Back to Provence

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Sue and John met me at the station and it was so good to see them again, sit out in the garden and have a glass of gin and tonic with Sue, and finally get a few swims in the pool! They looked after me so well, just when I needed a break from traveling and to get a few good nights sleep, it was perfect! We spent a lot of time around the house, sunbathing and in the pool, it was so relaxing.


We had a few days out; I went to explore Avignon one day. I saw the Pont d’Avignon, which is a bit useless as it only goes half way across the river, and no one was dancing on it either. I saw the impressive Palais du Papes, with its lovely gardens with great views of the valley and river. I walked around the old town, so pretty and quaint, and I brought some sugared peanuts, a proper French thing for me! The town was really lovely but quite small, it was a hot day and I enjoyed my walk around.


We went to La Thor one day, did the set walk around that was in the leaflet we had. There is nothing interesting really in La Thor, a church, a stream; it’s pretty much like every other village in Provence, only not quite as quaint as some! Nearby is some caves and we went for a tour there. It was all in French of course but not bad to see, I haven’t been in a cave for years so it was good to see all the stalactites and stalagmites, the ones that are hollow are called macaroni! But like everything they had to have a cheesy bit at the end, where they turned the lights off and played pipe music and we had to imagine the explorers coming in and discovering the cave! Just above is a ruined monastery, which we wanted to get up to but couldn’t work out how, we were driving around for ages before we found it! But it was worth it when we got up there, the views were amazing and the ruin was good to see, although not much of it!


And on my last day there Sue took us out for lunch to a little village called Fountaine de Valcause. We had a gorgeous meal, I had duck, and crème brulee. Then we went for a walk up the river to a big hole in the ground where the river begins, and no one knows how deep the hole is because its so deep divers have never found the bottom! They even put a machine down there but still didn’t find it - amazing!


I had to get the train from Avignon TGV station the next day, so Sue and John took me there and we said our sad goodbyes again!

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