Pont d’Avignon (12 October 2024)

Pont d'Avignon

It was a slow start to the day.  It was grey and overcast making for a very dull day.  The first order of events was to find a coffee for Bev.  With unerring good directional sense and a decent amount of luck we found a boulangerie in the centre of Vieux Avignon.  Close to the Les Halles.  I wanted to go to Les Halles because I read that it was a food market.  Sure enough the covered market was full of various vendors.  We found a traiteur and got some food for that night.  It included a blanquette de veau (veal stew), moussaka and some braised vegetables.  A veritable feast for later. 

Dancing in Les Halles

Then it was a walk to find the Pont d’Avignon of which there is a song that Graham had as an earworm.  I almost had the direction right but managed be a bit off course.  On the way to the Pont we came across a fellow on an unusual looking bike.  We ended up chatting with him as his English was quite good.  The bike was loaded down and he said that it weighed about 57kg and with him on board it was 109 kilogrammes.  He was going to ride the bike up Mont Ventoux which is a ride of about 20 kms at an average gradient of 7.8%.  He has to be close to superman.  Then he was going continue up to Grenoble to  do some of the alpine passes.  He told us that he had ridden from Alaska down to Nova Scotia.  We estimated he was in his forties perhaps a bit younger. 

The cyclist
Compared to the Pont du Gard the Pont d’Avignon was only half a bridge as the other bits had been washed away by Rhone floods in the preceding centuries.  

Avignon had been the home of the Popes for about seventy years and there is a rather grand palace that was their home during that time.  We did not visit it but instead found a Fete d’Italie where food and wine was to be sampled and bought. 

Despite it being a bit cool we decided it was nice enough to sit down and have a glass of wine.  We also had some gnocchi to line our stomachs.  While Bev and Graham were sitting there a couple of young woman sat down at the  same table.  They heard our conversation and asked where we came from. We found out that they were from the south of Spain, Marbella and somewhere near Cordoba.  They were on holiday and were visiting Marseille, Avignon, Nimes and Carcassonne.  They commented that they found food and wine very expensive in France which has been our experience.  It was nice talking to some different people to get their perspectives of the world. 

A little later a group provided some musical entertainment but the rain arrived so we did not linger for long. 

 

The Rhone

Musical Entertainment


Fete d'Italie

People in medieval dress - not sure why




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Choosing where to go next (28 October 2024)

Image
  Canal St-Martin There is so much to see in Paris, which makes for an almost overwhelming number of places to choose from.   Graham had what he called “crikey” moments where something would just take his breath away.   The Pont du Gard was one of those moments but he had many more so the challenge was to find at least one on our last full day in Paris.     We were keen to go to Belleville which is the highest point in Paris and Graham had picked up a book in the apartment with graphic photos of its former self before and after it had been redeveloped in the 1970s and later.   The view from there on a good day is excellent as you can see the city laid out with its various landmarks.   It   was quite misty when we left but we still decided to go. Parc de Belleville   We entered through the Parc de Bellville and climbed to the lookout point.   The Eiffel Tower was not visible due to the mist but as it was coffee t...
Read more

Frankfurt am Main

Image
Looking toward the CBD We woke early and found that our apartment had a wide and expansive balcony that gave us a view from the west to the east.   It was a nice outlook.     Apartments' courtyard View from the balconey of apartment It was over twelve hours since we had last eaten and Bev wanted breakfast so we went looking for a place in the local area settling on a bakery/café.   The food was carb heavy but it did the trick.   (Comment from Bev: Yum! – there will be a few of these added comments throughout as she edits my blog)   Our tram stop - cycle lane on my right Just before we left New Zealand I had a message from Deutsche Bahn to tell me that the train we were going on from Prague had been cancelled and we had to find another way of travelling.   The website was optimised for German speakers of course so I think the translated version was not as clear.   I thought the easiest way to deal with it was to go to Fra...
Read more

The Causeway Coastal Route (2 November 2024)

Image
Carrickfergus Castle It was very damp when we departed for Derry/Londonderry, taking the Coastal route there.   Normally this would be done when going to the Giant’s Causeway but we had not managed to do so.     The first stop was Carrickfergus Castle about 20 minutes out of Belfast.   It is a Norman castle that was built in 1147 on a rock that has fresh water available.   Over succeeding centuries it was much modified to become the fortress that it is today.   It was a central player in the wars of control of Ulster.   Initially it was the main centre of Ulster but eventually in the 1700 and 1800s the centre moved to Belfast.   Halloween display in the Keep   We paid the small fee to have a look around.   It was interesting to go into a very different kind of castle to those we had visited in France.   The idea was the same but execution was different.     In the main Keep which is the large...
Read more