Festivals and Food in Avignon

16/07-17/07

Our next stop on the tour was just a short one. We spent one night in Avignon, a walled French city that was the residency of four (?) popes at some stage – once again on point with the facts.

I had been to Avignon before, when I was in Europe a few years ago with the parents and sister, but this time I really got to see the city, because we got a walking tour led by Kiki that showed us all the sights of the beautiful city. We were showed the Hotel De Ville, the main square, and the Palais de papes where the Popes lived for their time in Avignon. It was such a cool place with its small winding cobbles streets and what I think I loved the most is that there were no cars in the main part of the city, it was all bikes and people walking which gave it such a nice and relaxed atmosphere. After the tour we crossed to the other side of the river to where our camp site was – the view we had from the camp of the walls of Avignon was amazing!

Fun fact: every french town will have a carousel in their town centre! 

Proper french crepes and ohmygod they smelt amazing!

That night we had a completely free night, so after we had set up our tents and had showers to freshen up (because it was about 30+degrees) we walked across the river from our campsite and into the city. Dinner was incredible and we used our really poor french skills to order our food to a very patient waiter (who we later found out spoke perfect english..) After we had finished our dinner we walked into the centre of the city and were entertained constantly while we walked through the streets, because there was some kind of festival going on, so there were performers every few metres, so what should have been a 5 minute walk took us closer to an hour because we were constantly stopping and watching performers or listening to their music, which might have been why we got so lost... We ended up walking to the wall, and then following it around until we found one of the exists and then walking around the outside of the city until we found the entrance we wanted. We eventually made our way to the main square and walked up the srairs where we found another couple of people from the tour watching some dancers. So we sat on the railing in front of a 700 year old building watching incredible dancers. It was one of those moments where you just sit there and take it all in and feel insanely lucky to be there.

After the dancers finished we walked back through the city just as slowly as before, stopping at every performer and watching them do their thing, wether it be caricatures, dancing, singing, juggling, and everything in between. We finally made it back to the campsite after midnight and went straight to sleep, because when it's that hot, you're always tired!

Justin testing the caracture skills. I personally think they did pretty well!

The next day we had the usual morning routine of packing up our tents and getting onto the coach for our drive to Barcelona (!!!!). but before we arrived there, we stopped off just outside of Nimes and went to the Pont du Guard! For those of you who have no idea what that is, it's an aqueduct built by the Romans hundreds of years ago and is a piece of architectural genius! So it's safe to say my inner classics geek was seriously excited to see it (again, but this time I was actually interested in it, rather than just walking around pretending to be interested like I did last time..).

Gotta love graffiti from 1843..

Another fun fact: Napoleon liked to put plaques on things that were there before he was, and claim them as his own! 

We only had a short stop there before we got back on the coach and made our way to Spain, but that's another post... So stay tuned!