September 27, 2022 A photos only post from various locations around Avignon.
Chance Encounters in Avignon
September 26, 2022 Some days are more interesting than others. Today it was not about what we saw, it was more about who we met.
It started out as a typical Monday morning. Putting the washing machine in the apartment to good use and hanging the clothes out to dry. Thing about it and asking she how knows about such things, we determined that we have never had a dryer in place we have rented during our trips overseas.
Since we leaving in few days to fly to London, we thought it a good idea to stop at the train station and purchase our tickets to Marseille during our daily outing. There is no train station at he Marseille airport, but the station is only five minutes from the airport by free shuttle bus. Th first problem was we could remember the name of the little town the station was located in. Linda remembered seeing a map of the different train routes from Avignon, and took a photo of it so we had the name of the town.
We set the ticket machine to English and try as we might, we couldn’t get it to show us what we wanted. We finally decided we would have to join the line to the one person in the station selling tickets at the ticket counter. While standing line I saw a man in an SNCF uniform standing nearby. It turned out he was an information attendant who spoke perfect English and took us over to a nearby ticket machine and showed us how to buy the ticket. The funny thing was we have been buying tickets at these machines throughout out time in France, but this one had us baffled. It was another true unexpected kindness just when we needed it.
A church with flying buttresses beside a very pretty little garden.
As expected, there were gargoyles.
I didn’t have my camera with the telephoto lens, but even a distant photo of a gargoyle is better than no gargoyles to photograph.
Walking along the street we saw this planter with what we call the purple plant. A few feet beyond, Isaid I was going back to photograph it. The shadow to the left is what happened next. As I was walking back to Linda a girl walked up to Linda and asked in very slow English f she could take my wife’s photo.
The girl was the one the left. There was lots of giggling from the other three girls, and in the end it turned out they were just learning English. It was hard to talk with them, but they ended up with a little more practice, even if there were giggles than words exchanged.
Running the wine bottle gauntlet at the Monoprix.
We’ve tried to cut back of the traditional French foods, so this has become my goto stop on the way back to the apartment.
Two slices of Royale for Euro 7.
They taste really great and have more toppings than crust.
It is definitely time to be leaving Avignon. Walking back I pointed to this little alleyway and told my wife it was a shortcut to the apartment. She remarked she was totally lost. it is part of the fun of staying in a new place, discovering all those things the locals know but visitors don’t. Sad to say, our mantra is that as soon as we know the shortcuts in whatever town we might be staying in, whether traveling in the US in our RV, or being overseas, it is time for us to move on to another place.
I keep forgetting to take a photo of the fob we we use open the door or gate at the outside entrance to where we are staying. Once through here there are two other locked doors before we are in our apartment.
A Sunday Stroll in Avignon
Today we joined many of the residents of Avignon and took a stroll around the area near our apartment. The air was so fresh and clean after yesterday’s rains, that we were out longer than we realized exploring the streets when something looked interesting. We let the tourists visit the Pope’s Palace, etc. and the hordes of people that are there. We like Life in the slow lane, even to to point of getting lost at times.
As the saying goes, one should always take time to stop and smell the roses, even if they aren’t roses.
One of those intriguing “no plaque no description” sculptures.
a little visited section of the ramparts.
A spout for the water to run off, but where is the gargoyle?
a different view of one of the many structures of this design that are regularly placed on the ramparts.
Something different ahead.
One of the gates in the ramparts. View from the city side looking out.
View from outside the ramparts city looking through the gate toward the city.
Plaque regarding the gate, when it was built, then rebuilt and the different names for it through the centuries.
Looks like some reinforcement likely added when it was rebuilt in 1865.
Wandering through a residential area we came upon this grand tree lined street.
Parking meters are everywhere in Avignon it seems.
Easy to pay but hard to figure out how to use. My guess is you put in your license plate number. We simply do not live or travel where such things are used.
Not all the buildings in this area were old.
But on the fence surrounding the lot right next to that modern apartment building was this sign.
An on the lot was this building undergoing restoration. If I understood the sign correctly, it was built in the early 1920′ as a hotel, during the war it served as a hospital, then after the war was converted into apartments and is now being fully restored to its former glory still as apartments.
Flags galore on this building.
And now we know why. It is the neighborhood police station.
I would be remiss if I didn’t post at least one food photo. And as usual, it was only after I had taken the first bite of my cookie that I thought to take it. Irrespective of that, ice cream and a cookie is a great way to end the day.
A Day of Rain in Avignon.
No one is perfect, and our picking yesterday for our day of rest and relaxation certainly proved the point. Especially since today turned out to be a day of forced rest and relaxation. In the early morning the rain came down, in the morning the rain came down, in the early afternoon the rain came down. Only in the very late afternoon did it stop. Some might say we took the cowards way out and stayed in the apartment. We looked at it that we still had 10 weeks to go on this trip, so why go out if we really didn’t have to.
And the rain came down.
In the late afternoon the rain stopped and we and the other people in Avignon came out.
What is a photo of the local Monoprix without showing one of the items I just had to have. It looked good, had a high price and when I had that first taste I knew I had done very well indeed.
Just a few stores from the Monoprix is this little pizza shop. I’ve stopped here before and the young woman shopkeeper is not only very vivacious, she also speaks very good English and if there are no other customers, likes to chat.
The chorizo pizza she sells i so darned good I seem to always eat some of the slice before I remember to take a photo. As for my wife, she went with the tried and true comfort food of the female of the species. Ice cream and cookies. What makes her happy, makes me happy.
In the early evening the rain was gone and the sun was out.
I finished up the day by streaming my favorite football team, Mount Union, absolutely destroy their opponent, Muskingum College, 59-0. The unbeaten Mount union team had 552 yards in total offense while the unbeaten Muskingum team going into the game was only able to gain 57 yards in total offense. Mount is ranked number 3 in the small school division for a reason. Next Saturday we will be in London attending a West Theater production, but since we both absolutely love the West End Theater shows, I will still be a happy camper.
Several years ago my wife and I saw the West End production of Come From Away and rated it as one of the very best of the hundreds of plays we have seen over the years. We had told our daughter if she ever got the chance, it was a must see. This morning we got a text from her saying she, our son-in-law and their youngest daughter had attend a performance of the touring Broadway production last night and absolutely loved it. If you ever get the opportunity to see Come From Away, it will be something you will always remember. All to often we are inundated with news of Man’s Inhumanity to Man. Come From Away is about Man’s Humanity to Man.
A Day of Rest and Relaxation in Avignon
After four weeks of travel we decided we owed ourselves a day of doing nothing. Today was that day, so today’s post is simply a little of this and a little of that, but nothing to do with travel.
In a way I have been remiss in describing where are staying while in France as an apartment. I could have used the term flat, but as in the times in the past when we have stayed in France, it would be better to use the term “gite” for our accommodation’s. As for anyone reading my musings that would like to know, our apartment-flat-gite is the upper balcony in this photo.
Not all things are as they appear. The person who checked us in to our gite did not inform us as to where the garbage should be placed once the trash can or bin had reached its full capacity. A later text it was in the basement of our building. In Ferdinand Magellan mode I set off to se what was at the end of the elevator. what appeared in the dim light ( the photo does not do justice to how dark it was) was this door.
Opening the door reveal only darkness, but by feeling around on the wall my hand connected with what felt like a light switch, the French kind, not what an American would expect. A push and a hallway with multiple doors at its end was revealed. Of course I would try the doors that would not open first, but at last the handle of one moved and once again I stared in to a abyss of darkness.
Fumbling around on the wall to my left I located a rotary switch and gave it a twist. The room was illuminated and recycling and garbage bins appeared, but only for a few moments as I was once again plunged into total darkness, the door I enter through having closed in the meantime. More fumbling and the switch was once again located and fully turned this time. Time for a photo, then a hasty escape from this basement dungeon. Those who never travel beyond their on country can never know the “Thrill” one can experience traveling in foreign lands. where even simply things can be totally different.
Another travel experience. maybe to some people operating this washing machine would be simple. My brilliant wife (she really is) had no trouble starting this washing machine, it was turning it off that gave her fits. Her fantastic husband to the rescue. I used my Vivaldi web browser and Duck Duck Go search engine ( no tracking, no way no how, no third party cookies, no ads) to find the manual.
Astute readers would wonder, how did he know what to search for? I took a photo of the this. The manufacturer was IKEA, the model was RENLIG. Up came the English version of the instructions and easy as pie we had had everything we needed to know about operating it.
Wine time. My wife of more that a half century, Linda, (it means lovely or beautiful in Spanish and she truly is) loves chickens which means chickens are also very important to me. Our first day in Avignon I was looking for a wine for me when I saw this bottle. I bought one. Since then I have bought four more with even more to be bought. The wine is Récolte which i have subsequently learned means simply “harvest”. I count it as a wonderful “stumble upon” as I written about before. Interestingly enough it is exported to the US and is a value priced wine.
Linda’s favorite wine! She loves Riesling which is about as far away from growing up on a small farm in the hills of Appalachia in Southeastern Ohio, USA as one could ever imagine.
i had no idea what Moelleux wine was when I bought it. I was looking for something different in a white wine than what I was drinking. This wasn’t it., but it proved to be another wine that my wife really liked. So many times we have heard people from America criticize what they experienced in other countries because it was different that what they were used to in America. Why travel if not to experience different things?
A shortcut that turned out not to be a shortcut. But it was rather interesting trying to determine how to get to where I was trying to go to.
Where I was trying to get to. The local Monoprix grocery store. Coming down the steps this is what greets you. Maybe this is why I never leave the store without several bottles of wine in my shoulder bag? May each of your days be filled with as much enjoyment as Linda and mine are. LIFE is short, live it to its fullest.