Day 32: Avignon

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Exit out of Marseille with little confidence of us actually getting out without getting lost. Our hotel had a small swimming pool for us to cool off last night after another hot day. Last night Will, out of desperation, frustration, road trauma, roads laided out by the blind institute, marital harmony and Billly picking up on some colourful language saved the trip by purchasing a GPS (Global Positioning System) for navigation. After initially setting it up (my concern was it was going to talk in French!!) it didn’t work. For those of you who know Will & technology really well you can use your imagination how frustrated he became. The damned thing wasn’t getting signal in the car. So we crawled out of the city somehow figuring out how to attach the GPS outside the car. Kimmy’s da Vinci left handed genius moment involved taking a sock off, putting the GPS in the sock, wedging it outside a wound up wind and IT WORKS!!! GPS means we don’t read road signs..it accurately tells us when to turn and distances to turn. It is now our best friend working in a smelly sock.

Billy is missing kids, and the language barrier is hard. He loves his tammagotchi and loves us reading your comments re news and cupcakes!! It sounds like he has quite a few theme park buddies.

We arrived at a gorgeous town called Avignon which is housed behind some high old brick walls. Avignon streets are cobblestoned and narrow, with shops, boutiques, cafes and more shops. No car parking easily, so we now hunt out parking depots that are secure and maneuverable. We are very good at arriving at festival times so we had plenty of street theatre happening which we happily joined in….well they will never see us again! Avignon has a magnficent antique merry go round. All this made Avignon very special and one of our favourite places. Have a look yourself guys…www.avignon-tourisme.com Shopping heaven for us shoppers and more bargains. No shoes for Kimmy yet though. The province lotions and produce smelled wonderful as you walk passed shop doorways. Lots of squirts and testers girls!! Add this to our towns-to-shop along with Venice!!

Of course Avignon’s main feature is the Papal Palace in the centre of the town, dating back to 1300s when it was the residence of early popes. The palace was quite humble and airey, unlike the elaborate Vatican with all its gold and grand features. It did suffer a fire at an early stage. The Palace had talking audio radio gizmos that you press buttons to correspond with the room you enter; this was a big hit with Billy/son of Mr Technology…speaking in English and summarizing information. Can you imagine a 5 year old telling me about the black plague of death.or take a look out the two windows on the left that overlook…….at the top of his voice. He had great fun!!

The day moved on with a trip through the provincial farm and orchard towns and wineries. Trees laden heavily with pears, apricots, nectarines and peaches around every turn. I must share with you my no-dish stewed peaches recipe. Take three chilled peaches in a plasticbag in your backpack to Rome and Vatican city on a day that is atleast 35oC. Forget about them for atleast five hours. Sit ontop of a tour bus in full sun, open your backpack, remind yourself what a dumb-dumb you are .but waste nothing!! Lean down below seat/embarrassment level and slurp the whole lot, spilling hot juice all over your white top! Wrap mess in map of Rome and chuck in bin as you exit the bus. Delicious..and did I say NO DISHES??

Next stop was the Pont du Gard which was a grand historical park with a huge bridge and aquaduct which was a swimming hole with high cliffs for crazy teenagers to bomb off. Many families were picnicing, paddling and in a vast river and deep swimming holes, but due to the size of the area so the area, it was very peaceful. The site is classified by UNESCO World heritage and has areas for concerts. We loved this place and did I mention the icecream in France is great!!

In the town of Nimes went entered a Roman Temple and Theatre La Maison Carree De Nimes. This gave Billy an excellent presentation in 3D of what amphitheatres were used for historically commencing with gladiators, medieval jousting, sword fighting and gunfights, and bull fighting. Amazing and pretty scary with a huge jousting pole coming full at you….no wonder Billy ducked and Will attempted to wrestle it off the fighter!!

Merrily we put on the Queen CD for Billy for the 48^th time this road trip and now we know all the words. Confidently we headed into Millau with atleast 10 hotels listed. It was 8.00pm. We spent up until 12 midnight finding a hotel and parking while Kimmy did her begging for a room. Most hotels had a sticky taped sign stuck on the window saying hotel complet meaning full. Fortunately one kind hotelier rang a place 10kms out in a little village called du Bois du Four. He spoke French and gave the phone to me as I wrote down the directions, highways numbers, turns and obvious French words that probably appear on wine bottles, a phone number and the door code to let ourselves in. We had dinner at a place that didn’t have Happy Meals called the Pouncho which near tops our search for a top pizza…Kimmy’s drowning in mozzarella and veggies, Will’s loaded with bacon, onions, mozzarella and melted blue cheese, Billy’s chips bigger than the plate.

Billy fell asleep while we followed our scribbles to our village after midnight with no problems. It was the village! A magic night with an Australian star filled sky, cool crisp air and dead silence. Kimmy took off with her piece of paper to hunt out the front door, despite the flying bats and no light, and code it open. They had left a lovely note personally and the room key!! Such luck as we haven’t yet had to sleep in the Peugeot but this was close!!