Allons-y! Or Let’s go

It’s time to head south to Provence but first, we must make a slight detour to the Chavaniac-Lafayette. When we lived in Delaware, Amy and I regularly attended historical lectures at the Hales-Byrnes House, which is where Lafayette celebrated his 21 birthday with George Washington as they planned for the Battle of the Brandywine.

I’ve alway been curious about him Being so focused at such a young age and willing to spend his inheritance to help the ragtag colonies defeat the British. His family home is about an hour east of where Amy is living in Le Puy. We knew the house would. It be open, but we went anyway. We were fortunate the gate to the house was open so we walked in and took some photos. It’s a very unusual architecture and not as big as one might have thought.

Now it was time to turn southwest. We were starving by this point and found a sweet little boulangerie. We ate our pastries and drank our coffee right there in the car, which Amy felt was bad form. Our next quick stop was the Carrefour plus to get some snacks and drinks for the trip. I had a feeling we were leaving civilization for awhile and I was correct!

Enroute to Avignon, we encountered snow in the mountains. It was raining so I was watching for black ice, but fortunately we did not encounter any. The scenery was beautiful but we were eager to get to warmer weather!! When we stopped for a photo op of a DuPont hotel(we lived in Delaware when DuPont “owned” the state!), I looked up river only to see Mother Mary was watching over us

As we came near the end of the Parc Nationale d’Ardeche, we saw limestone outcroppings, lavender, olive trees, and vineyards—quintessential Provence. After a lot of traffic circles, we came into Avignon which is an old city with irregular and small streets. I panicked at one turn off because I thought it was pedestrian only, but after we pulled off and reviewed our options, we decided to circle back around. And yes it was a real street. We found the hotel and a place to park, while Amy called them for checkin directions, as I realized those had never been sent. It was a little stressful and the lady said she would sent them and hung up. We’re like, where is she going to send them??? But my WhatsApp longed momentarily and we were set. Amy took off with the bags and I went to park the car.

I was stressed still because I knew the underground car park would not be very spacious and I was correct. But I got the car parked and exited to god knows where, but Apple Maps took me quickly to the hotel.

Our next priority was finding dinner because it was getting late to get a reservation for a Saturday night. Amy found HI!Bowl&Bubble had an opening so Asian food it was. We walked around town for a bit. There were a lot of really nice shops, including Gertrude. For those of you who know me from work, Gertrude was my rubber chucked who I used to call meetings to order and keep meetings under control.

The restaurant was tiny and we had two spots at the counter. I had a ramen bowl, yum, and Amy has “some random thing” and matcha cheesecake. Midway through the meal, there was a loud bark. The restaurant has a resident Corgi.

As we walked home, we noticed some heavy metal barricades had blown over around construction. Another gust of wind came up and more started toppling. Yikes! We we ready to run!

We made it back to our hotel, le petite Avingon safely. Avignon was shutting down and so were we.