A Feminist's "Fêtes" en France: Avignon

Hey, all! Continuing to update you on my adventures last week, before the ones I'm taking this week start (tomorrow! ah! more to come on that later). So, I most recently wrote about Aix-en-Provence, which was basically just us walking around the city and looking around. At the end of that day, we got on another train to hop on over to Avignon, which is another smaller town down south. It's definitely bigger than Aix, and is more of a medieval town. As in, it has a medieval castle(s) and a WALL surrounding the city that's STILL THERE! Which is pretty cool. Also, I probably walked around what used to be a moat outside of the city or something. (Not sure if that's accurate information, so don't take my word on it.) There's not much exciting to tell about specific adventures in Avignon, although we did stay there overnight one night. The hostel was great! But, other than that, we pretty much just walked around and looked at the sites. And the spring-time flowers. And took lots of pictures. Here comes another photo-heavy post (with a few more words than the last)!

When we first got to the city, we went to the hostel and set our bags down (FINALLY!) after carrying them around with us all day. Then we hit the touristing and went in the direction of the main square(s) to check it out. Luckily, my travel buddy, Molly, had been here before, so I got to explore with someone who knew the city a little bit, and had taken a tour, so I learned a bit more about it than I did in Aix. Anyways, we first stopped to get some ice cream, because all the street stands selling ice cream are now open!!! YAY! We ate our glace as we walked around (I got Nutella flavored, for you curious minds reading this) and took some pictures. I was amazed by the first architecture we saw: the Hotel de Ville (city hall) and an old Theater.

We kept walking, and just up the street were two more huge monuments. The first (in the foreground of the first picture below) is the Palais des Papes, or the Palace of Popes. I'm not sure exactly what the history is behind it - whether 8 popes have lived there in the past? are from Avignon? stayed there visiting...? - because it cost too much money for my liking to go in. Even the student price was like, 8 euros. Usually things are free for students. I guess I've gotten used to that - and have gotten to the end of my time and bank account! - so I wasn't willing to spend my money on it. (that's like a whole meal, or two!) End rant. Just next to the Palais des Papes was another French, Catholic church, as there is in every city. I don't know the name of the church (sorry), but it did have another Notre Dame/golden Mary statue at the top of it, looking down on the city. France is a very Mary-oriented country when it comes to its Catholicism. Oh, yeah, and when we got to the front of the Palace, there was some sort of church song-singing/dancing in a circle festival thing going on! For about two minutes. But it was cool to see, I guess, even though I had no idea what it really was!

le Palais des Papes

after our walk up to the church

To get to the church, which was our next destination, we had to walk up a little hill/ramp thing. Here are some photos on the way up, and once we were up there, and then inside the church! The ones from inside are way cool, because the church had all sorts of old Church items and saints' relics, which I had never seen in person before!

French countryside!

flowers! spring!!

inside of the church

a saint's relic arm??

another relic, from Saint Francis de Sales

this tour group would NOT get out of my pictures.
so I included them in the photo. :)

a chapel inside

Once we finished exploring the church with the unknown name, we walked around outside for the rest of the afternoon. We saw the Pont d'Avignon - the bridge to nowhere! (which we also saw the next day). We found a few more government buildings (with the flags) which are always beautiful. And then we went to a little park and took some pictures there. Finally, we ate dinner and headed back to the hostel. Dinner was super exciting, though, because we found a place that makes tartines! ~ Tartines are pieces of toast topped with delicious things (usually some sort of cheese, with other stuff). I got a 3 cheese tartine, with bleu cheese, brie, and goat cheese, topped with pears. It was SO. GOOD. The even more exciting part is that we have a place like this in Lyon, and once we went in, we realized that this tartine place is the same type of restaurant! Like, a chain of sorts, but they only have three of them in France. It was nice to have a little taste of Lyon, and familiar and scrumptious cuisine. :)

Pont d'Avignon//Bridge to Nowhere

The following are all park pictures:

The tartine place where we ate dinner (super cute decor, just like the one in Lyon):

Aaaand, our hostel! It was in a stunning building (with a storefront downstairs. we didn't sleep there).

After a long day of travel, I took a shower and passed out in a beautiful sleep. The next day, we had about half the day left in Avignon, so we walked around some more and finished seeing the city. First, we went INSIDE the Hotel de Ville. The doors were wide open and nobody stopped us, but we're still not so sure if we were supposed to be there or not.

Molly showing her French pride

heeeyyy! (not sure if we're allowed to be here or not faces)

the Mayor's office!

partying in front of the party room!

Then we walked upon some of the tourist stores. Avignon (and the South in general, I think) is known for its lavender. And, I learned, for its cicadas! Resulting in their souvenir stores containing cicada stuff EVERYWHERE. I didn't know that these things existed outside of the midwest! (upon later talking to my host mom about it, they apparently come to Lyon sometimes. but only when it hits a certain temperature or something. she also thought it was weird that ours only come every 17 years.)

Cicada keychain, anyone?
Or even better, a backpack? (down at the bottom)

We continued on our adventure, and walked to the outside of the city wall. We wanted to check out the bridge (they ran out of money to build it, or something. I like to think that they just got lazy and gave up), but that cost money, too! Seriously, three euros to walk on a bridge??? I wasn't having it. I saved the euros and bought ice cream later. :) Anyways, we saw the bridge from nearby, then walked up a castle looking contraption. Afterwards, we were back up on the hill (the same one by the church. tiny town.), and explored the wonderful springtime flowers and fountains and landscape some more.