Weekend discovering Provence I

This weekend my friends and I drove to Provence. For a short two day trip we saw a lot especially since we were totally laid back about it and took it easy. Saturday morning we had a leaisurely meal of scrambled eggs, bacon, and olive bread and set off to Avignon. First thing we did after finding a parking spot was to find a salon de thé to have an capaccino and pain au chocolate.

We walked around the Palais des Papes and grounds, walked along the Rhone river and took in the remaining arches of the Pont Saint-Bénézet, and grabbed a delicious gelato. As we were walking around the streets of old Avignon eating our gelato we found this court yard which held some scultpture displays. But the most amazing part was all the bells on the walls of the court yard. Big bells, little bells, multiple bells, on the first floor, on the second floor, on the roof, and in the corner! Very curious about those bells everywhere.

When we got our fill of old Avignon atmosphere we headed to where we were going to spend the night, St Remy de Provence. This was a pleasant surprise. It's just what I expected of a small town in Provence. Winding, cobble stone streets with little shops lining the sides. The shops are your regular soap, ceramics, linen, clothing, and bakery shops, plus restaurants and art galleries. We spent a couple of hours wandering and finding the couple of restuarants we picked out thanks to Trip advisor. After checking in - a cute little villa hotel just a few minutes drive away, some down time, we changed and headed out for dinner.

Dinner was delicious and cheap. We tried the 11 Euro set menu. I had pate, duck confit, and creme caramel. My friend had soup de poisson, duck confit, and pear creme, and her husband had salad, escalope de dinde (turkey), and chocolate mousse. Red wine from Cote de Provence to go with of course. The whole meal felt like a cozy meal at home. The place was small with only one other couple as customer. They even brought out the whole pate for me to serve myself as I like, it was gigantic!

After such a meal we didn't want to call it a night. Instead we thought we go for a drive and try to find Arles. Arles turns out to be about 15-20 minutes drive away. It was a brilliant full moon, and we got to see the old Roman colissum (lite) and amphatheatre by night. There is a complete different atmosphere to see a place in the quietness of the night.