A Much Needed Break in Avignon

The first half of February was quite unenjoyable.  I was really sick and after a week of being exhausted and having fevers every night among other symptoms I finally threw in the towel and went to the doctor here in France (something I didn't want to ever have to do).  When I went to the doctor she told me she doesn't know what I have and that I need to get a blood test done and an ultrasound of my abdomen.  Just what one wants to hear when they are in a foreign country far away from family and are still in the processing of getting social security (so all bills for the doctor appointments are coming out of my pocket).  I got the blood test done and had to wait to see if it would reveal anything.  When I got the results back it was thankfully nothing serious and just a case of mono so that was a relief and I got out of doing the ultrasound.  Anyways, after that fun adventure I get two weeks off for winter break so I headed down to Avignon, France for 6 days.  I almost didn't go since I was still sick but with the encouragement of my family decided it would be best.  Well, it was a wonderful decision.  I kept it really chill and would go and visit things but also just relax and rest a lot.  The weather was nice, it was warm and sunny which was greatly needed.

Saturday, February 15th:

I got up nice and early to get into Paris to catch a 9 o'clock train down to Avignon.  Let me just tell you, I love the TGV (fast trains) here in France it makes it ridiculously quick to go from the north to south, it didn't even take three hours.  I got there and had to take a bus into the city center.  It was so warm and sunny.  I stopped by the tourism office to pick up a map and museum pass and then headed over to my hotel and checked in.  I found a great place for lunch and had a tartine (open face sandwich) that had eggplant and mozzarella on it along with a salad.  I must admit it was kind of strange sitting in a restaurant by myself but nobody seemed to care.

The aforementioned tartine

I just explored the city and walked around quite a bit.  This city has a lot of interesting things hidden away. 

L'Hôtel de Ville

Place de l'Horloge

Theater

Le Palais des Papes

Eglise Saint-Agricol

I then went to a museum that was art and artifacts from Greek, Roman, Gallo-Romaine times and whatnot.  It was small but interesting and it is kind of surprising how much is there for the size of the place.

Musée Lapidaire

Inside the museum

Some of the interesting things they had there

Walking around Avignon

Sunday, February 16th:

It was a pretty relaxing day with napping and reading and just hanging out but I did head over to the market (les halles) and that was a lot of fun.  It is an indoor market that was bustling with life on a Sunday morning.  There were people chatting while enjoying a coffee, there were people out doing their grocery shopping for the day and they could find fish, bread, sweets, many different kinds of olives and so much more.  I really enjoyed the hustle and bustle of it all and picked up a quiche lorraine for lunch.  

Flowers being sold right outside the market

Eglise St Pierre

Inside the church

There were lots of paintings like these on the sides of buildings

Eglise St Didier

A little park I came across

Place des Corps Saints

An interesting facade 

Monday, February 17th:

Today was another easy day with sitting in a café drinking un café while soaking up the sun.  I actually ended up talking with a very nice lady while I was sitting outside at one of the tables.  It is funny how people give the French a bad rap for being rude but I have not found this to be the case.  I think that people are quite mistaken in thinking that Paris is France.  France is so much more than just Paris.  It was interesting to observe the differences between Paris and Avignon.  In Paris everyone is bustling around with their headphones on in their own little worlds trying to get somewhere quickly while in Avignon I didn't really notice people wearing headphones and they seemed to move at a bit slower pace.  Also something that I found really cute was that in Avignon when people would run into someone they knew on the street they would stop and chat, it felt like a small town even though Avignon is a decent sized city.  I had lunch in a nice park and soaked up some more vitamin D.  I also visited Musée Calvet which had a lot of different types of art including Egyptian art.  However, my favorite was probably the one and only painting they had by Alfred Sisley.

Entrance to Musée Calvet

The statues 

Some of the art

Tuesday, February 18th:

Today I went over to Le Palais des Papes (the Pope's palace), surprisingly enough or maybe not so surprisingly France was where the pope lived, for a while that is.  They moved the pope from Italy to Avignon, France and there were about nine popes that resided and were in charge of the Catholic church here.  However, they then moved the pope back to Italy where he has been ever since.  The palace was huge and rather interesting.  It was a lot of large empty rooms but they had nice explanations of what the rooms used to be.

Heading into Le Palais des Papes

They would launch large stones like these to protect the palace

A courtyard in the palace

Another courtyard

Heading out to a courtyard

Enjoying le Palais des Papes

The pope's dining hall (the picture doesn't even show how massive the place was)

Some statues

A view from the palace

The nine popes that resided in Avignon

Then you can head up to the roof of the palace and there were some nice views of the city.  There also happened to be a cat up there too, I'm not really sure how he got there.

Walking along the rooftop

A view of the church next door

Looking down on the square

The roof of the palace

Looking out over the city and the river le Rhône

Enjoying the rooftop views

I stopped at a little place down the from my hotel for lunch and had a delicious galette with chicken, tomatoes and mozzarella.  I then visited le Musée Requien which was a small museum that was mostly taxidermy of the animals from the region and a lot of rocks and sand from the area.  It was free and something to do so I enjoyed it.  I then wanted to visit the cathedral next to the Palais des Papes but it was closed for construction so instead I went into the park, Rocher des Doms, right next door to enjoy the fantastic views of the city and mountains.

The cathedral that was closed for construction

A memorial in the park for both of the world wars

A view of the cathedral from the park

Snow covered mountains in the distance

Looking out over Avignon

The famous bridge, Pont Saint-Bénzet, that the song is based off of

Enjoying the views

The city of Avignon

Another view of Le Palais des Papes

Wednesday, February 19th:

Started off the morning right with a café and a pain au chocolat in a café down the street from where I was staying.  I then headed over to le Musée du Petit Palais.  It is right next to le Palais des Papes and has a nice sized collection of Italian art.  

Musée du Petit Palais

View when you leave the museum

I had a really nice chicken and potato lunch at one restaurant and just walked around and looked in some stores.  I then headed over to le Pont Saint-Bénzet or as the song goes "Sur le Pont d'Avignon…"  It was really nice but really windy.

On the bridge

Looking out at the Rhône

The chapel on the bridge

View from the chapel

On the Pont Saint-Bénzet

View of Le Palais des Papes from the bridge

View of the River Rhône and mountains (right) from the bridge

View of Avignon from the bridge

Visiting the bridge

Le Pont Saint-Bénzet

Later in the afternoon I headed over to a café at Place de l'Horloge and drank a limonade while soaking up the sun and watching the people walk by.

Thursday, February 20th:

Today I headed back to Paris and when I got back into the Paris area it was raining and cold.  It made it all that much harder leaving sunny and warm Avignon.  In the morning I picked up a sandwich for lunch and did some last minute shopping.  I also happened upon a flea market and picked up an Agatha Christie book for dirt cheap.  I then went over to a café at Place des Corps Saints and enjoyed the sun and a café.  

The flea market at Place Pie

Enjoying a café outside

I had a while before I had to go and catch my train so I went over to the square in front of le Palais des Papes and just sat down and enjoyed the view along with the warmth of the sun on my face.  I had a funny blast from the past moment while sitting there.  There was a British man that came and sat near me and I noticed that he had an acis folder (a program that takes high school students to Europe).  I started talking with him and realized that he was the tour guide from when I went on that program.  It was too funny. We then parted ways and I headed over to the train station and got back to Paris in time to go to my cooking class which was wonderful as always.

I had such a lovely time in Avignon and am so glad that I got to see another part of France.  I had been here once before but it was only for a couple of hours with my family as we were just passing through so we didn't really get to go inside anything or see much of anything.  Anyways, it was great getting out of the house and away from the Paris area to a warmer climate with new things to explore.