On an Island in the River

Here we are in a small house on Ile de la Barthelasse which is a rather large island in Avignon. The island is surround by the Rhone river and a short walk (10 min) takes us over the bridge into town. From the bridge we can see THE bridge that was made famous by the song Sur le Pont d'Avignon (at least that's how I know about the bridge but apparently some people have never heard the song) which for some reason only goes part way across the river.

The bridge was built more than 800 years ago (1177) and started falling down a few hundred years ago. The flood of 1669 swept away a lot of it and apparently no one bothered to fix it.

Right outside our front door is a lemon tree full of fruit and yes lemons can be green.



Something that always impresses me in French villages are the beautiful storefronts and displays.

It didn't take us long to find the wine store that has 32 different wines 'on tap'.

First you purchase a card for, let's say,  €40. Then you slide the card into the slot, put your glass under and make your selection of 1 oz, 2 oz or 4 oz. Each wine is individually priced ranging from about €1 to €5 for one ounce depending on the type of wine. When we got down to the last €4.25 Scott had to do some tricky math to determine which combination of wines we could have to get the total down to exactly €0.

It's hard to believe but I was in France almost 24 hours before I had my first gelato - chocolate orange creamy deliciousness. Expect to see more like this.

Below is a view of the limestone walls of the city of Avignon which surround the city for about 4 kilometers.

Ross and I with the Pont between us.