Avignon

In October Blake had a work trip for the first week of the two-week Autumn school holidays. Given that it was a trip to Avignon, France, we thought it a great idea to come along with him for a few days - especially as that meant free accommodation.


We went the weekend before Blake's conference started so that he could enjoy a weekend at least with us. Avignon is a beautiful medieval town that was once a important centre, due to it's Popes' Palace (where popes once lived, before their official residence moved to Rome).  The town is full of beautiful buildings and historical sites.

And of course when it comes to France, there are always wonderful cafes and restaurants to be enjoyed at a fraction of the cost in Switzerland.

The town is surrounded by the original (but renovated) old town wall, complete with turrets.

We were able to keep the kids happy with regular cafe stops

And this beautiful old carousel in the middle of town, which saw lots of Flynn and Benjy action over the the five days.

This is the very grand Palais des Papes (Popes' Palace).

The hill above the Palais des Papes had a lovely park, with playground and cafe.

Blake was delighted with the French-style cappuccino, which is a black coffee with heaps of dairy whip aerosol cream squirted on top. I would rather have a coffee that doesn't double as a dessert.

One of the highlights of this day was finding a giant duck. You can't really tell in this photo as it just looks like it's a foreground-effect, but this duck was massively bigger than all the others and caused quite a sensation among the boys.

The famous Pont d'Avignon, which was finally washed away in the 16th century, after hundreds of year's of being rebuilt after floods.

"Well hello there*

The Pont d'Avignon close up.

Beautiful architecture everywhere

What, not the carousel again!

At the hotel all the rooms looked down onto an attractive pool area. The pool was great, except that it's not heated. Meaning that you can't use it for at least half the year. The kids were keen to give it a go anyway but although the air was pleasantly warm, the water was frigid. I got as far as one toe.

The boys are made of stronger stuff.

They then lay shivering on the sun loungers until their muscles had thawed enough to hobble back upstairs.

On the Monday Blake was straight into the conference and so the boys and I set forth to explore on our own. We started with a tour.

The commentary was riveting enough that Flynn found more enjoyment in listening to the French version

Not again....

Blake was able to meet up with us most evenings and one night we had a fantastic meal at a  restaurant near our hotel. It was a nicer one than we'd usually go to with the kids and to their credit, they almost managed to conceal their dismay as we entered with our two loud and unruly children.

The food was outstanding and not expensive when you're used to Swiss prices. Blake was delighted with his choice.

My delicious onion soup came (very excitingly) in a bread roll.

My bouillabaisse was a feast of marine wildlife which provoked much astonishment and disgust from the kids but was greedily demolished by me.

In France the kids' meals are the same as everywhere else in the world but they enjoyed their fries and sausages just the same.

We had a great five days in Avignon and then we left Blake to continue his conference in peace. We took the TGV fast train to and fro - five hours from Basel to Avignon. Or ten hour's drive - no contest. The boys, especially Flynn were really naughty on the train trip there, but were better behaved coming back thankfully. Although by the end of it, Flynn was running up and down the aisles and then trying to walk down the aisles on the arms of the aisle seats.


POSTSCRIPT:

It was interesting to see the change in demographics in Avignon. I was there nearly 20 years ago and since then there has been a very big increase in immigration. I was amazed to see how many African and Middle Eastern immigrants there are now. Coming from the train station we passed through a low-cost housing project that looked like we were in Egypt or Morocco. There were horrible apartment blocks in barren streets, with men walking the streets in full-length arabic gowns and head cloths. Packs of marauding kids and arabic adolescents were roaming aimlessly.

The streets outside the main city centre have an intimidating feel rather than a cosmopolitan, multi-ethnic feel. You get the impression that there is not yet integration among the different ethnic groups. I wonder if many of these people are refugees from places like Syria and Afghanistan who have been more or less dumped there and left to get on with it. There are also very dodgy-looking black guys hanging out on the streets with caps pulled down, loitering in side streets and looking a lot like drug dealers.

There is also a big homeless problem, with small and large groups of white homeless people gathering together in the squares and on the streets. The police have a big presence there and move them along quickly. There are also security guards in the parks, moving along the homeless and anyone behaving suspiciously. Almost all the homeless people have a dog, some with several, so these homeless meetings look like a dodgy dog club meet. The homeless we saw there were mostly young and healthy-looking. Not like the homeless of London for example, who look old, mentally ill, drunk or all of the above.

So on the one hand you have this beautiful, historic city that attracts wealthy tourists, but one with obvious social problems and an underbelly of poverty.