not everything is a tortilla...

29/3/2008

dad and i ate breakfast this morning at the hotel, which was your typical french breakfast, but probably the best one i've had. the morning was spent at les halles market. this place is like central market, fiesta in its prime, and 6th street rolled into one... and on crack. there were meat sections galore, seafood that i had never heard of, fruits, veggies, every possible kind of pre-made side salad - pasta, potato varieties, and other things i wasn't sure of - and then of course there were pastries, desserts, chocolates, and we can not forget the little bars and cafe stands throughout where you could get your normal coffees and teas, but they were also better stocked than specs!

we watched a demonstration by a local chef who prepared lamb and stuffed tomatoes. it was really interesting to watch and we even got to taste it at the end! they gave us the recipes and this really cute old lady tried to make sure i understood it, of course she was explaining in french and i had to have her write the words down that i didn't understand because i've never studied cooking vocab in depth!

we wanted to have lunch at uncle ron's suggested restaurant but realized it wasn't actually in avignon, we had no car rental, and therefore no way to actually get there other than a taxi, which dad is not very fond of. so we headed to the office of tourism to buy tickets we decided to go to the rhone exaltation which is like a wine fair going on this weekend at the palais des papes and l'espace jeanne laurent nearby.

after a picnic lunch in the park, and almost being attacked numerous times by pigeons, we took a rest in the hotel room. michael told us we could have our room for two more nights and we decided to stay here until we go back to the states.

we spent the afternoon following rick's guided walk through the old city - place d'horloge, palais des papes, petite palais, jardin des doms, and pont st-benezit. the view from the garden was gorgeous and we saw the riverfront restaurant across the way that we had chosen for dinner.

making our way down the hill, we got "lucky" to make the last ferryboat across the river. when we actually got to the restaurant we realized they weren't open until april. we decided not to wait 3 days and made the 25 minute walk back into town, stopping for a drink in place d'horloge before eating at a seafood/steakhouse suggested by michael. it was good, not great, but the 2nd rick steves' recommendation was booked until later in the night and we were hungry after our hike.

dad still hadn't had a crepe yet so after dinner it of course became our mission to find a crepe stand still open. we also stopped at a late-night (it was about 8:45) grocery store and had 15 minutes to get some wine before they closed.

dad was amazed that they make the crepes fresh. he thought that is was like a tortilla that they warmed up! he seems to think everything is a tortilla actually... back at the hotel we watched cnn world while i caught up on postcards. tonight is daylight savings time so we spring forward. i'm actually ready to come home now. if i wasn't moving around every few days maybe i'd want to stay longer, but one month has been the perfect amount of time!