I am sure it’s hard to tell how much time we spend trying to figure out where to go and how to get there. It’s tricky every time and luckily it has only gone sideways a couple times. Mostly though, traveling with no itinerary has allowed to discover some amazing places!
The strikes in France have us considering leaving the country in the next few days. We were going to go to Grenoble, then Annecy, which came highly recommended by our friend from France, and if you look at some pictures you will be bummed we aren’t going. In addition to our angst about traveling here now, the weather over the next week there is in the 40’s and raining, so to quote Todd, “It’s whatever”.
We spent hours yesterday researching planes, trains, buses, cabs to stations. We found very cheap airfare to Lisbon, Portugal woo!………but don’t get excited, we didn’t buy the tickets because we aren’t sure we can get to the airport which is back in Marseilles, where we changed trains a couple days ago and where the news was still showing extensive protests yesterday.
So, we have booked a rental a car! Through Enterprise Rent-a-car, we can cross borders for $55 extra. Done! We are going to head towards Spain, where it is warm-ish, cheap, and everyone we have spoken to says it’s beautiful and everyone is friendly! We have to return the car to Avignon, so we will still have to figure out how to get out of here, but we figure the strikes may be over by then…..
It’s fun trying to figure out all the travel stuff, but it can be exhausting and even stressful. Like the day we nearly booked a train and hotel in Zurich, Switzerland, only to check the forecast and find the high of 37 degrees for the next week. I so wanted to tough it out, but when we were in Napoli with Katie’s in-laws, Sabrine told me about their recent trip to Prague, where we reeeeeally want to go. She said it was in the 20’s. It was so cold that all she wanted to do was go back to the hotel. That sounds awful to me and luckily we have options! So with our rental car booked we are now researching where to go in Spain–standby and feel free to offer suggestions!
So after all that, Katie’s timing was perfect when she sent me this cutie pie picture of Rocky waking up xoxo!
It was a late start for Avignon after our lengthy planning session, but by then it had warmed up to cloudy and 54 degrees. We had seen a fort off in distance the day before, so we headed in that direction.
We have been noticing paintings of people in windows and here was another one, featured at the top. This one was next to a striking church. Katie and I decided years ago that if a door was open, you could go in.
This is the Church of Saint Agricol, built in the 1300’s over a temple that had been there hundreds of years already. The only light in the entire building was from the open door and a few lit candles and I had to stand near the doorway to allow my eyes to adjust. Towards the back, there was a golden glow from a softly lit chapel. There was colorful stained glass windows up high, some depicting Saint Agricol, a patron saint of agriculture.
After only a few more blocks, we crossed through one of the walls of the city. The walls go for 2.7 miles, enclosing 370 acres. Originally there were 12 gates, but that was reduced to only 7 in the 1400’s in order to fortify the city. Now there are 15 entrances.
Soon we were crossing the Rhone River, looking back on the city that had been fully operational for centuries. I remember thinking this in Japan too–so many years have people been here, on foot, horse, carriage, boat….and now car, train, plane. In front of the walls was a carnival, with bells ringing on rides with squealing kids, and even an American football ride with a huge Wilson NFL football in the middle!
We didn’t make it to the fort, but maybe another day. As we crossed back on the other side of the bridge, we could see more of those huge ferry boats and one said Viking on it! Maybe this is one of the treks made by Viking Tours.
Now that it’s March, I’ve started noticing a few buds on trees and sprouts from bulbs. This solitary early bloomer was so lovely!
We probably should have stopped by the apartment to have some lunch, but how many times can you have freshly made crepes while in France?
There was still time to go to one of the many free museums, so at 4:15 pm we headed to the Calvet Museum of Art. Most of the artwork we have seen so far is Renaissance or earlier, with hundreds of depictions of religious stories, which is amazing. This art was newer, mostly from the 1600’s and so different from the art we had seen!
There was a room dedicated to paintings of the city of Avignon. Here were 9 paintings over 200 years old, of buildings that were already over 300 years old, depicting the places we stood the very day before!
And so it was another incredible in France. There’s only one TV channel in English at this AirBnb–the “Drive-in Movie” channel haha! It shows all these crazy old movies and has been a great way to work on my French because it has French subtitles! Last night we had pastries and watched an old John Wayne movie from when he was 32 years old called Stage Coach–perfect!
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