Sur le Pont d'Avignon

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Bonjour... We arrived in Avignon safely after a quick trip down on the Teh Zeh Veh. When we got off the train, we almost got blown over by the wind. Ah yes, the famous Mistral was still going strong, but that didn't dampen our enthusiasm... for Avignon that is

We took a taxi in to the Hotel Danieli because we simply couldn't be bothered lugging them onto a bus... As it turns out, the hotel didn't have a lift and we had to carry our luggage all they way up about 40 steps... Other than that the place wasn't so bad for a 2-star establishment. We were staying in the heart of the old town, inside the old city walls, so we didn't need to take any transport at all.

We had lunch in the main square and limited ourselves to only two instead of the usual 3 courses. We then wandered around town, taking in some sights and picking up tousrist brochures, also taking a few photos before retiring to our room for a well earned rest before dinner. Dinner was nice, but not spectacular, made less pleasant by the group of teenage girls all out for dinner sitting near us, smoking and carrying on all night.

On our only full day in Avignon, we took our time looking around, buying a few books and taking the audio tour of the Palais des Papes and the famous St Benezet bridge. We actually only just managed to not get blown off the bridge, which is just as well, else we may well have been just like in the song... everybody now Sur le pont d'Avignon, on y danse, on y danse. Sur le pont d'Avignon, on y danse toutes en rond... etc etc.

We had short lunch then took a tour with about 5 other people to a few wineries in and around the area. Our tour guide was a guy name Phillipe and he was really quite good. We started off tasting some Muscat of Beames de Venise, which is a fruity wine, suitable mostly for an aperitif or even dessert. This winery is a good example of a modern co-operative facility...

Our second wine stop was in the small town of Gigondas, which is perched on the side of a little hill, which is hard to understand, given the hillside's obvious qualities as a vine growing area... Nevertheless, we tried some nice reds and a rosè there, and the hostess was quite helpful and knew a little about the Mornington Peninsula too. This particular establishment was a good example of a tiny operation that was run by a small community.

The last winery we stopped at was the famous (apparently) Chateuneuf du Pape. This vignerons based in amongst a large area of vines, which all produce wines under the same label, however the head of this particular store selected only the best wines in the region to sell, and the cellar was full of some really old and very valuable plonk! The wines were all great, and we were keen on buying some, however they said they no longer ship to Australia.... SAVAGES! Funnily enough, the gentleman behind the counter had lived in Australia for a while and knew the Peninsula a bit as well.

On the ride home, we explained to Phillipe (and the Americans with us) that there weren't all that many snakes in Australia, and the Steve Irwin along with Russell Crowe are actually from New Zealand. We also had to explain that Australians do not drink Fosters beer and that indeed the Eucalypt was endagered because the Koalas, who get high off the oil and breed like rabbits, would eat out an entire forest, before catching a lift in the nearest Kangaroos pouch to the next plantation.

We arrived back at the hotel and had a quick three course meal and bottle of red, then got back and packed ready for Aix. Funnily enough, we got stuck near another group of teenagers out for dinner, but they turned out to be deaf and merely gesticulated profanely at each other, and so there hands were much too busy to even pick up a Gitanes!

Avignon has been the prettiest and most enjoyable place we've been to so far, and we only wish we had planned to stay longer...

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Comments

[Colbs]

Austrian!
Surprised they didnt call you Austrians... "my do you speak good english for an austrian".