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Published: August 22nd 2007
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Ok, so I know I’ve been a little remiss in the updating department, but I promise I’ll try to keep more up-to-date. So we are in Morocco, and it is amazing, but before that I have to talk about Avignon. Avignon is also amazing, in a completely different sort of way.
Brian and I took the TGV (Train au Grand Vitesse-literally “very fast train”) to Avignon and it was a smooth, quick trip (there was some issue with our tickets, but we ended up getting it worked out without any problems). We were astonished at how easy it was, how punctual it was, and how clean and safe the train felt. The last time we were in a foreign country on a train was in India, and I can tell you that the TGV and the trains in India are decades apart.
Oddly enough, being in France brought up a lot of comparisons to India (almost all of them favorable to France). For me, it was odd, because I remember finding Paris very different from home in just basic everyday things like getting food, but now, having been to India and seen just how different things can get, France
felt so tame. It makes me wonder what all the fuss was about when I was little (for a very long time I hated Paris!) That being said, there are some notable differences between life in France and life in the U.S. Brian has announced that he much prefers the French way. Things like the slower pace of life, the appreciation for food, and the general lack of brash and obnoxious people, are very appealing to him.
At any rate, we had lots of opportunity for appreciation of food during our stay in Avignon. The TGV station is a little ways out of town, and you take a shuttle bus that drops you off in the center city across from the central train station. There are usually taxis waiting there, but we waited for several minutes and could not find a single taxi. Luckily, there was an info board nearby the phone number for the hotel, and one of the people Brian works with had given him a charged phone card to use in France, so we were able to call the hotel and they sent a cab.
The hotel was wonderful. After India and having to haul
Inside the "New" Part of the Palais
This part is only 600 years old instead of 700 our bags around Paris, when the bellman came out to take our bags from the taxi, we were a little bewildered for a second. Was it ok to give this man our luggage? What if he took it? Oh. Right. That’s what he’s supposed to do.
After depositing our stuff in our lovely room (they wanted to keep it feeling authentic without missing out on modern comforts, so the bottom third of the mirror opposite the bed was actually a flat screen TV), we went down to the restaurant to meet up with Jo, Rocky, Grandmother, Rocky’s son Nick, Nick’s fiancée, and Rocky’s son AJ. It was Nick’s 21st birthday, and we had dinner to celebrate. I had pigeon. It had an unusual flavor, and I insist that it did not taste like chicken! This was the first of several multi-course meals we had while in Avignon, and we went to bed tired and full.
The next day, we went on a tour of the Palais des Papes, the papal palace that was built when the Popes moved to Avignon for some 75 years during the 14th century. While most of the frescoes were gone, in a couple
of the rooms you could really get a feel for how colorful the building must have been. Since I tend to think of the 1300s as grey, and dark, it was quite a surprise to see such vivid hues.
After a little lunch and some wedding planning (the woman who was helping coordinate the wedding started her PhD in French at Penn, and she and her husband own an old farm outside Philadelphia-Brian and I have been invited out in the fall) we and the rest of the wedding group got on our own bus (there were that many of us) to go to the little village of Chateauneuf-du-Pape. It is a testement to Jo and Rocky that they had so many people come all the way to Avignon for their wedding, and it turned out the be a really interesting group of people. As for Chateauneuf-du-Pape, The village is cute as a button, and what seemed like every other door off the main street led you down into a wine cave where you could have tastings. After wandering around the village for a while, we went up to a winery for a tour of the winemaking areas.
By this point, those of us who had not worn practical shoes were ready to sit, and sit we did, because it was time for another extended meal. The food was absolutely incredible, but the setting was unmatched. We could see out over the vineyards of Provence all the way to Avignon.
The next morning we had a cooking class in the hotel’s kitchen, which was incredible. The chef was almost a caricature of what you would imagine a French chef to be like (think Gusteau in Ratatouille). We did all sorts of interesting things like clean and prepare whole red snapper, and I got to help plate! We had the fruits of our labor for lunch, and then Jo, Grandmother, and I went in to get our hair and make-up done for the wedding.
The wedding was absolutely gorgeous, out on a terrace with a view of the Palais des Papes. As Brian noted, it was a very brief ceremony (Hindu weddings can go on for hours), but I think that suited everyone in attendance. Afterwards, we had cocktails on the terrace, and another fabulous meal, and us kids (and some associates from Rocky’s firm) headed off
to a French discotheque for a little while. Oddly enough, they did not play a single song from any decade other than the 1970s. I guess when the say discotheque, it means there’s going to be disco!
The next morning, Grandmother hosted a lovely brunch, and slowly the wedding guests dribbled out of Avignon, some for Paris, and some for other destinations like Nice, or Lake Como. Brian and I caught another TGV out of Avignon towards Marseille, which brings me to my next entry!
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Aunt Sandy
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Congratulations
Please tell Jo that I am happy for her. Love you, Aunt Sandy