Un Journée en Avignon

Today, four of us decided to travel forty-five minutes south to the city of Avignon. The purpose of the trip was for me to cash my traveler's checks, so we just decided to make a day of it. I will go ahead and tell you guys about this wonderful city using as many photos as possible without overloading the page.

At 9:15 our train left the town of Pierrelatte heading for Marseille. We got off at Avignon Centre, the normal rail station of the city of Avignon (There is also a bullet train station). The city of Avignon is a completely walled city with the actual wall from the medieval times still in complete contact and as far as I know, functional.


As we entered the city, shops and restaurants lined each and every street with apartments on top, as is typical.

We walked to the center of town where the "Palais des Papes" (Papal Palace) is located. In the medieval times, the Pope lived in Avignon in a huge palace directly in the middle of town. The palace was very extravagant and quite a site to see. Although we did not enter the palace, we did walk around the gardens and the overviews near the palace. Pictured below is the palace.





From the gardens we could view the "Pont du Avignon" (Bridge of Avignon), a famous bridge know because sometime ago half the bridge collapsed, leaving a pathway to the middle of the river. I had never heard of it, but there is a song in French that tells all about it.



After viewing the bridge and the palace, we walked to the other side of town to exchange my money (which took a long time) and then headed for lunch. For lunch we stopped and picked up sandwiches from a deli and headed across the Rhone river to eat. We sat under a large tree right next to the river and ate while overlooking Avignon, the river, and Le Pont de Avignon.



Also, during this time, a stranger decided to join us. He seemed to be looking for food (I didn't really understand him), and he didn't mind invading our personal space. I gave him some of my bread, but he kept on asking for more. He was unique, especially in one aspect, he only had one leg. Interesting huh? He is pictured below.



Later, we continued to walk around the city and look around the different shops. We stopped in a shop called H&M, where I found some capris (man-pris)that were really nice and very comfortable. So, I bought my first French item here in France. When we arrived back home, we stopped at a supermarket. There, three of us split the price of a bottle of french wine. So, this evening I sat down on the deck with a bottle of french wine, my french capris, and a old french farmhouse overlooking the Rhone river, making for quite a classic french scene. Now the language to complete the picture... I'll be working on that.