Avignon

Day 6: Tueday 18th

Ok, so we spent today in Arles. We wandered the beautiful streets and checked out lots of Roman ruins. It's a lovely city which was walled once and has lots of history - from Roman through Medieval and through to recent. Van Gogh spent some time here before he went mad & moved on to St Remy, so there are lots of locations which he painted - Starry night over the Rhone is a famous one for example - we walked by the location (and had lunch actually) from where they think he painted it. We also checked out the Les Arens - a Roman Ampitheatre built around the late 1st or early 2nd century. It's still used for events these days - mostly bullfighting! Also in the afternoon we went to some Roman Baths (Theres de Constantin) which were really interesting. Then later in the day we went to Les Alyscamps, which is a large necropolis with some lovely buildings and a walkway lined with coffin shaped concrete boxes!!

Day 7: Wednesday 19th Sept

We had an average night with lots of wind, and that probably should have put us off cycling today but it didn't. We rode north towards Avignon but had a pretty horrible journey, getting lost and ending up on the main road in horrendsly strong headwinds which almost blew us off the road!! We managed to get off the road after a few km, but it was pretty challenging still on the smaller roads. We ended up in Tarascon, and had lunch before catching the train the rest of the way to Avignon. Getting on the train with two fully laden bikes and a bike trailer was another big challenge! We were very lucky to have help from a french girl & her father who helped us lift them (and remove wheels from trailer) onto the train, and then she helped us off at the other end. It taught us that we'll need to be prepared for future train journeys a little better!!! Anyway, we made it to the beautiful walled city of Avignon where we checked into our first hotel of the trip (a pretty little place within the walls of the city and a few mintues stroll to all the major sites!). We had a short wander after cleaning the dust off us (from the wind!!) and found some fabulous churches (around every second corner practically!!). In the evening we discovered a great little restaurant on the Place de l'Horloge where Angus got a 'menu' and i just got a main, - the food was fabulous and generous!! The dessert was a provencial special i think - lavender infused mousse with honey cream - very yummy!!

Day 8: Thursday 20th

Ah, sleeping in a real bed! Fantastic!
Today we went to the local market for breakfast of Pain au rasin, Pain au chocolat, banana & 2 short coffees each, leaning on a bar... fantastic! Then we grabbed some lunch at the markets before going to do our washing & then wandering around the town. We went to the tourist office and had a chat to a fellow cyclist who recommended a route from a town about 30km SE from here - through a natural park area, so we will probably look into doing this... Then we had lunch looking at the grand but not beautiful Palais de Papes, built by about 9 popes when Avignon was more important to the Catholic Church - it was bulit during the 14th century and was intended as a fortified palace for the pontifical court, and is the largest Gothic palace in the world. We also went to the Musee Angladon which is a collection of art bought by a fashion designer, Jacques Doucet and also 18th century furniture and other objects. It was really interesting & enjoyable ;-) Then we found the local English language bookshop so Angus would have some reading material, and just enjoyed walking the small streets through Avignon. We havn't actually seen the bridge yet, but plan to do that tomorrow before we head out of town (or stay another night in the campground across the river - yet to be decided!