Avignon, City of Popes

I told you yesterday that today would be the day for us to see Avignon. And that we did. I just didn't expect to see it while searching out the police station and the right cigarette dealer. But maybe I'm getting ahead of myself.

We started the day by packing out our stuff from the apartment to the car, so we would be out of the apartment by checkout time, and then we'd be free to explore Avignon on foot, leaving the car in its free parking area. Upon reaching the car, I discovered under the wiper a formal notice that no, this wasn't free parking, and I could pay for that discovery at the municipal police department. Unfortunately, the address given wasn't on our GPS database, so some driving around asking for directions was required. Once inside the AMPD (Avignon Municipal Police Department), the very nice receptionist informed me that no, there were no English speakers around but my French sounded adequate to her. She explained that I had to go to the "Tabac" across the street to pay the fine, no big deal, and we could even leave our car in the AMPD visitor lot. So off we went. Sorry, this tobacconist said, we don't do that any more, try the one half a kilometre down the street. Sorry, this one also said, try the one in the main plaza, another half a klick farther on. Here we succeeded, paid the fine, and by this time it was lunchtime. After lunch, we were close enough to go ahead and visit the Palace of the Popes.

During the period 1309-1377 the popes of the Catholic church, all French, held court in Avignon, not Rome. To accommodate their needs, suitable housing was needed. This is a glimpse of what is left of it today.

We've seen a lot of indicators of ancient city walls in France, but we were surprised to see that Avignon's wall is still alive and well. It still encloses the old city and one has only a handful of gates to enter and leave by. Once again, the contrast between 13th century and 21st is vivid:

All over France, but apparently more so here in Avignon, there is a certain cleverness in dressing up a building's exterior when a full-on restoration isn't in the cards. Here, for instance is an example of what you can do with a window that's been filled in for some reason:

And sometimes the whole front of the building needs a little life. Look closely at the man sitting on the ledge.

So having had lunch, visited the Palace of the Popes, and captured some building art, we headed back to the AMPD where our car had been sitting in visitor parking for about four hours. It dawned on us that it just might be possible that not everyone there would recognize us or know why two tourists were ambling into the visitor lot. I desperately wanted to get a photo of the look on the officer who was wondering exactly that, but grabbing my camera somehow just didn't seem like the right thing to do. Fortunately, he (and his buddies) were not waiting for us on the way out, so off we headed to Lyon.

On the way, Anita received a nice gift. I said yesterday that we were too early for the lavender, but that seems to have been true only close to Avignon. About an hour's drive toward Lyon, suddenly Anita shouted and snapped up the camera and started firing away. This was her going-away present from Provence:

So we have arrived in Lyon, the second largest city in France, and allegedly the gastronomic capital of France, and therefore arguably, of the world. We'll have a look at Old Lyon and let you know what we find.