Day 7: Lauterbrunnen to Avignon

Our group taking over the karaoke bar in Avignon
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The alarm goes off at 6, and I take my ½ Franc shower…although apparently one of the showers was giving away free hot water…damn. A basic breakfast of cereal and toast is at 7, and after clean up and a group photo, we hit the road at about 8.  It’s a quiet trip - almost everyone sleeps until our first rest stop as usual. Wellsy (aka The Rat) gets Donkey of the Day hands down for being “I.P. Freely” the other night. We have our picnic lunch of ravioli, some weird potatoes, salads, etc. at a French road stop, and Wellsy proudly displays his orange safety vest.

Hostel in Avignon
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After lunch, we watch “Coming to America” (Eddie Murphy) which is good for killing some time. We also get a few nominees for the trip song – Danger Zone, Life is a Highway, the Baywatch theme, All Night Long and some Paul Simon song. The bus runs into some bad traffic in the afternoon, and we don’t get to Avignon until after 5. We check into our hostel where we are in an 8-share room which is very cramped, but at least it has a large balcony and we are only there for one night. We are warned that we must keep the room locked at ALL times as theft is fairly common here – quite different from the nice little Swiss campground we were just at!

That guy needed to drop his pants to beat me.

Avignon
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At 6, Tori takes us into Avignon for a short walking tour. The city is pretty cool as it is still surrounded by the wall built several hundred years ago when the Popes decided to make their home here for a while. We see the broken St. Benezet Bridge and the very impressive Palace of the Popes.  We decide not to actually go into the palace as it costs 9.50 and we don’t have that much time to really see it. A theatre festival is just getting started in the city (like the Fringe in Edmonton) so we get to take in a few street performers who are giving previews of their shows – kinda cool although we have no idea what any of them are saying! (one involves some swordfighting which needs no translation).

Pont St-Benezet, Avignon
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Dinner is at 8 back at the hostel\campground, where Benny has got burritos waiting for us. Several people had picked up wine and beer in the city and we manage to mooch some. The beer is in tiny 25 cl bottles (that’s 250 mL – they actually use cl over there), so they go down quickly. The tortilla shells are enormous and I can only manage 1 ½ before I’m stuffed.  Tori announces she’ll be taking people into Avignon for karaoke at 9:30 so we have a bit of time to get ready (and enjoy a couple more beers).

Ancient walls of Avignon
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We head out with Tori and PJ in the lead. The city is very busy for the festival and there is lots of activity in the streets, with various buskers looking for attention. We get to “L’Americain”, and quickly settle in on the outside patio with drinks as it is way too hot inside.  Our group is large enough to essentially take over the whole outside. The “toilet” at this bar only has a couple urinals and a sink, so the girls have to go to somewhere down the street. However, we have lots of fun at the bar, with many French and English songs being performed (no French by us though!). Jeff attempts a Queen song, the highlight of which is the air guitar performed during the solo in the middle. He is called upon for air guitar duties for the remainder of the night. Jeff and Renato also do Losing My Religion later, which is more in Jeff’s vocal range.

Avignon
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Some singing highlights are Bruce performing A Whole New World (a duet) by himself, Kat and the Rat doing Baby One More Time (hitting those high notes), and the Aussie guys doing a group rendition of Daddy Cool. Ting and I put in Should I Stay or Should I Go, but it doesn’t come up by the time we leave (probably for the best). At one point, a bacholerette party comes in, but their group cannot hope to compete with ours in terms in rowdiness and noise, so we kind of upstage them. With some prodding, Jimmy goes up and dances with the bride to be, to the amusement of all.

Theatre in Avignon
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Later on in the night, a crazy French guy (from one of the theater shows I can only presume) shows up in an England jersey, a multicolored hat, and makeup to make him look like he’s been beat up. He also carries a green “gimp mask” which he puts on and scares some of the girls. He hangs around, generally acting weird for a while, then starts dancing in the center of our tables. Kenny stands up and gets into a sort of “dance off” with him, giving us a first glimpse of his superior moves. Eventually he is forced to give up when the French guy pulls down his shorts and whips out fuzzy handcuffs which he wants to put on Kenny. He later remarks “That guy needed to drop his pants to beat me”.

Palais des Papes (Palace of the Popes)
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By this time, a large group of onlookers had gathered to watch the shenanigans, and we are crowded out of our area by the French people. It’s about 1 and we decide to take off. We wander the long way through Avignon back to the camp area – some go off to drink more by the river, but most (including us) head to the hostel to crash. Someone had decided to puke in one of the bathroom sinks, which is a nice surprise for us when we get back. Just before bed, Wellsy comes looking for his mates, doesn’t find them, and wanders off with a bottle of wine. The night is still young for him…