Holidays in Provence I: Avignon

Alright, so I went from being the girl who blogs too frequently to the girl who doesn't blog enough! Well, this is because since the last time that I wrote, I received two major deliveries, care packages, Christmas presents, from the United States: my boyfriend, Angus, and my twin sister, Jin! And so, for the past two weeks, I've been enjoying the holidays with them.
Angus got into the Aix-Marseille airport on December 19th, the day after my literature final exam, and then Jin flew into the exact same airport, same terminal, on December 27th. Their visits made for an unforgettable winter break in the South of France, and I must say, it was very difficult to say goodbye to them when they left, especially because the task that lay ahead of me after their departure was to study for 2 exams and prepare an oral presentation. Ugh.
One of the first things that Angus and I did was go on a late-night walk through the town of Aix, something that I haven't been able to do on my own for safety reasons (don't worry! it's not terribly dangerous, just not wise, as in any other town, to walk around alone at night if you're a small young woman), and we got to see the town all aglow with Christmas decorations that I hadn't yet seen. During our walks, I showed Angus the market, the places where I go for errands, and we even stopped for mulled wine, roasted chestnuts, and churros at the Christmas market.
Before Christmas, Angus had the suggestion that we go away for a little trip somewhere fun. Now, I am not a spontaneous traveller. I am not really even a traveller. I am the kind of person who needs to have trains and hotels booked at least a few weeks in advance. But...we went. We bought train tickets the day before and left Aix without hotel reservations. Where did we go? We went to Avignon, a beautiful city/town with a medieval wall that sits right on the Rhône River. It was WINDY, so windy that it made me nervous to stand up straight when we were walking along the top of the medieval wall. But it was SO much fun.

After walking along the Rhône and along the wall for a while, we headed into the center of town for a delicious lunch and then to the Palais des Papes, or the Papal Palace. After Pope Clement V decided to pick Avignon as his papal residence in 1309, popes and anti-popes during the Great Schism moved into, expanded, and filled the palace with all sorts of embellishments. During the French Revolution, it was used as a prison and military barracks. Angus and I did independent walking tours of the palace with audio guides...although Angus' ended up being broken so I had to do my best to translate for him. I failed. Miserably. We still don't really understand WHY the popes decided to move to Avignon in the first place. Yes, we did research. Oh well.

I think one of my favorite parts of Avignon, however, was our hotel. It was called the Hôtel Mignon, and I found it in the Let's Go France guidebook that my lovely supervisor and friend from my summer internship at the Center for American Women and Politics gave me as a going-away present. The hotel. was. perfect. It was a tiny little building tucked away on a beautiful busy shopping street in Avignon, right near all the major sight-seeing hot spots, and each room had a different old medieval architectural style. The concierge was the best part. He was a very kind old man who was almost too excited for us to come in. All I did was ask him for a recommendation for a place to get lunch, and he pulled out a map and marked every single romantic walk and good view in Avignon with a yellow highlighter and sent us off on our way. I must say, he was probably better than any guidebook I would've needed for Avignon.
The day we left Avignon, we took a walk along the Rue des Teinturiers, or Dyers' Street, something that the concierge had advised us to do. It was a picturesque tiny cobblestone street that ran alongside a canal with waterwheels and little bridges. SO beautiful, especially in the morning as we walked to the bus station where we were going to catch the shuttle back to the TGV station.

All in all, a lovely 2-day, 1-night trip to Avignon, and one that made me much less nervous about slightly more spontaneous traveling :)