well, first things first. france is awesome.
i’m not nearly as tired tonight after getting maybe the best night’s sleep of my entire life last night. i think i could have slept through a freaking tornado. ah, wonderful jet lag-curing sleep.
today we went to avignon, which is about 60 kilometers from where he lives aix-en-provence. because the bus and train would have taken something like two hours to get there, and because they weren’t that much cheaper than taking the tgv (Train a Grande Vitesse, translated to mean train at great speed), we decided to go for the thrill factor. we hopped on the tgv, reached a top speed of something like 200 kilometers per hour, and were in avignon 20 minutes later. woohoo!
the day was lousy because it was both cold and raining, but fortunately it was only a light rain, and i had a coat and hat and scarf.
(shameless plug: go see some pictures we took today at nick’s page du jour, where i am the week’s guest author.)
so anyway, in avignon we first stopped at a cafe for some pizza and then headed to the palais des papes (palace of the popes), where the catholic church was headquartered during the 14th century. it was nice to see, with many large rooms and decorative windows (with window seats) overlooking the rest of the town. the prettiest room was the chapel, with its stained glass and stone buttresses.
we left the palais des papes and found our way to the pont st. bezenet, better known simply as the pont d’avignon. we had a couple australians take our picture after we danced on the bridge. see, there is a little sing-song that goes “sur le pont d’avignon, l’on y danse l’on y danse, sur le pont d’avignon, l’on y danse tous en ronde” that my mom sang for me a few days ago when i mentioned we were going to go to avignon. i had never heard it, but nick also knew it! as a result, i have had it stuck in my head all day and have been singing, singing, singing. we even saw a little girl in the pizza cafe who was singing it to her parents; it was the most adorable thing i think i have ever seen.
from the bridge, we walked along the rampart and up the hill into the gardens behind the palais. we were enjoying the views when suddenly we saw about 5 geese in a perfect single file line walking up a ramp. we both thought it was amusing, so we walked up to head them off and get a picture. we caught up with them at the shore of a little pond and were laughing when one of the geese stuck out his neck and started walking toward us. i moved off to the side, but nick stood in place and looked at the goose and said jokingly “what are you gonna do, bite me?”
and the goose bit him!! it walked right up and nipped the top of his foot! i don’t think either of us realized that the duck was actually going to get him until it was too late. but it didn’t hurt nick, and it had me laughing for the next 5 minutes. in fact, we are still laughing about it tonight. maybe you had to be there, but it was absolutely hilarious. nick’s only comment on the situation? “freaking duck. we have to go back to avignon so i can show it who’s boss. animal rights, my foot.”
anyway. after the unprovoked duck attack, we stopped at a cafe for some coffee and tea, and then wandered the streets of avignon until it was time to catch the bus from centre ville back to the tgv station, and then the tgv back to aix. we had a delicious dinner of shewarma sandwiches from an arabic restaurant. nick has been there before, so the guy making the sandwiches was happy to talk to him in this strange combination of arabic and french. i didn’t understand any of it, but c’est la vie, n’est-ce pas?
so, at the moment, i am dutifully updating my diary and nick is sitting next to me sewing straps onto his new ballet shoes. and we are listening to opera. hmm.
it has been a great day. not sure what we’re up to tomorrow, but i get to sleep late while nick goes to class in the morning, then i will probably tag along to his late afternoon classes. in between, i think we’re going to a scenic overview of aix. yay!
