Day 18 Avignon

We woke to a glorious, sunny and crisp morning with a HUGE breakfast laid on up on deck by Monsieur Pace. It was the works: croissants, toast, cakes, fruit, cheeses, yoghurt and tea. We are sharing the barge with a French Canadian couple from Quebec, Chris and Chantelle. Before Mr. Pace left he showed us some HUGE fish swimming in the Rhone. They were over a metre long and as thick as my thigh. They flicked through the water like dolphins as they gobbled up the bread that he threw to them. The river was flowing very fast this morning. The plan for today is to do the walking tours of the city. There are hire bikes so we may pick up one of those. News from London is that Britt and Wil have won the pub quiz!! Well done guys. Think of us when you convert that prosecco into bellinis. News from Melbourne is that Ginny’s class did very well in their VCE folios. Well done. You got them over the line. We are providing some entertainment for Perry with our group what’s app messages. It must be funny to get 10 messages (questions, answers, reports and comments) all at once. Time to start thinking about moving on. Shorts and a jumper (just in case I think).

 It was 4pm and we were back at the barge in our bathers and lounging about next to the pool. We spent the morning touring the streets of Avignon by foot and getting a feeling for the city beyond the obvious tourist destinations. Every street had buildings to stop and see. Every fourth house had an amazing entrance or a pretty iron detail to consider. We went to the central market and were immediately seduced by the food. We bought a big slab of salmon and spinach tart and a quiche Lorraine. There was so much else we could have got but gluttony is an ugly thing. We bought some fruit and a big container of apple and pear juice. There seemed to be specialist stalls for every kind of produce. The onion specialist, the mushroom man, the potato expert the breads specialist. It was wonderful to see people taking their craft so seriously. We took our stash across the market square to a coffee shop. As I’ve already said, coffee takes a long time to order and a long time to come. Its done deliberat5ly so you have time to relax, chat, be seen chatting etc. While we waited an age for our coffees to arrive, I hopped back to the market to get us a fruity flan. I wanted one particular one and I think I impressed the woman behind the counter with my determination to get the one with the extra fruits and dusting of pistachio nuts. I need not have hurried as when I got back to Johnny, there was still no sight of the coffees. They did eventually arrive and they hit the spot. 

Walking to the palace we dodged the parking inspectors. Here they get around on bikes. Very manoeverable and they can vover a lot  of territory in a short time. 

We conferred about our next move and decided to go into the palace of the popes. This structure dominated the city skyline. We must have looked tired because the lady at the ticket booth immediately offered us pensioner rates. 

At one stage Avignon was the centre of the papal court.(1309-1376). This move was intended to escape the intrigues in Rome. It began as a modest centre for the pope to rule from but over the intervening years became a splendid palace befitting royalty. It was also constructed as a fortress to ward off any potential attacks or robbers. Seven official popes lived in the palace at Avignon and each made changes to the building. We toured the palace from top to bottom, including the treasury where the most precious papal treasure was stored. This was basically a treasury vault deep in the bowels of the fortress where only the pope could enter. The upper treasury hall (a kind of tax department) was huge as well. Lavish though the complex was it was tiny compared to the gilded excesses we saw when we visited the Vatican. Many room, photos and steps later we took our picnic up to the garden that overlooked the Rhone. There was no food shop up there so the jealous looks of passers by were understandable. To reach the gardens there was a steep, long, long road of steps. As we were coming down we met various red faced (and slightly desperate) people who asked us how far to the top. We tried to minimize the walk but assured them that the view from the top was worth it. We took a walk outside the city wall to the original Avignon bridge over the Rhone. It reminded us of the medieval bridge that spanned the river in Cordoba. It was beautiful and redolent with the history that had taken place around it. We. had one more stop before our return to the barge. The barge fridge had everything we might need, except milk. We looked high and low but there was no place where you could buy a litre. In the end I went into an ice cream shop and asked a very helpful man where we might find a supermarket. He was very helpful, but it was a long way off and back up the hill we had just come down. Our progress was slowed by a student protest, complete with police flanking them, plain clothes people shouting urgently into their walkie talkies and motorcycle police screaming around at breakneck speed. Finally, there was a Carrefours. CARRAFOURS I LOVE YOU!! We got cider for this afternoon, fruit and chips for tomorrow, lollies for the car and MILK. We thought we had earned a rest so it was back to the barge for a lounge. We arrive to see Mr Pace extricating his scooter from a very over engineered but highly effective anti-theft device and sailing off into the sunset. I think he had ridden off to get breakfast supplies for tomorrow.

Have just come back from dinner. After dessert, John returned to the table and fixed me with a look. "The French don't know how to do toilets" he said in a most serious voice. More on this tomorrow. Good night. Catch you tomorrow, Lily