Avignon Saturday 3 May, Day 10

First stop today the Avignon Archaeology Museum, which for 1 Euro each, was the best value of trip. The collection of Greek, Etruscan and Roman carvings and pottery was stunning, and all the better for not being too big. The collection nicely curated with informative brochures in many of the rooms, and the nice man watching over it all  let us take a nicely printed guide to the whole collection .... in French but it will be good reading practice.  

After lunch  we visited Angladon museum, which had a Toulouse-Lautrec exhibition plus some other 19th century paintings. After that, Anne retired for a rest, while  I headed off to the Calvert Museum which houses paintings from the 15th century to the 20th. includes some Breugels senior and junior, some Dutch very brown paintings, and plenty more. There is also a collection of Egyptian artefacts.

By this time the wind was roaring through the plane trees - 64 kilometres an hour according to my phone which gets a local weather download.  The wind makes me glad that we decided not to sign up for a cycling Province tour - it would be no fun cycling in this no matter what direction you were heading.

I decided to get a bit of exercise to counteract the steady impact of too many pastries for breakfast, and set off to explore the other side of the Rhône. I nearly got blown away on the bridge but made it to the other side, and walked to the town of Villanueve-les-Avignon, which lies at the foot of the impressive and still largely intact castle of Saint-Andre, built in the 14th century. The road up to the castle winds through a well preserved own of little streets and beautiful stone buildings. I managed to get thoroughly lost, but eventually found my way back to the main road, where I caught a bus back to Avignon.

We had a lovely meal at a little restaurant just down the little street next to the hotel, a pleasant conclusion to a great visit to Avignon. The pace of life is more relaxed, the pressure and competition with other people less, and there has been plenty to keep us busy

Today's picture is of the Archaeology Museum - Anne is sitting on the couch taking notes. It is a lovely setting for the collection.

Tomorrow morning we are off to Arles.