Here’s a snippet from our Day 2 in Avignon, Sunday, March 17, 2019

Above: Visit to the Palais des Papes (Palaces of the Popes) at 9:00 am before the crowds arrived — although the crowds at this time of year aren’t huge (Open from 9:00 – 19:00 almost every day throughout the year) Ticket includes an excellent “histopad” (programmed iPad) that shows you what the palace rooms looked like in their heyday in the 1300s. We bought our combo-bridge-palace tickets the day before on Avignon’s famous bridge.

 

 

Below: Les Halles Market Hall for food and picnic shopping and/or lunch at one of its delightful restaurants.

Below: We dined at Cuisine Centr’Halles for gumbo a’la New Orleans and their rump steak main course. Their chef is from California, and worked in New Orleans. The gumbo was divine (as was the rest of the meal.) (Les Halles is closed Mondays, and closes at 1:30 weekdays.)

Below photos are from our “most expensive purchase of the weekend” – famous Jambon de Iberico (ham of Spain, the pigs are free range and eat acorns in the forest….) thinly sliced and marvellous. Our host from the shop Em Feste sliced it for us right off the pig’s leg. About $100 per pound. We bought three ounces for $20 – we loved it and savoured every bite during a special picnic. A memorable and “worth it” splurge.

Below: Calvet Museum – free. In a private mansion, art from the 1400s – 1900s. Skippable, I would suggest instead going to the Angdalon Museum (which is closed Sun and Mon during shoulder season, and displays many more masters than the Angdalon.) Painting below is Manet’s Guitar and Hat, 1862.

Below: Guinesses on St. Patty’s Day at O’Sullivan’s Irish Pub! (Complete with a Scottish drum and pipe sextet.) You can’t miss O’Sullivan’s – you’ll pass it when you walk from the train station to the Tourist Information Office.

Below: Dinner outside on Place des Corps-Saints, home of several eateries. On this night only Rick’s recommended Ginette & Marcel: Bistrot a Tartines was open, and we loved it. The inside looks like an old-timey grocery store. Tartines = large slices of hearty toasted bread slathered with toppings. Ours: chèvre, smoked duck, walnuts. With spinach and potato soup, and a nice bottle of white. Again, convivial setting and service. We just loved Avignon!

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