Avignon’s wind
This is a story about a perfume fragrance.
The fragrance of the journey, early spring, the brightest sun, a medieval town built from light stones.
It happened in sunny Avignon. It was March. It was Easter eve (a few days or a few hundreds kilometres till Easter 2010). We travelled by rented car from Germany to Portugal through the south of France.
Here is a map of a part of our trip.
So, Avignon.
We overtook it before the night came and parked the car.
Here is the underground parking in the central Avignon. Every floor painted by the brightest tone of color. Masha and I, we are on the minus-second floor - the brightest pink ever. But we have a good chance to remember where have we left our car.
And there's a big contrast between town under and over medieval ground.
We found a place for the night easily. It was two little rooms on the highest floor of the old building.
But before we paid for our rooms nobody mentioned the lift, which was broken. We had to scramble to the fifth floor! Even the staircase was so perfect, our suitcases were too heavy for such feats.
But the reward was close - dinner in the nearest restaurant.
Of course this picture doesn't look so fresh as the next one (which is my dish on the next day in Sete. But boiled mussels are also delicious :).
Have you noted the bright spot on the last snapshot?
During our trip we often saw sapphire blue bottles in the middle of table appointments.
Avignon is the place where sand is extracted from the banks of Rhone, is conveyed to the glass factories. They say to Italy.
By the way French waiters always brings water in plain bottles (which was cropped on the left side of the photo). They take it from the cities' water supply system. The French are proud of clear water.
It's fairly clear to drink. They think so. We believed them, but one of us ordered branded water too. It looked like a little surprise we received water in sapphire. Later we would regret about forgetting to take one of them as a souvenir.
The French have appreciated clean water since Roman times, when the empire built aqueducts. For example, the famous aqueduct Pont du Gard (here is a link).
So, the evening was successful.
In the next part:
We spent next morning over the roofs.
To be continued...
The fragrance of the journey, early spring, the brightest sun, a medieval town built from light stones.
It happened in sunny Avignon. It was March. It was Easter eve (a few days or a few hundreds kilometres till Easter 2010). We travelled by rented car from Germany to Portugal through the south of France.
Here is a map of a part of our trip.
So, Avignon.
We overtook it before the night came and parked the car.
Here is the underground parking in the central Avignon. Every floor painted by the brightest tone of color. Masha and I, we are on the minus-second floor - the brightest pink ever. But we have a good chance to remember where have we left our car.
And there's a big contrast between town under and over medieval ground.
We found a place for the night easily. It was two little rooms on the highest floor of the old building.
But before we paid for our rooms nobody mentioned the lift, which was broken. We had to scramble to the fifth floor! Even the staircase was so perfect, our suitcases were too heavy for such feats.
But the reward was close - dinner in the nearest restaurant.
Of course this picture doesn't look so fresh as the next one (which is my dish on the next day in Sete. But boiled mussels are also delicious :).
Have you noted the bright spot on the last snapshot?
During our trip we often saw sapphire blue bottles in the middle of table appointments.
Avignon is the place where sand is extracted from the banks of Rhone, is conveyed to the glass factories. They say to Italy.
By the way French waiters always brings water in plain bottles (which was cropped on the left side of the photo). They take it from the cities' water supply system. The French are proud of clear water.
It's fairly clear to drink. They think so. We believed them, but one of us ordered branded water too. It looked like a little surprise we received water in sapphire. Later we would regret about forgetting to take one of them as a souvenir.
The French have appreciated clean water since Roman times, when the empire built aqueducts. For example, the famous aqueduct Pont du Gard (here is a link).
So, the evening was successful.
In the next part:
We spent next morning over the roofs.
To be continued...