Hello! Or rather, Bonjour!
Yes, we've made our way to France, where we're thoroughly enjoying ourselves, despite the cold, cold, COLD weather!
Our first stop here has been the lovely, charming, wonderful town of Avignon. A walled city from medieval times, there is history everywhere you turn here. Although famous and quite touristed, the old town of Avignon (the part of town inside the 2 1/2 mile surrounding wall) still retains a quiet quaintness with its narrow, often cobble stoned streets. Of course, we're getting the exxxxtra quiet version as we're not only here in the dead of winter, but happen to be here during a particularly cold spell. More than once, some local or another has said to us with a mix of pity and irony - "it's too bad, last week the weather was unusually warm. This week - faaar more cold than normal." Yea, "cold" is an understatement. Every day, I turn to weatherchannel.com hoping for a bit of good news... Instead, I get forecasts that read: "Avignon: 24* F, Feels like 6* F." And the worst of it isn't the cold, but the wind. Even being from San Francisco, neither of us has ever seen anything like it - all night, the shutters and doors rattle without pause; during the day, it feels like a firm hand is pushing you down the street as you're running from one destination to another. We're both in agreement, we've never felt anything like this cold or heard anything like this wind, howling through the town, day and night. It's wild.
That said, we've thoroughly enjoyed our four days in this sweet little town. We rented an apartment from an American retiree and couldn't be happier with it. It has a lovely living room/dining room with a small loft, little kitchen and separate bedroom. When we haven't been out exploring the town or making little excursions to surrounding villages, the apartment has been a great place to stay cozy. Best of all, Connor has been cooking up a storm, buying great produce and products from the famous market, Les Halles, and making warm, winter stews and other hearty dishes. Of course, we've also stocked up on our share of wine, cheese, pastries and baguettes - no shortage of food or warmth in this apartment.
Today we head to Cassis, a fishing village near Marseille, famous for its harbor and natural beauty. We'll try to get on a boat tomorrow morning to see the Calanques, but though our fingers are crossed, we're not counting on it in this weather. If not, oh well - we'll settle for a nice bowl of Bouillabaisse, from the region where it was born.
More later, time to pack and catch our next train!
