Sur le pont d’Avignon
by samHorrah! New freewheel in place and we’re off on the train to Avignon!
We arrived in Avignon on Friday 20th and met some really lovely people on the train and off the train. First, Damien, a sapeur-pompier who lives in Valence. He somehow manages to travel to Valence to fire-fight and look after his five month old son in Valence. His recommendation for our tour was to visit the Haribo (sweetie) factory in Uzes!
Off the train and into the festival hullabaloo of Avignon (the theatre festival in July is renowned). Outside the tourist office we met Gwen, Cora and Marco, actors and musicians from Switzerland and Italy who were preforming at the festival for the first time. They were loving the craziness of the festival.
We danced sur le pont d’Avignon and wandered around the side-streets of Avignon to watch a Japanese dragon dance and some jazz musicians. The pont d’Avignon is v impressive: it was built in the 14th century when the Pope was based in Avignon. It was almost one kilometre long and had 23 arches! Now it only has five or so. People used to be scared of crossing it because the Rhone is so wide and the wind blows through with a force.
Our campsite looked a bit like that at Reading festival. And so we really didn’t get much sleep thanks to the drunken yoofs who screamed every five minutes all night long… 