Mercure Sud Avignon

... came down near us but we were lucky and just got debris on us. But enough whining about the weather.
Avignon is extremely beautiful and we have a lovely view at night of all the castle etc all lit up as we are camped on a sort of island in the Rhone. We arrived yesterday and explored the town and went to the Popes palace which is the best preserved castle of its age in France. We then ...

... block several times we got the last park in the whole area, and it was right outside the restaurant. Never mind that it required Alison to hold up traffic while I backed out later on.) it was past 2.00pm. We were most concerned that we would be too late. But no, they found us a table, and brought the Menu de Jour on a blackboard – three courses with two options for each course. Our French phrase book did not help us to understand ...

... the hotel) we were directed to were closed. gotta love france on a sunday.

we stopped by at pont du guard on the way here (really old roman aqueduct) which still blows my mine every time i see it. defo a must see in this area.

so i have been trying to muster up the courage to call the french family i lived with when i was here in school, but have not yet figured out how to say hi, remember me, its been 15 ...

... We stopped at a pharmacy to buy Lucy some chocolate and I found the anti-wrinkle cream that Consumer Reports gave top marks and is only available in France. I should be gorgeous again in about 12 weeks.

We bought dinner in Avignon square that houses the Sunday flea market. Lucy and I both had the Carmargue salad. It is named for the cattle ranching region of France, which makes me curious as to why it has no beef at all, but includes ...

Believe me you don't want the story but here are a few photos and videos of what was a wonderful adventure for the most part.

The bull running was a random and free event - just next to lovely beach. Camargue horses are breathtakingly beautiful in the wild.

Unfortunately no photos of characterful and cultural city of Arles because only took the camera out one day - the day we went to The Camargue obviously.

... and out of Lyon with minimal angst. Picked up a couple of bottles of wine at the market, a Bordeaux and a white.

The drive down to Lyon took longer than expected, and this doesn't bode well for our return trip from Nice to Paris, which we had calculated would be about 9 hours. Much more than that is going to make that a VERY long day.

We found the hotel in Avignon, Les Cubes, right off the bridge in Villenueve les Avignon. It's a ...

... so our programs are actually pretty similar. This is why I find Kristin so interesting, not to mention how hard she works to keep everyone in my study abroad program happy including giving unlimited knowledge about traveling throughout Europe. Anyways, we went to the wine and cheese tasting in the new office. It was pretty much a really nice apartment turned into an office and relaxing space for us students. We tasted five different types of wine from all ...

... that we have seen but it is a lovely place with so much around here. The best aspect has been the house which has been brilliant. There is plenty of space for all of us and being right on the edge of the town and off the road has made it a peaceful oasis to come back to. We couldn't have asked for a better place. In saying that, we are looking forward to seeing the sea tomorrow and continuing on to something a little different again. We have a couple of ...

... called Fragonards. Had a tour of the perfume-making facilities which was really interesting, but the smell was incredibly overpowering, I had a really bad headache and burning nostrils by the time we got through. Definitely not recommended for anyone with hayfever... The gift shop was really good, with really cheap French perfume - I didn't buy any though, by the time I had smelt so much different stuff ...

Avignon is a cute little old town - it has an intact fortified wall surrounding the entire old town. Lucky for us, this weekend is "free weekend" in all of France - so this weekend has all been courtesy of France Tourism. We went across the river to the St Andre Fort and explored the fort and abbey over there and then today we went into the massive Palace of the Popes ...