Sur le pont d'Avignon

Friday 13 June 2014

Blog post by the mother

Our last day with our dear friends ended up being a little longer than we had thought due to a nationwide train strike.  We made it to Avignon Central train station in good time only to find out that the train that they were booked to go to Lyon on was not going to be running.  A few conversations with the very busy but helpful train station assistants later,  two new tickets to Lyon were purchased on the TGV but not leaving until later in the afternoon. Miss 9 is looking very happy in the photo below as this delay meant that we got to spend more time with Le Trottin and Grande Maman in Avignon before we dropped them off at the TGV station.

Avignon is a busy town and has a much more cosmopolitan feel than the other places we have visited this week.  The old town is also very elegant and has some lovely old buildings like the Hotel de Ville.

Avignon is of course famous for once having been the home to the Catholic popes.  The Palais du Papes looks in many ways just as one imagines a castle should look.

Although there are a few signs that this is not just any old castle!

In the square in front of the Palais there were a number of buskers.  My favourite was the young woman who was singing Edith Piaf while we gazed at the Palais - perfect!  There were also some funny street performers.  This one in particular fascinated the kids because he was so funny but also a little bit unpredictable.

From the Palais we walked down through the old town to the famous Pont d'Avignon.  We walked out onto the Pont and Mr 14 sheepishly joined me for a very quick dance and a rendition of "Sur le Pont d'Avignon".

After lunch in Avignon we returned to the carpark to collect our car.  A quick word about the car.  It's not a car.  It is in fact a Mercedes Viano aka a minibus.  It is great for carrying 8 people and all their luggage, relatively easy to drive if you remember to stay on the right hand side of the road and a complete nightmare in French carparking buildings.  The designers of French carparks think that everyone drives a tiny little 2CV so their entrances, exits and carparks are sized accordingly.  To get the Viano in and out of the carpark one needs to fold in the wing mirrors, hold your breath and be prepared to mount the kerb as well as wonder if you might perhaps scrape the roof off the car.  Fortunately the car has made it through the week unscathed (although it had clearly had a few 'incidents' in the past), mostly thanks to the fact that we usually had someone outside the car giving very explicit instructions on how much space was available in which to turn, reverse etc.
Anyway, said car made the journey to the Avignon TGV where we dropped off our friends with some sadness.  Probably just as well that we were illegally parked and they had to jump out quickly as it staved off the inevitable long good bye.
Back to the villa in time for the papa to have his regular reading session by the pool and for the girls to get in a few last swims.