We are in Avignon, France

Now Avignon - we really really liked that city.  But first -

Today we drove from Perpignan to Carcassone so that we could visit that walled city.  We got off the highway to Avignon so that we could make the slight detour to Carcassone and once in Carcassone, we thought it was going to be so easy to find a parking spot on the outside of the walls because there were parking lots everywhere.  But we soon found out that they were all full!!!  We ended up parking at a very far parking lot which ordinarily would have been ok but the sun was beating down and it was a very hot day!  So, we start the long walk in full sun to the entrance to the wall city.

As we were reaching the entrance gate to the walled city, we had to move to the side to let an ambulance get in the gate.  Little did we know then, but that ambulance was probably going to get someone who had collapsed from the heat or something.

So, anyway, we stop at the visitor center and then start walking around the city.  There were so many people visiting this day that it was unbelievable.  The main thoroughfare through the city was so packed that you could hardly move.  We decided to take a route around the edge of the city and it was a little less crowded going that way.  It was so hot!  Guillermo left me in the shade at one point so he could take some pictures of a castle or something and while waiting in that shade, I observed people in lines on both sides of me.  They were waiting in line for tickets to go inside the castle.  And they were waiting in FULL SUN!!!  We had thought ourselves of visiting the inside of the castle but thought better of it when we saw that long line in full sun.  So while Guillermo took pictures I watched as some girl found a little piece of shade and she stood there then tried to lean against the wall and eventually tried to sit on the ground looking like she was about to collapse.  Then I heard a commotion in the other line and I saw some big guy running - his face all red- and I thought something was wrong with him but he was actually taking water to some OTHER guy who had actually collapsed to the ground and people were holding on to him and loosening his clothes and trying to put water on his face.  It was horrible.

This is what people were standing in line to see.

It was a rough day to be visiting Carcassone but I guess if it's your only chance, you just have to go with it.

 We got a little lunch and some cold drinks and then made the long walk back to our car and headed back to the highway to Avignon.

When we got to Avignon, we headed for the hotel we thought we would stay at but we missed the side street that we needed to turn on to get to it, so that sent us around the block.  We decided to park on that back street and then walk back to the hotel.  But after we parked, we noticed a little hotel on that back street so we thought, hey, let's check this place out and we liked it so we forgot about the other hotel and moved our stuff into that hotel.  Which we ended up liking a lot.  It was a typical little French hotel and we thought it was perfect for our stay in Avignon.

That night we walked into the walled section of Avignon looking for a place to eat.  It seemed a little scary because we were the only ones it seemed out on the streets but we eventually came to the area where all the tourists are.  We kept walking and walking and eventually found a great little restaurant at a hotel by the plaza.  We had a great meal there and then took it easy on our walk back to our little hotel.

The next day, it was just as hot in Avignon.  We walked along the walls on the outside of the walled city

We tried to stick to the shade as much as we could.  They put a lot of effort into making those walls decorative, don't you think?

Then we crossed the street to walk along the river, even though it was mostly out in the sun.  

And in the background you can see the Bridge of Avignon.  That bridge used to go all the way across but several floods kept destroying the bridge and finally it was never rebuilt. 

Ahhh, some shade!

This used to be a chapel on the bridge.

We took a free little passenger boat across the river to take this picture.  We found a nice tree to sit under while we waited for the boat trip back across.

When we get back across, we're going to climb the steps up that hill where hopefully there'll be good views!

The views were just beautiful from up there!

We walked back down into the walled city to get something cold to drink.  While at that cafe, I used their bathroom and it was so hot in that bathroom that by the time I got out, I was dripping with sweat.  Those cold drinks sure were welcome!

Then we walked through the city some more - had lunch on a tree-shaded terrace and then we walked back to our hotel to rest a little.  We made the mistake of walking along the wall inside where there was absolutely no breeze, so we got pretty hot again.

In the evening, we went back out to look for the water wheels.  We found that walk quite interesting and the area where the water wheels were was really nice.  Here is one of the wheels.

We walked some more through the city, making our way back to the plaza and that's where we had dinner.  We had no idea which restaurant to pick so we picked one of the many outside-terrace restaurants in the plaza.  We had pizza there and it was just ok.