Avignon and Arles

Today was spent in two great ancient towns, Avignon and Arles.

Palace of the Popes (Palais des Papes). This Palace was built during the Pontificates of three popes and took about 30 years to complete. The entire complex is actually made up of two buildings: the Old Palace, built between 1334 and 1342, and the New Palace, built between 1342 and 1352.



Palais des Papes

 

Across from the Palace on the Place du Palais was another impressive building, the 17th century Hotel de Monnaies (the old mint), with a facade of griffons, cherubs, eagles and swathes of fruit.

 



Hotel de Monnaies

 

Time for some lunch!  Of course I had to have some French Onion Soup!

Along with a wonderful chicken Ceasar salad

 



We had plenty of time for a little shopping and I found my mom some French soap in this great shop!

 



After sightseeing in Avignon Insight Vacations drove us to Arles, the town where Van Gogh lived for a time and you can visit the Van Gogh Gallery.

 

I enjoyed walking this cobbled streets and watching children play and people walking

 



Kids dancing in the street

After a full day of sightseeing, I treated myself to some hotel, first class room service.  Yes they do have cheeseburgers that are very good in France!

Off to Nimes

Today Insight Vacations transported us to The Paris Gare de Lyon train station where we will begin our journey to Nimes, France.

Our tickets were checked as we boarded the train and we found our assigned seats.  If you need to use the bathroom or get hungry don't panic, there is a restroom on the bottom and top floor as well as a bar on the second floor with goodies, like muffins, fruit, candy, and drinks.  The ride was quite smooth and the view was very nice.

Once we arrived in Nimes we then boarded a bus and headed to Skalli Grand Vin Du Rhone to taste some fine French wine.  

We were taken to a room where we were surrounded by large wine barrels and we gathered around a table that had two bottles each of white and red wine.  The sommelier took us through the process of how the wine is made and showed us how to properly taste the wine.

 

We now head to Nimes which sits on the border between Provence and Languedoc. There is a lot of Roman influence here and that is evident when I see the Arena of Nimes in the center of this historic town.  It did remind me very much of the Coliseum in Rome when I was there.

 

 

After getting a glimpse of this very small but quaint town we were taken to our 4 star hotel, Hotel Imperator where I got a well deserved good nights sleep to prepare me for some more fun in Nimes!!

Hello Paris!

I've arrived in one of the most beautiful cities in the World!  It was so surreal to me that I was in another Country.  It really hit me when I heard people around me speaking French.  As I took a look around everyone seems to look the same as people do in the United States, except for the accents.  Surprisingly a lot of people spoke very good English at the airport.  My suggestion would be to bring a book or phrases on how to speak French just in case you do come across people who don't speak English.

Lucky for me, the lines through customs did not seem bad at all, but I can bet that it wouldn't be like that every time. My tour company, Insight Vacations was there to pick me up and take me to my hotel where I would be staying for 3 nights!

As we were driving down the highway, it seemed more like a road versus a highway.  I was quite surprised that there was a bit of traffic in the middle of the day.  But that gave me an excuse to take more pictures of the unique architecture of the buildings.

Yep, McDonalds is everywhere!

Wow! They are serious about train transportation here in Europe!

Oh I'm so confused!!

When we arrived at the Pullman Hotel, it was very posh and upscale.  Everyone seemed to be very sweet and hospitable.  This is where I met with the tour guide who is a local of France. 

 

Once I was all settled in, everyone in the tour group walked to this cute little place called Bercy Village for dinner.  This place was so cute with cobble stone streets lined with shops and restaurants with terraces!



Bercy Village
 

My dinner tonight was pretty basic, not the French cuisine I was hoping for....maybe later.

 



Salmon, green beans and mashed potatoes

Here's to a great first day in Paris!

 

Sante'