3rd November Avignon & Beaune

A few people from the group have been struck by a tummy bug...luckily so far it has missed me! 

Today we sadly left Nice (I really liked it here) and headed north through the scenic countryside to Avignon, an ancient town surrounded by its medieval ramparts. We were late getting here but were able to get a glimpse of the Papal Palace, an impressive monument which was home to many popes during the Middle Ages. We wandered down the street and bought ourselves a baguette for lunch (smoked salmon for me) and an eclair ;), it was one of the nicest I have had. Then it was time to go back to the bus. We stopped at the public toilets first...usually pay 50 euro cents (whatever they call them) for a toilet. The man here taking our money was so impressed with my French that he thought I was from Quebec. He was even more excited when he found out I was from Australia and particularly Sydney. Just before we jumped on the bus Phil (my new mad photo/camera buddy) and I raced off to get a few pictures of the St Benezet Bridgethe, the famous Pont d'Avignon, a famous medieval bridge. It originally spanned the Rhone River and was built between 1171 and 1185. It was 900m long but suffered frequent collapses during floods and had to be reconstructed several times. The bridge had great strategic importance as the only fixed river crossing between Lyon and the Mediterranean Sea. Only part of the bridge now remains and it is very picturesque. It was then time to head to Beaune.

Beaune, pronounced 'bone' is the wine capital of Burgundy. It was just on sunset when we arrived and after we dropped our bags at the hotel we were taken into the town centre to walk around and have a look. Beaune is a walled city and it has about half of the battlements, ramparts and moat which have survived and the "old town" is extensive. Around the central square there is a "traditional" shopping area with a focus on gourmet food, fashion and wine. There were lots of shops selling wine in the town centre and quite a few patisseries. We stopped at one and bought some macaroons, a mixed box so that we could all share...we sent Phil in to buy them and as we were watching through the window we could see him tell the lady not worry about gift wrapping them, but she did, and we were all laughing when he came out of the shop with this lovely gift wrapped box of macaroons that were about to be devoured by us. I'm not sure how I feel about macaroons...a bit too sweet for me, which is saying something, but I've never eaten one where I've thought wow I have to have another! It was a pretty little town lit up at night and we could see the christmas lights had been put up but were not on yet, I would have liked to have seen that. We then went back to the hotel for dinner...Tomorrow Paris!!!