Avignon, yep I still like the place... Oh and news from the girls..

Hi All

Well I have been in Avignon 2 days now and it is a nice town, has some lovely little areas that you just come upon by chance, and some awesome views. The old town (where I am, and the major part of Avignon) is surrounded by a wall, you can walk on it if you want to, but it costs, I am not sure how much as I haven't done it yet. There is a Palace of the Pope here, apparently back in the whatever years Rome was too dangerous for the Pope so for about a hundred years he lived here (well not the same Pope obviously, the dude would be really old. But the proceeding ones did for all those years). The outside was impressive so I was going to go in and look around, but the place appeared closed. I later read a report that said it wasn't worth visiting anyway as all the Papal stuff had been removed and it is empty, so probably wont go back, I have seen enough old buildings for now. I wandered about a bit and found a lovely garden further up, with fantastic views, I shall post some pics for you to see.


Part of the Pope Palace, taken from the square. I have no idea why the elephant is balancing on his trunk.


But here he is again..


The place is really crowded as you can imagine with all the festival and plays going on. They have literally covered the town with flyers for all the different plays going on, it is amazing, you can bearly see some of the buildings for posters.


There is a lamp post hidden under there, somewhere...


And a building..

It does stink though.... It is one really smelly city, mostly of urine and dog poo. You really have to watch were you step. The city is comprised of lots of little streets, we would call them lane ways really, they are tiny, and they all have nooks and cranny's and they just smell. I don't think they have public toilets, I haven't seen any and I use my apartment, so I am guessing that all the men just use the street. French people tend to throw a lot of rubbish on the ground, they never put their cigarette out, just throw them into the street, like the British do. It is amazing, back home people would so yell at you, they can't have too many bush fires over here, they all do it. When I was in Amiens they had a market when I arrived and straight after the market the cleaners moved it, they removed all the rubbish from the street, the next morning the street sweepers came along and removed any small bits that were overlooked. Some French cities really take cleaning up seriously and with everyone throwing stuff everywhere I guess they have to. This morning I heard a truck in the small street outside my window, when I looked out there was a council dude pulling a hose out of the back his truck to wash out the little nook in my street. He closed the back of the truck on the hose so he only got a sharp burst and then just a trickle, undaunted he just gave it a quick flick around, threw some disinfectant around and left.... Yep he does a mighty job, that dude. Never mind the city tries, they just need to educate the citizens, or put in more urinals. Speaking of urinals, okay you weren't, I'm gunna anyway. They have shared public toilets over here and when you enter, the urinals are like right there!! Right there, outside the cubicle, I couldn't believe it, I was really concerned that once I left the cubicle there would be some French dude there just doin' his thing. I mean right there in front of everyone, how does that work?? Yuck!!!

I have decided that my dislike of the French folk to date has been caused by 2 things, the weight of my luggage, which put me in a bad mood when travelling far and also their lack of signage on everything... So when I am rested and in a good mood I don't find them half as annoying, except the lack of sign thing, that still p's me off. When I was talking to the lovely lady on the train, I lied to her, she asked me how I had found the French people and I said really nice, yeah I know I will burn in hell, but she was so nice I didn't want to hurt her feelings. Anyway she perked up at that and said "I am so glad, mostly people say the French are very rude." Well what a shock... well at least it isn't all me and my heavy luggage.

I have found one thing that I really do like about the French, yeah fancy that, one thing!! They are incredibly accepting of other cultures and races. I mean lots of countries rave about multiculturalism, but these people don't just talk the talk, they walk the walk. Really, I have noticed it everywhere, if you see a group of more than say 3 or 4 people it almost always includes at least one Muslim or a person with really dark skin, as in African descent, quite often more than one. There are many inter relationships but also I think a lot of adoption as the parents are not the same colour as the children, or at least one of the children. All the young groups of teenagers I see are multicultural, I mean it is really obvious, maybe because I come from a county town and we do not have that many different cultures so it doesn't stand out the same, but it is really obvious to me and I think it is brilliant. You gotta respect them for that. All countries could take a lesson from France on that, that all folk are equal, but not the sign thing, God forbid if anyone follows them in that.

One out of every French man I see is carrying at least 2 Baguettes (french bread stick). I am wondering if it is for the tourist benefit and they just walk a block and hand them to another dude that is walking back the same way, and the 2 baguettes just get passed all over town. I mean they can't all need two baguettes can they? It is all very French looking and I am thinking of carrying mine around when I go out and about.

Kearie has finally emailed me!!! They are having a ball, she said that they have met tons of great people and are really enjoying themselves, so that is great. I wasn't sure how they would take to the bus tour as neither has been on anything like it before, but they are loving it. Apparently they had paid for an hour on internet use and were sharing it, so I only got a quick email, but she sounded fine and said they were both happy and healthy and that is all I need to hear.

I shall leave you with some pics of Avignon and you can judge for yourselves.

Later guys

Lones


In the park near the Palace, lovely spot.


Try to avaoid this bridge if you are heading home after one too many!!


More of the lovely park. It was quite large and had plenty of statues too.


You gotta love foreign grocerys, look at all that healthy stuff!! It can be quite difficult finding things when you have no idea what they are called. Washing pawder was a nightmare, but not as hard as using a front loading washing machine for the first time, with all the writing on the machine in French.. That was a challenge.


Near the tourist office...