Mon Dieu what a difference a continental flight can make

From my hotel in Avignon
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It was a ferry ride to Pireus.  A metro to Athens.  Overnight at a hostel for 11 euro.  A long metro ride to the airport.  I managed to get a 60 euro ticket for having purchased the wrong metro ticket to go to the airport.  I am supposed to call them in 20 days.  Yeah, right.  I ain't never going back to your stinking country.  So there.  Caught an EasyJet flight to Paris.

EasyJet is notable for having open seating which means get in line fast and push your way to the front.  The crew dress in orange mattress pads and charge beaucoup euro for all drink and food.  Bring your own is the message here.

The front of the farm house we are staying at
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Landed in Paris and was able to figure out my way to the Gare de Lyon with the helpful folks and I Am not being cynical here, at the airport.  A woman in line behind me pointed out the stops on the map I needed to take.  Got a ticket for Avignon leaving in one hour.  I was able to walk across the courtyard and eat my first pate on bagette.  Then the TGV fast train took me to Avignon in two hours.

I was meeting up with some Eugene folks who have rented a house outside the town.  I ended up catching a bus into town and tried to communicate with two older British women who in stereotypic fashion said 5 words to me and turned back to their own boring observations of traffic.  I got off the bus and was looking at a map when this rumpled fellow who had been on the bus came up.  I got to talking with him and found out he was an Aussie on a 12 day walkabout and had just flown in from Melbourne.

fake swiss guard at the entrance of the Palais de Pape
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Peter the Aussie and I ended up having dinner and a fun conversation on travel and our two countries.  He called up at my hotel the next morning and we had breakie as they say before my friend Karin came to pick me up.

She took me to the farm house which turns out to be really beautiful.  Owned by a gay couple who moved here from Canada.  They have refurbished and added buildings, a pool and a truly lovely herbaceous garden.  A dream place really.  There are 8 people including moi in the party of Eugenites staying here.

Inside the palace cloister
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We are eating and drinking appropriately to the country and having a lot of laughs.

I took off today to come into town and see the Palais des Pape.  The home of 7 popes from the early 1300's until the early 1400's.  The ticket price included a handheld guide which taught me a lot about papal history of this time.  Trouble with kings made the papal court move and eventually settle in Avignon.  So the city became a repository of church wealth and largesse during a century full of war and plague.

Dead Pope's Society
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I had a nicoise salad and a glass of wine for almost 20 euro (yes, that is expensive) and headed to the Petit Palace where there is a big collection of 13th and 14th century art.

I made a bus connection at the end of the day to return to the mas or farmhouse.  My compatriots were drinking wine and eating cheese and bread.  We were all feeling very Francaise.