a beautiful day under the sun in avignon, france

On to my third week of grad classes! It's not that bad......but soon I might regret those words @____@

On to my travel post!

After my lovely trip during the Toussaint week, I was all for going out again and seeing new places. It just so happens that during the second week of November we were relatively free so one of my study abroad friends, Elliot and I planned a trip to Avignon, located in the Provence, in Southern France. We had heard about how beautiful Provence was so we were eager to see it ourselves. Needless to say, it was definitely not a disappointment and the beauty of Provence was mesmerizing.

We almost missed the train because Elliot slept in :) But we made it just in time, and all was well. I definitely slept on the train, but also was able to enjoy the views of the French countryside as we entered Provence province. It was an unusually warm day for November; probably somewhere in the mid to upper 60 F, the perfect day to be out for an excursion. After stepping out of the train station, which was right next to the city walls, we slowly made our way into the city. 

I'll briefly describe Avignon. Avignon is a nice medival town, located near the Rhone river, in the south of France. It is also known as the City of Popes. Back in the days, there were many popes and antipopes who fought for power. Avignon is a city where those popes lived. Beautiful city with charming streets.

Entrance of Avignon

The counterpart to Lyon's Velo'v: Velopop

Since we got there closer to lunch time, we thought we'd stop at a restaurant and eat a delicious 3 course meal. And of course after the meal, both of us got a café, which seems pretty standard to us by then; having a coffee after every meal.

Foooood

salad

dessert

dessert

After lunch was over, we began our tour of Avignon. By that time, the weather has noticably gotten warmer and it was just perfect.

Palais des Papes

Courtyard of Palais des papes

To get inside the palace of Popes, which is now a museum, it costs us....8,50 euros per person. Well worth the price.

See the resemblance? hehe

Apparently, the pope liked big halls.

Overlooking the courtyard

another gigantic hall

The fancy way to the bathroom

 So across the Rhone river, there was another place to visit. The boat ride over there is free, so Elliot and I decided to go and enjoy the view. It was amazing and so beautiful.

Pont d'Avignon

The pont d'Avignon was orignally built in the 12th century. It was destroyed in 1226 by the crusades. Many attempts have been made to rebuild it, but because the Rhone river kept on flooding, efforts were abandonned. To get on the bridge, the cost is 5 euros, but Elliot and I figured since we can already see the bridge, there was no point in paying 5 euros to get on it. We were already happy to be on a free boat ride to cross the river.

On the other side of Avignon

Pont

Beautiful day.

Galarie des horlages

After crossing another bridge to get back to the city center, we stopped by a café and had another cup of coffee. I got a crepe :) Couldn't resist that. It's so nice to randomly walk around without a known destination. After wandering around streets, we finally found our way back to the train station. Right before we got to the train station, some random guy stopped us in the streets asking me if I were Chinese and that there were some chinese journalists or someone here in Avignon doing some interviews. That was random. So there was our trip to Avignon. We got on that train back to Lyon dreaming about the next trip ---- to Italy!