Off to Avignon

Sunday, May 9, 2017--Lyon to Avignon

I was so glad to leave the apartment this morning.  I had had enough of cleaning cat shit out of the shower before bathing, of having cat fur tickle my nose as I breathed, of not having any surface where I could place anything without cats getting there and sitting on it, of not being able to cook anything because cats were walking over the counter tops and the chopping board and sitting with their dirty butts against them!!  I wet a wet corner of my towel this morning to clean off cat hair and smudges (probably from their butts) off my suitcase.

I almost headed to the wrong train station this morning!  When I arrived last week, I saw a Flixbus stop behind the Part Dieu station.  I had planned my trip so long ago, that I thought I recalled that I would get my Ouibus there today.  Fortunately, I looked at my ticket to see if a specific location was mention there behind Part Dieu, and I saw it--that the stop for Oiubus was at Perrache Station! 

Actually it was easier to get to Perrache.  It was almost a straight walk south of where I was staying, and I had been almost to it yesterday when exploring the peninsula between the two rivers.  I had no trouble reaching it, but I did have trouble finding the Ouibus stop.  I used maps of the station.  The first bus location I found was local city buses.  The next location I found was Eurobus and Flixbus.  Finally, I walked out of the parking building where these were located thinking it would be better just to go into the station and follow the directions for taxies as the ticket said to do.  But right there in front of the station was a sign saying Ouibus.  It took almost as long to find the stop as it did for me to walk from the apartment to the station!

While waiting for the bus, I spoke to another man who was waiting and who I could tell was wondering why the bus wasn't there.  I told him I had spoken to a man from another bus earlier and that he had said our bus driver would be about 15 minutes late.  The man turned out to be Danish, so I told him about all the time I had spent in Denmark with Arne and about how wonderful the Danish consul and his wife had been when Arne was hospitalized and after he died.  He is here on his Easter holidays to visit friends in Lyon, Avignon, and Montpellier.

It was a beautiful day.  I had worn a short sleeve shirt to walk to the station.  The sun was out and the air was warm as long as I stayed on the sunny side of the street.  By the time we got to Avignon, it was 24 degrees C (75 F) outside.

The countryside just kept getting prettier and prettier as we headed south.  Just before Valence, there were huge orchards and vineyards.  Then as we got closer to Avignon, there were tall, slender cedar trees mixed among lots of varieties of other trees. 

The bus stopped just outside the main gate to the city.  Using directions I had copied from Google Maps, I went right through the old parts of the city passing all the major tourist sights along the way.  I couldn't pay any attention to them, because I was having to control my suitcase bumping along on the cobblestones.  I found the apartment easily just past the main shopping area of the old city.  It is also an old building with huge beamed ceilings and thick stone walls.  This is a beautiful, clean apartment that is well furnished in a minimalist way by the owner Jean-Luc who is a very nice young man.

I called two friends in Denmark and visited briefly on the phone using Keku, an international calling website with cheap rates from anywhere to anywhere.   Since my Republic Wireless phone works via wifi thinking I am calling from the US, I can call fixed-line phones in Denmark for 1.2 cents per minute and mobile phones for 2.8 cents per minute.  Keku assigns each international number its own local (San Antonio) phone number.  So I just dial as if I am dialing someone in San Antonio and after one ringing, it switches over to ringing the number in Copenhagen or wherever else I have registered as a number I want to call.  So I talked to Nurse Grethe and to Claus who she had there with her for afternoon tea and then a dinner.  Then I talked to Jens.  I told him I would call back another time to talk to Robert, since he was busy watching a French TV show he watches every Sunday at the time I called.  (By the way, last night I had called my sister Sue in San Antonio and my friend Merryl in Johannesburg, South Africa, in the same way.  I didn't have to use Keku for those, since my Republic Wireless phone thinks my sister is a local call and since Merryl also has a Republic Wireless phone so that mine and hers thought we were both in San Antonio when we talked.  Sometimes technology can be amazing!!)

I didn't really see or do anything today.  But to finish off the night, I walked about 3 blocks to the main square--Place Pie--in the local shopping district.  It was filled with people enjoying the warm weather.  With the help of a young lady there, I had a kebab menu (donar kebab in pita bread, fries, and a cola) at a restaurant recommended by my apartment owner.  She was so cute.  She spoke little English, but she was so happy to use it:  "Get drink.  Sit where you want.  She bring to you.  Hunky?"  I assumed that last bit meant, "Hunky-dory?" meaning did I understand everything and was I okay with it.  The kebab place faced the square and had tables outside where I sat and just enjoyed relaxing with the others dining or drinking in the square while watching them.  By 19:30, it was beginning to feel cool, though, so I headed back to the apartment for the evening. 

Tomorrow, I will see most of the major tourist sites here in town.  And I will go to a store to find some local foods to have in the refrigerator for breakfast and maybe for dinner, too.  Unfortunately, the market is closed on Monday, but I will go there early Tuesday morning!!