Life in Avignon

We have now been in Avignon for almost a week and a half. Well technically our language facility is in a little village called Morieres-les-Avignon, which is about 20min East of Avignon.


This is our home for the rest of the month

A kiwi based over here has kindly lent us his spare car, which has made life here much simpler. I picked up the car a week ago after he picked me up from the airport. I would call myself a rather confident man at the wheel, with many years experience and different types of vehicles under my belt. But the 45 minute drive to Catherine, was certainly an interesting one. Driving in a foreign part of the world, with the signs in different languages, different road rules, and the obvious biggy was having to drive on the other side of the road (and car!). Lets say it was a rather humbling experience for me, feeling like a school boy sitting his learners licence!


Our smooth 4 wheels

In the weekend we visited one of most visited historical sites in France, which happens to be in Avignon, 'le Palais des Papes' (for you english speakers that means 'the Palace of the Popes'). It's really interesting to find out more about the history of the country we will be living in for 3 years.


A great view of the Palace from the other side of the river. The city is surrounded by an impresive fortress, which you can see in front of the Palace.


The entrance to the Palace


The Palace was built in the 14th Century, so it's almost 700 years old! It's called le Palais des Papes because the Popes of the Catholic church were based here in Avignon for about a 100 years instead of Rome.



The view from the top.

We've both had our first dose of the French flu, so we've being going slower than usual. But otherwise in good form.

On the Move

Yes, we are on the move!

Today is our last day in the beautiful Villefranche. We have enjoyed our 2 months of warm weather here, especially since we have come from NZ's winter and are now going into winter here in Europe. And it's consistently been warmer than both NZ and England. So it's always been a bit of a laugh (for me!) to turn up to my course, in London, and tell them that I was swimming yesterday! Yes, how naughty of me - but it's only fair, as they hassle my accent - so I think that makes it even. :)

Here are some pictures of the view from our lovely apartment we've been in. It's closer to the beach than our last one. So when I've been a man of leisure, I've just walked 10 minutes to the beach!



It's been a while since posting as we obviously have limited access to internet, but I've also been away quite a lot. Since the last post I've had two trips to London, one for 8 days and another for 3 days. All of which have been for my course, which I'm thoroughly enjoying and have made some great friends already. So poor Catherine is left behind each time I journey to London, however she has been enjoying her language training.

We went to Menton a couple of weekends ago, which is where Katherine Mansfield lived for a while and wrote a couple of her works. The public transport is fantastic, as we travelled all the way there on a bus (which takes about an hour along the coast towards Italy) and it only cost 2 Euro return, each! :)

So here are some pictures of Menton.




Oh yeah, I almost forgot to tell you where we are on the move to!! We are going to another language school in Avignon, which is about an hour north of Marseille. We will be there for 1 month, and then we move to Paris on the first weekend of December.

Keep in touch :)
Paul