couldn't resist so we shared a Crepe Chocolat Chantilly and a Crepe Lanette (apples and brandy flambe). We actually began to
feel a little more comfortable navigating the winding streets and didn't even need to resort to using the map to come home. When we got back to Cote Square, we used the house key to open the front door. They didn't leave any lights on for us and we had to navigate our way up a flight of stairs in the dark, through the closed kitchen door, through the kitchen, through the patio door, through the patio to our room, the "Alazado". It was a small room, a desk, a bed, a small dresser and an open closet. We had an air conditioner (and boy did we need it). The decor was ultra modern, such a contrast to the oldness of the city and the building. It had cement floors, a cement shower and white modern porcelain in the bathroom. We spent some time on the outside patio enjoying the breeze and looking at a sky full of stars hearing the sounds of Avignon around us before crawling into bed.
We woke for breakfast today and joined our friends from last night and our hosts. We all sat on the patio outside having coffee, croissants, bread, jam, honey, peaches and
yogurt. We sat for about an hour enjoying the morning and sharing conversation. We also met their other house guest, also from Switzerland. Michael and I were the only ones who didn't speak French.
After breakfast we packed our bags and departed for Avignon Center, the train station at the center of town. We had to buy tickets to Arles (as our original tickets were no longer usable from Bordeaux to Arles). Frederick helped us do an internet search and we decided to take an 11:49 am train. We navigated our way through the train station and to Platform 1 and we boarded our train. We found an air conditioned compartment with doors and joined 3 other people (every compartment had people in them already) and we had no assigned seats. We pulled our 3 suitcases in and joined a nice couple from Japan and a 30 year old Frenchman. Our train ride was short (we arrived in Arles at 12: 05 pm- it was the first stop). We weren't sure where to go once we got off the train but we asked a cab driver and he sent us toward the water and 2 large Lion statues (what looked
to be part of an old bridge). We walked down a rather long road of the train station looking for the main road and almost before we got there we were approached by a man in a white shirt and navy slacks sporting a Uniworld button. He name tag said Captain. He asked if we were looking for the River Royale, and we said yes. He took our bags and led us down the ramp to our boat. We arrived just in time for lunch (Michael was very happy) and met a couple from New York who we shared lunch with. After lunch, before our stateroom was ready, we ventured into Arles to see the ampitheatre (we missed the bullfight that was last night) and we walked throughout the cute town. We bought 2 bottles of local wine to enjoy in our stateroom throughout the cruise. We made it back to the ship, checked into our room and headed straight for the jacuzzi on the upper deck. There we met another woman from New York and enjoyed the view of the town of Arles.
The ship is beautiful, well decorated and fairly new. The dining room is lovely. There are
people on the ship from all over, S. Africa, Australia, Canada, England and of course the US (California to NY). We enjoyed our meal, Michael had a pork/salad appetizer, I had grilled vegetables and goat cheese. Michael had duck breast for dinner and I had John Dorry (fish). We each had Panna Cotta and of course cheese for dessert. We also shared a flight of sherbert with Alan and Louise (our new friends from NY who we met at lunch).
So here I am now at the computer. I have learned that I will have access to the internet for the whole cruise so I hope to journal every day.
Both Michael and I are enjoying this country....now if I could only remember to say OUI instead of SI I'd be in good shape. I need to practice up on my french and I hope to be making improvements every day.
Bonsoir.
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Maxine Rigberg
non-member comment
Wow! Sounds like you are having a great time! I was so happy to hear you go the email I sent to Veronique. I hope you are taking plenty of pictures and having a great time! I can't wait for the next blog!