We're Here

September 25, 2018

Flying Vancouver direct to Paris is the way to go! No layover connections in Toronto or Montreal - just get on with the trip! We arrived at the CDG airport 30 minutes early, cleared customs in literally the blink of an eye - not a single question was asked by Customs, just stamp the passport and move along (way easier than going from Canada to the States by car) and now we are good to go for all of Europe!

We set off to find the airport train station. We had figured that since we were supposed to arrive at 7:30, collect our bags, clear customs and find train tickets that we would shoot for the 10:00 train. In reality, we did all that and were comfortably on the 8:25 train to Avignon TVG station. The 10:00 would have required a train change so we lucked out getting the 8:25 in lots of ways!

Our bikes and gear on the platform waiting for our train to Avignon.

and here it is right on time. Very fast trains too!

The train system in France is really quite good. However, since you are making a connection by air - you really cannot be certain as to your arrival time at the destination airport. Of course, the best fares are non refundable and booked in advance - so our fares are significantly greater for a walk up ticket.

The train to Avignon took 3 1/2 hours. Those trains really fly - up to 180kph so what took us 3 days to cycle in May was really just a short train ride!

We found our cute little AirBnB place easily after Scott recognized our host walking down the street to meet us. We ended up walking with all our gear further than expected but we did have an extra set of hands to assist. Our place is great - it's in a super location and has a lovely courtyard where Scott will build our bikes tomorrow. Best of all, the host will store the bike suitcases for the duration of our trip.

Our home for three nights. A small studio with access to a lovely courtyard in the back. The building facade is not very special but our apartment is newly renovated and has everything we need.

We dropped our bags, changed and map in hand, headed out to explore the city. At this point Scott recognized that the maps on his Garmin GPS were not functioning correctly. We rely heavily on this tool to navigate our bike route so it will need to be remedied before we start our ride a few days from now.

We walked through the old city and recognized many of the sights we had read about. The weather was a warm and a sunny 24 degrees and we found ourselves way overdressed! After an afternoon pizza and beer/wine stop, we tried to keep going but exhaustion became too hard to hold off. Our plan was to try to stay up and out until 7:00pm local time which would be 4:ooam Vancouver time and then after being up for 24 hours, we could fall into bed, sleep and be ready for a full day tomorrow. It was only about 5:30 when we had to call it a day!

Interesting building was built in 1592 as a poor house. Over the years it was used for several purposes. Now it is private and desirable upscale apartments in the heart of the city. Funny to start from a poor house now housing the well to do.

Beautiful architectural details in the old buildings of Avignon.

This wall which is pretty much intact, surrounds the entire old part of the city.

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ROSY ColistroYour trip looks amazing already. I just got home and I wish I was walking the streets of Avignon. Keep on biking and writing👌
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