Arty Avignon

It has been a lovely end to my European journey.It has been very special to spend time with Justine,Augustin and Abde in this timeless city.
Justine lives on the edge of thee old town city walls,close to the train and rail station and within really easy walking distance of the Pope's Palace and other historic sites.
The day I arrived mid afternoon was hot and windless and we walked into town for lunch at a pop up restaurant site in  private home.The annual Avignon summer festival is on here and the city goes into theatre mode. There are pamphlets and posters everywhere advertising all the different performances.
Tourists and French traveller's pour into the city so locals rent out their houses and go off for a holiday to escape the crowds.

Restaurants spring up and people from street theatre groups,music and dance acts hand out leaflets as you walk along the streets inviting you to attend their performance. Some are performing in the squares and cafes as you walk by. It is all very colourful and frenetic.
Sadly most are in French so I am left clueless.Justine thought we might be able to go to a dance or music event tonight.
We enjoyed a lovely lunch in this restaurant run by a friend of Justine- she  knows so many people in the city as does Abde, we are stopping and greeting people as we walk,three kisses on the cheek is the custom. I had a jamon and melon dish which was light and lovely for the temperatures.

Justine took us to a her favourite haven a five star hotel where she and a friend meet for tea or a wine to unwind. It was lovely and we sat in the lounge off the terrace and enjoyed cold drinks and some snacks provided by the management.He invited us to go downstairs to look at an exposition they were sponsoring in the cellars.It was a display of dead skeletons and parts of animals arranged in sculptural designs,not my thing but as Justine said it reminded her of Robert when he wanted to be a taxidermist and kept dead animals in the freezer! Poor Liz!

Later we explored around the Pope's Palace and up to the gardens that overlook the city.The craze here is Pokemon Go and Augustin and Adam were enjoying all the action.The craze is so established that when Justine and Augustin went out yesterday to get him a remote battery connector so he could still play on holiday they were sold out.

I call him the Pokemon boy!!! We dropped him off yesterday to go and stay with his grandmother near Nice and then to go sailing with his father.
Justine and I went off and had a lovely lunch in the square at St Remy a place Chris ,Rachel, the Boyes and I visited in 2008.I did not expect to come back so a treat. 

We then went to Les Baux where we went to the  Carrrieres De Lumiieres to see the Chagall Exhibition in the cave like  the Van Gogh one years ago.
It is the most magical experience to walk around in this huge limestone cave with images unfolding to music above ,around and under your feet.It is hard to explain but it is powerful emotionally.It is so cool inside too compared to the sizzling temperatures outside. We were going to go back to St Remy to walk around the shopping area but Justine tripped as we were walking back to the car skinning her leg so we decided to head back home and get it dressed.
Later that evening friends came for dinner and Justine prepared a lovely meal of figs,roquefort cheese wrapped in jamon and grilled in the oven with salads.We sat outside under the grape vine until late eating and drinking a very nice wine with a mixture of French and English language floating around the table. 

Pinch me stuff.

The previous evening we had driven out to a beautiful rural retreat on a vineyard for a celebration party for one of Justine's friends in her Ladies of Avignon group. There were two hundred people there and their children had organised it for their parents to celebrate their 50th birthdays and twenty five years married.
People camped there and they had a swimming pool and the meal was laid out on tables under the stars.There were a mixture of Dutch and French people so it was very entertaining.I managed to have a lot of conversations with people despite my lack of linguistic skills. Later there was dancing and socializing until late into the night. The couple celebrating were wine makers so the wine flowed especially a delicious rose which was their specialty wine and beer-the Dutch took the beer preparation very seriously. 

This was an amazing night under the stars looking up at a mountain which glistens white at night because of the geology of the region.Mt Vetoux it might be.I need to check these spellings.
It was a very late night by the time we arrived home so I think I slept the sleep of the dead.