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Published: December 24th 2008
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December 15th - 16th: Avignon and Marseilles
The train ride through the coast and the country side has been one of our favorite aspects of the trip so far, you get to see so much of France. One minute its cliffs and beach and the next its endless vineyards and cottages. It’s amazing. We arrived into Avignon and bought our tickets for the rest of our time in France because things seem to fill up real fast around here. We only have to pay a few Euro to reserve our seats. The train pass we bought in the States has already paid for itself as our 10 days of train travel will cost around 2,000 dollars in the end and we only paid around 400. It’s quite a deal. We had to take a tram into the city and on the tram we suddenly realized that we had bought tickets to the wrong city…We bought them for Marseilles instead of Montpellier. I just shrugged it off and was like hey that’s part of the fun of traveling on the rails, just go where it takes ya! Mitch Folks does NOT have that mentality. He completely and totally freaked out and told
me that we are getting off the bus right now!!!!! Of course, I refused. We had our mini throw down and eventually he realized hey that it wasn’t that big of a deal and we carried on with our little tram ride into the city. It’s funny to look back on now, but at the time, it was not funny. Chicken legs was pretty riled up.
Avignon was an extremely unique city. The city center was surrounded by a huge castle wall. The whole city was protected by this gigantic rock castle wall that had gates through which cars could drive through. Super weird. The city inside was adorable and once again, we were the only tourist there. There were delicious bakeries and cafes with delicious pastries and really good sandwhichs. Avignon is home to the largest cathedral/castle, called the Palace of Popes, in all of Europe, and let me tell you, that sucker is huge! I couldn’t even take a picture of it with the whole thing in the same frame. Oh did I mention, it was raining as well? The whole raining thing really hasn’t been a problem other than its hard to take pictures because I don’t
want to get my stuff wet. It was cold and windy but we strayed outside the castle walls to check out the famous bridge that went half way out into the river and stopped because it was blown apart in WWII. It made a pretty picture. Our hotel in Avignon was just outside the massive walls of the city center and was by far the best hotel we had stayed in yet. (Good find Tara) We had a lovely little Italian dinner in the center and enjoyed the little city of Avignon…
Woke up early to catch the train to Marseilles, it was still raining when we woke up and it seems that it will be for the next few days. The train to Marseilles was only 30 minutes and when we got there it was raining too. We changed our train to Bordeaux for an earlier time and then took the metro down to the Port of Marseilles to kill some time and see the sights. It’s pretty hard to really soak up the Riviera when it is raining, so we just stuck to the food part and the walking part. It was still nice, but we were ready to get our 6 hour train ride to Bordeaux by the time 2 o’clock rolled around. The train wasn’t the nicest one, but we had our two little seats together so that was all that really mattered. If you were a fly on the wall, this is what you would see. Two clearly American tourists in their matching fleeces, tennis shoes, and jeans, totally in love, yet absorbed in two different mediums of distraction: The girl, messy brown hair and tired eyes, is typing like mad at her computer, earphones in, totally focused... The boy, blonde tennis ball head and startling blue eyes, has his big headphones on, glued to the screen of his new DVD player. The girl eventually can’t type anymore and closes her computer only to pick up a book with equal enthusiasm. They glance at one another with the same look: “I can’t believe all he does is watch movies” and “How can she just read and write on these trains”, but interlock hands with a quick kiss on the cheek and get back to their own special form of entertainment. They are both snacking on gummy bears and completely ignorant to the stares around them. I wish that description was exaggerated or even completely fictional, but it is the cold hard truth. Tara and Mitch on the trains.
Despite the bad smells and constant hum of French accents, the train moves at blazing speeds throughout the day, the lulling sound of metal and rail echoes throughout the cabins…the little French towns just whizz by, a blur of pale orange and a mélange of crème and green. We stop occasionally at the different stations and that’s when you take it in: the rows and rows of vineyards, the little French villas, and the enormous sky that just seems to stretch forever. It’s incredible. There is no better way to travel Europe than by train… At dusk the French countryside looks like a desaturated painting, as if the color has been slowly drained out of it…the tree are a soft grey, the endless hillsides a light lavender, and the houses a hazy shade of purple. It almost hurts my eyes to look out of the train window, it is so bright yet so dull. By the time it is nightfall, we seem to be moving through pure darkness with the occasional glimmer of lights as we pass by a small countryside town. It’s mesmerizing, you feel like you are in a dream and never want to wake up.
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