Blogs from Avignon, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France, Europe - page 18

We started our day with a free continental breakfast at the hotel. June Bug was enjoying her plateful of croissants, fruit, and cheeses when she said, “What I look like a vegetarian?” I laughed out loud. That was the first time I had ever heard her use the word vegetarian. We headed off for the center of town. Avignon is surrounded by a pretty city wall and the Palace of the Popes is visible from far away. By the time we arrived all the obvious parking just outside the city walls was taken, so we spent a long time weaving in and out of narrow streets searching for a parking garage. Eventually we found a parking garage right under the Papal Palace, which is where we were going anyway. Perfect! The last time we were in ... read more

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 ... read more

Today I went on a field trip to Avignon with my art history class. Thankfully we had nice weather for it. It took about an hour to get there. We immediately went to the Petit Palais, right across the place from the Palais des Papes. The big Palais is amazing. It looks like an old medieval fortress. And the popes ruled from here for a century- right here! It's a pretty amazing thing to contemplate. The Petit Palais was where the bishop and cardinal used to live, and now it's an art museum. The Louvre took most of the important stuff, but Avignon still has a Bottecelli Madonna and Child which was very nice. We had some time for lunch before our tour of the Palais des Papes, so Mollie and I got some lunch along ... read more

We are still in Arles. Yesterday we ventured by bus to a seaside town called les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. Its also French cowboy country and home to wild horses and flamingoes! It is a very unique place, full of tourists especially gypsys. The gypsys pilgrimage to St M's to honor their patron saint Sarah. The story goes that Sarah traveled by sea with Mary Magdalene and Mary Jacoby about 40 AC and washed ashore their. Sarah was a peasant girl. The beaches were beautiful but we quickly grew tired. After thinking we were going to tour the St M's church we entered into a spiraling up medievil stairwell to a fortress like balcony. Many where climbing further by climbing the roof too for a better view which was already good. After I climbed up it was a bigger ... read more

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