Whenever I go to a city that is new to me, it takes me a day or two to get oriented. I keep telling myself to take a designed walking tour or a guided one on the first full day. And if I take a guided tour, it should have a theme and fill one of my major touring objectives. So I signed us up for the Avignon Gourmet Tour. Most of you know that food is an important focus in my travels and this tour was perfect. It wasn't offered on our first day. If it were, we would have visited more Avignon secrets while we were here.
Our guide was a local resident. She spoke perfect English which she immersed herself in during a four-year stay in Ireland. It was an overcast and sometimes rainy morning in our three-hour walk. We not only learned some history of Avignon and Provence, but we visited several artisan shops in the narrow winding streets of the old part of town. We visited and sampled products from a chocolate maker, a coffee seller, a bakery specializing in Fougasse, a patisserie for croissants, Les Halle - an indoor market where we sampled olives, cheese, tomatoes, breads, a pork spread and strawberries - and a wine shop. It was a fantastic tour and it filled us enough so that we didn't need lunch.
Around mid-afternoon, Ann and I needed a snack. We wandered into the narrow streets again and found a creperie where we had some decadent sweet crepes.
After that we had some downtime at the hotel.
Dinner was at a restaurant recommended by our guide. At Le 46, Ann had grilled duck while I had pasta with shellfish. I am not sure what shellfish I had, but they might have been cockles.
It's now closing in on 10:00 and looks likes a rare early bedtime for this trip.
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