The adventure continues …
Our adventures didn’t finish with our arrival at Cerbère though. Not only was it a roundabout trek up a fairly steep hill to the railway station, but when we got there we discovered that the ticket office didn’t open until 9.45 while our train was leaving at 9.39. To wait for the next train a couple of hours later would cut even more into our already diminished time in Avignon. The thing was, we needed the ticket office to activate our France-Germany Eurail pass. However, we decided to prioritise our holiday over money, and buy a ticket from scratch at the ticket vending machine. What’s another €60 after all! But wait, there’s more! The machine wouldn’t take cash nor our Travel Card, so we were going to have to buy the tickets on the train and, yes, pay a supplementary fee for the privilege! But then Len found a kind Kiwi who was happy to use his card in return for the cash from us and so at least we didn’t have to pay the supplementary fee.
It was an uneventful but pleasant 4-hour train trip from there to Avignon, in which we hugged the pretty coastline for about a third of the way before we headed inland to Avignon in Provence.
Getting to know Avignon
Our Hotel Boquier hosts Pascal and Sylvie were very welcoming on our arrival, and quickly informed us that they’d been able to rent our … African … room the night before, so we wouldn’t have to pay for that night. And Pascal immediately grabbed my case and carried it up the steep flights of stairs to our … African … room. I’m a feminist, but …!
Pascal also gave us a map, marking XXX on the square where we MUST NOT GO TO EAT. He also recommended the best way to see Le Pont! So, map in hand, off we went, first for lunch at the approved square and it was nice, a place where locals, and tourists clearly in the know (!), were relaxing over a laidback lunch.
Then it was off to do our own sans-Cyra orientation walk through Avignon. We popped into the 14th century Church of St Pierre, where Len made a contribution to their Puget organ fund; we bypassed the top sight here, Palais des Papes, which needed more time than we had then; and walked through Le Jardin des Doms with its memorial to the victims of World War II, down to the Rhône river to catch the little free ferry to the other side. The aim was to catch the best view of the famous pont with the light in the right place and the Palais des Papes behind it. Exciting to see that famous bridge of our primary school music class rounds … on a lovely late summer afternoon. We then walked along to the other (more modern) bridge and re-entered the town via its historic 14th century ramparts.
After a bit of a rest in our room we headed out again, this time for dinner, with our map in hand – and ended up at one of Pascal’s recommended restaurants, L’Epice and Love, a cosy little restaurant with slow, relaxed service. We are loving the country French approach to food – no rush – and greatly enjoyed our fresh salad entrees, Len’s seafood based and Sue’s “magret” (duck-breast) based. The rest of our meal was great too, as was the ambience and the friendly server who ran the packed room – albeit a small one – on her own.
Oh, we are enjoying being in France again after a very long time!
Three-words
SUE: Nostalgia, Mediaeval, Provence
LEN: Pont, Palais, Quaint
… and the stills…
Oh, if you can find the time, do go inside the Palais des Papes – I know that the guide books are a bit dismissive of it but they have the most *gorgeous* tapestries!
Thanks Lisa we are now en route to Dijon … But we did indeed go to Palais des Papes. The Guide we used wasn’t dismissive … We are using different guides in different places and are intrigued by their different approaches and emphases. Oh, and we thoroughly enjoyed the Palais … Report to come, but next Arles!
But did you dance, or at the very least sing sur le pont? I imagine everyone does. I love it that the hotelkeeper marked where not to eat on the map. So French.
Ah, well, you’ll just have to wait and see! (Len)
We,re in Lyon till Sunday night. Are you passing through? Next stop Firenze. xxxx
Oh dear, we passed through Lyon today … at the station for less than an hour. In Dijon tomorrow then off to Germany on Monday. So close! But probably not sensible to try to rush down there when you are leaving tomorrow anyhow and we have just arrived in Dijon this arvo! All going well?
This is not helping the fact that I’ve already had that song in my head for DAYS argh.