On Saturday, me and K-bird went to Avignon.
where in the world is avignon?
about one hour from aix
After a small bit of confusion over bus tickets, we took the 11:30a bus from Aix, arriving in Avignon around 12:30p. If you remember our impression of the Avignon gare routière (bus station) on our way to Barcelona, you're probably surprised that we ever voluntarily returned. It was still gross and creepy! But that's not where we were hanging out for the day - and certainly not what the rest of the town was like!
eerily empty for a saturday
strings of christmas lights and a closed market
avignon hotel de ville
Avignon began as a medieval city and its walls are still standing, encompassing the centre ville and oldest part of the town. Here is a bit more history about the walls, and some photos (I didn't take any :/ ).
outside the entrance; palais neuf
main courtyard; here, the pope would wave, acknowledging his admirers who came to acclaim him
When they returned to the Vatican, the Palais was still used by the "antipopes" until 1433; it then changed hands and purposes numerous times, deteriorating more and more over the years, until in 1906 when it became a museum; in 1995 the Palais became recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site (as all the best things are: Stonehenge, Pingvellir National Park, etc.); and is constantly going through renovations and construction.
When I said the Palais is immense, I really meant it! We spent probably close to two hours walking around the place. With your admission, you get a handheld, touchscreen audio tour that blandly tells you each and every detail about all the rooms, floors, paintings, and cracks in the walls in a bored British accent. Needless to say, it got old pretty fast, although I did learn a lot!
k-bird listening to her audio tour
behind her is a fireplace that takes up the entire wall
the "cloister" courtyard. the silver bell was used to announce important ceremonies, events, and meals. i like to think that meals count as both an important ceremony and event.
classic gothic arches in the courtyard
k-bird sitting behind the arched windows, overlooking the courtyard
what a cutie :)
stained glass windows in the main dining hall (below)
the massive dining hall, 500 metres long, used to have a deep blue ceiling decorated with gold stars to represent the heavens - how very harry potter of them.
tallest chimney i've ever seen; this was the kitchen, where they cooked on a hearth that took up the whole floor
the main chapel, where all the most important ceremonies took place
getting some fresh air on the roof!
views from the top of the palais roof
We had tickets to go see the famous Pont Saint-Bénézet, as in the French nursery rhyme that goes "sur le pont d'Avignon."
Buuut... it was still raining, so we went off in search of a café.
Instead, we walked around - in the rain! - before finally finding a bakery. Everything was closed for some unknown reason and there were no people in the streets (at least, not where we were). We attributed this to the French (and European) tendency to close down from 2p-4p (14h-16h), but it was unfortunate that we didn't get to see the town in action and had to walk around in the grey rain.
The bakery we found was great! We each got a quiche lorraine (they heated it up - yum!) and some coffee. They also had bread art all over the place!
By this time, things were opening up again. We got really lost trying to make it to the main streets, and by the time we did, we were wet and cold again. After picking up a few (damp) postcards as souvenirs, we found a café near the Hotel de Ville we had passed earlier and had a drink while it got dark outside.
[photo credit: @katiekomnenich]
[photo credit: @katiekomnenich]
The town looked pretty at night, especially since everything was still shiny from the rain! But it was time to go back to the scary bus station and head home to Aix on the 6:45p bus.
Despite the rain and the unusual amount of walking we did, I had a fun time in Avignon :) It was great to spend time with K-bird and catch up on life, and also to see more of France. Even though it's been fun to travel around Europe the past few weekends, this is the country I'm studying in.
I also saw another one of those 8-bit cthulu guys - that's three times now! Thoroughly astounded, I decided to do a bit of internet poking. After playing around with different Google search terms (ending with "small mosaic street art europe 2012"), I found this page on Wikipedia, which explained everything.
Apparently, the art project is called Space Invaders and began in 1998 in Paris, which explains why I've seen the "invaders" (not cthulu) in La Ciotat and in Brussels, but has since spread around the world by the French artist known as Invader. Who knew?!
xxo, S
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