Blogs from Avignon, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France, Europe - page 19

K. We're done with the French! For the most part we've been positive and optimistic, after all we're visitors to France but we're ready to move on. Tonight we went off the beaten track - away, again, from the restaurants with menus that are both french/english and laminated with pictures of the food they serve. Yes, once again, we moved away from the tourist trap restaurants and ordered in french - after all we are guests of the country so the most we could do was show some respect and order in their language. But you know, you just can't win with the french. If you don't speak french at all they say "I speak english in your country" (we witnessed this first hand with a poor british couple) and if you do speak french they ... read more

John and I are celebrating 2 years together today and the atmosphere in Avignon is amazing. What a great time to be here. The Festival d'Avignon runs for a whole month every July/August and it's like a gigantic Fringe Festival but....better. There are musician street performers, acting street performers, weird street performers, mute street performers, you name it it's here. There is music constantly in the Place d'Horloge which is right outside our hotel window and music streams into our room until the wee hours of the night. It's very festive and there is a great vibe around the town. Avignon is a great place and we highly recommend it to future Provence travellers. The streets are old, narrow and quaint but there is a great mixture of old and new. It's a beautiful pedestrian town. ... read more

Today was truly a travel day. The bus ride from Nice to Barcelona was scheduled for 10 hours, and that's under the best of conditions. We didn't encounter the best of conditions. We did get to see a furniture truck reduced to a pile of ash - literally. Apparently, wooden furniture and diesel fuel burn pretty well together.... That kept the highway a nice parking lot for close to 2 hours. The stopover before that in Avignon was nice, but short. I was surprised to see that Avignon's walls are almost completely intact. I was also surprised to see the size of the pope's palace. I knew it was opulent, but I didn't realize it took up half the town centre! The official story if I remember is that the two resident popes were recalled because ... read more

What a crazy and jam packed weekend that I have had so far!! On Thursday, my last night in Madrid, I went out with Dulce, Andy and Sean to La Latina (a quarter in Madrid much like its equivalent in Paris...full of young people and cafes). Dulce recommended some places for the boys to hang out for their last few days in Madrid. I left the boys at their metro stop and went with Dulce to meet her boyfriend Carlos at another locale. We didn't stay out too late because we had to wake up early. I took the bus at 9 am to Barcelona and had one last cafe con leche with Dulce at the station. I didn't arrive in Barcelona until around 5 because of traffic. My other friend Saioa met me at the ... read more

So after a fun day in Nimes, a great last day in Barcelona-we went to the beach, it was cold but fun, we are now in Avignon. Nimes was interesting had steak and ratouille and some great wine. More importantly the ruins were so well preserved and the canals so beautiful. It is such a beautiful city. This morning on the train we saw the castle used in the last siege by Simon de Montfort on the Cathars, it was neat. Today we are doing laundry, getting orriented and figuring out how to get to Aix, our day trip tommorow. The weekend we plan on visiting the old city of Avignon and its gothic ruins as well as Villeneuve des Avignon, and going to the see the bridge. No plans for Monday yet, since there could ... read more