Gotta go... Europe!!

Day 3 - April 9

Got up early to take the train into Avignon. Do you remember the old children's song about Avignon? "Sur le pont d'Avignon, l'on y danse l'on y danse"? No worries, I bought a music box thing with the song in case you can't figure out what I'm referring to haha! Well the song does actually talk about this little town in the south of France.

The town is contained within a city wall, which reminded me of my visit to Xi'an, China. Quite small in size, Ev and I wandered from one end of town to the other in a matter of minutes, except for the incessant stopping to take photographs and browsing through stree merchants, etc. Since it was Sunday, many stores wree closed, but the market was open. In the market I had the most sumptuous paella ever, and the merchant was very kind and helpful, especially as I stumbled over my long forgotten french vocabulary in trying to order food. Regretfully, we failed to take a photo with him, as whenever Ev thinks of Avignon, she now pictures him in her mind! To no surprize, I still think about the yummy paella!

Le pont d'Avignon refers to the bridge built to go over the Rhone river. It was the first river to be built across that river, but half of it was washed away during a flood. Thus you can only go out half-way now. We didn't have time to go out onto the pont, as we spent time in the stores, as well as in the open square near le palais des papes. This castle was where the popes lived during the war. We didn't go in, but it was fun taking pics of the people and surroundings in that area. Plus it was Palm Sunday, and we got there just as service ended, and tons of people came out of the church with palm branches.

We wanted to go to the Pont du Gard as well, which is the oldest Roman aqueduct, but the tour times didn't work out, so we won't get to go there. We trained back to Marseille, and walked around the Vieux Port. We were supposed to take a boat tour to Chateau d'If, which is where the Man in the Iron Mask was incarcerated, but the tour was all full by the time we tried to buy tickets. So instead we walked around the Vieux Port to the two old forts on either side of the port. Gorgeous view. Watched the sun set again, and tooks lots of pics of course!

Had an early night. Went home to actually plan out the itinerary for the rest of the trip! Looks like we'll be in Switzerland for a few days, though Turin likely won't happen. In general, the conclusion is that there is very little to do in European cities on Sundays!

~ JCL 21:52 - Genova, Italy

posted by JCL @ 3:52 p.m.