Avignon - July 2013

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The last couple of days we have spent visiting tourist locations in the morning, and having a siesta and relaxing in the village at night. It is school holidays here and very busy, even arriving at 10am as things open there are heaps of people and lines and no parking. But...everything closes from 2pm to 4 for everyone to have naps - how very civilised 😊

Tuesday we headed out to Les Baux de Provence. This was an amazing old castle with the most beautiful little village up the hill to the castle. The village was tiny cobbled walkways with shops and cafes coming off it and at the top was the old castle. In the 1400's the Duke of Barcelona owned the castle and area and although not as good as some other castles in building structure it was huge and had plenty of stuff for the kids to do and watch. We watched a catapault demonstration that was fairly impressive, and a sword fight demonstration between the two dukes. The Midgit loved it and is now a proud owner of quite a heavy timber sword (until Australian customs owns it that is).

Wednesday we went into the city of Avignon. The 'off' festival is on and so there were sooooo many street performers and pop up theatres it was very entertaining and impressive. There were a couple of main squares with one having a carousel that the kids loved although it was a little bit fast for poor old me who had to go on to hold the 2 year old 😊 The second square had different performers constantly with heaps of people all dressed up walking around handing out flyers too. Both kids were very impressed to spot pirates and princesses quite regularly.

The Midgit and I went into the Palace of the Popes. It was very impressive space wise and the frescos were still in great condition. He is taking quite an interest in the castles which is great for him to hear such history and ask questions. He really enjoyed learning about the rooms and especially the treasury and the armoury - not sure why popes need those! 😉

I also wanted to mention that the food has been really good. I am not much of a salad eater but the Salad Gricco was soooo nice. It had goats cheese and smoked ham and so far i've had 2 different salads with not much lettuce which is a lot better than any aussie salad where all you get is lettuce. The hubby had a very impressive ratatouille vegetable and bull that was very similar to pulled pork. The standard kid meal seems to be a steak burger with fries but the kids will happily eat that and peck at salads and cheeses - all very rich in flavour but yummy!

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