Day 11- May 29

 (view from a ways up on a walking path near the Palace of the Popes)

 (the Bridge to Nowhere- I don't know the story on this because I think I was sleeping on the coach when it was explained- but cool nonetheless. :) )

 (Palace of the Popes)

 (cute town of Avignon)

Today was spent mostly on a bus ride from Paris to Avignon, France. We left our hotel in Paris this morning at 7:30 am.  I wish we could have stayed there longer because I know there is so much I did not get to do.  Paris is a place that I would love to visit again someday.

We drove all day- from 7:30 am to about 6 pm, but thankfully I was able to sleep for much of that time.  According to European laws, our coaches have to stop every two hours to give the bus driver a thirty minute break.  As one could imagine, this makes for an even longer day of driving.  On the plus side, though, whenever I have to go o the bathroom, I know our next stop is only a short time away.

We had lunch at a fast food restaurant inside a truck stop, where we discovered that they do not appreciate American customers who want to have their burger "their way."

We arrived in Avignon to find a beautiful, quaint French town.  We're only here for one night but it is the perfect place to relax after going nonstop in two huge, metropolitan cities.

After checking in to our hotel, Jessica and I went to find a place for dinner.  We walked all around the town's square reading menus that were posted outside restaurants and trying to find one that was reasonably priced with recognizable menu items.  We finally settled on a restaurant, only to find out that they would not begin serving dinner until 7 pm.  So while waiting until then, we walked around Avignon- up to the Palace of Popes, and down in the square amongst the various shops.   The view in Avignon is absolutely beautiful, and the town itself is so quiet and peaceful.  Like Paris, this is another city that I would love to visit again in the future.

Finally, our restaurant seated us.  We spent quite while trying to decipher the completely French gourmet menu, not receiving much help from the waiter who spoke English about as well as I speak French.  We finally did order- I asked for a dish solely because I recognized the French word for salmon and I knew I liked salmon.  It turned out to be DELICIOUS- one of the best meals I've had in France so far.  My meal turned out to be what I think was supposed to be an appetizer- four chunks of salmon with salad and a mystery dressing.  It was so good, and actually really cheap.

After diner we just had to try one of the many ice cream places that we had seen earlier in the night.  I ended up ordering a scoop of the flavor called Cookies and it was very rich and yummy.

The, we called it an (extremely early) night and went back to our hotel room to catch up on some much needed rest.