Town of Avignon

The decision to visit Provence came in a spur of a moment. Linda invited us for weekend trip to visit the Lavender fields which just recently bloomed in Provence. We jumped at the opportunity, bought our tickets 2 days later and was on our flight to Provence that same weekend. We hired a car and drove through 5 towns in Provence in 2 days. It was one of the best weekend trips ever.

On our arrival in Marseilles late Friday night, we picked up our car and drove to the city centre to spend the night. The next day, we began our 1.5 hour drive to Avignon. With just our iphone compass, and our general sense of direction we managed to arrive at Avignon without getting lost. Amazingly, this set the tone throughout our weekend drive as we navigated like the locals on the road. Andy had quite a bit of getting use to driving on the other side of the car though. However, after a few hair raising parallel parks on the first night, he was a pro by the end of the weekend!

We arrived at Avignon to find a pretty town with a beautiful palace, medieval town wall, quaint shops, narrow streets, French cafes and a broken bridge.

Palace and broken bridge on Rhone River.

We visited the Tourist Information centre there, grabbed ourselves a few maps for our onward journey and made our way to lunch at a restaurant called Le Bercail, located on the Rhone River. We arrived at the banks and boarded a free boat ride across to the other side where the restaurant was. It was on this 10 minute ride that we discovered how much the locals cared and loved their river and environment. I reckon, on this 10 minute ride, 8 minutes were spent fishing after a few pieces of floating logs by the boat captain. It was truly great to see that they are proud of their environment and that it is well taken care of.

Linda and Andy on the boat.

The Restaurant - Le Bercail

The restaurant had a spectacular view of the river and the Palace. We were advised that the BBQ was good here but instead we tried their other mains instead. Unfortunately, aside from the starter and fantastic local wine, the rest of the dishes didn't quite reach our expectations. The view however, made up for what was lacking.

Andy, Linda and a very nice view!

The starter was fairly good. But my main named 'Cannibale' didn't quite cut it. Pun intended. I guess I should have known better by its name but I wanted to try something adventurous. So there it was. A few thick cuts of raw beef arrived. I knew that I have ordered raw beef, but what I didn't expect was how thick the cuts were and how little dressing there was. Surprisingly, me and Linda managed to chow through most of it, but I must say those were the most tasteless slabs of raw meat I've ever eaten.

Left: 6 dish starter. Right: my main - 'Cannibale'

Left: Artichokes and sausage. Right: Fish stew

On our way back to the car, we had a nice stroll through Avignon. It was a beautiful, medieval town which had narrow alleys and shops that sold handmade soaps. This town bustles with activity.

The heart of the town was more commercial and had retail branded shops on the main street. It was a hot day, so we were glad to find flourescent flavoured granitas.

Icy granitas. Just what we needed.

We then made a slow walk back to the car where we started our journey towards L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue. Bye Avignon!