Several people have emailed and asked for more pics of the apartment.  Most of our group is out wandering around the city so I took the opportunity to snap some pics.  Not the greatest, but you get the idea.  The one thing my camera can't convey is the feeling of space that the 20 foot ceilings give.  Its like no place I have ever stayed.

Dining Room

Another view of main salon

Small sitting room

View from front window North toward St. Didier

View from front window South toward shops.

The kitchen is quite large, but oddly not super well equipped.  Burners, large fridge, tons of storage, good size sink and a dish washer.  We have made some nice food so I guess its just enough!

I opted not to post pics of the bathrooms and bedrooms...  After 5 days of frantic travel and sight seeing, we are taking on a minor hostel vibe, in a good way.

It would be nice to say the place was perfect, but when the bathroom is older than my country, Im willing to make allowances.  Its showing its age, but still charming, like me.

Wine Tour Day!

We spent almost 8 hours on a 6 hour wine tour with Francois of Avignon Wine Tours yesterday.

Once again he did not fail to impress our guests!

From Avignon we headed north to Cairanne for a tasting lesson, then to St. Cecile les Vines for a stroll through a street market and wine tasting.  We had a super lunch back in Cairanne, then off to an amazing couple of hours sight seeing around Gigondas, and a tasting at our favorite winery Moulin del la Gardette.  Following all that, a final tasting of sweet wines in Baume de Venice.

A grand total of 11 wines tasted, something like 24 bottles bought.  Most were bottles that go for over $30 in the KC area, here were from 4euro to 11euro, hard no to stock up for the apartment.

Mind blowing wines, an incredible 15euro lunch(seriously, it was easily a $60 meal in the US), and scenery that made at least a couple people tear up.  Not too shabby!

Back home and a quiet dinner in, no wine was had for some odd reason.

Btw, the skies here really do get that freaky deep blue colour like the first picture, its not a Photoshop trick.  There is a reason great artists have always flocked to Provence for the light...

This morning Kim drug us all out of bed at an ungodly hour to jump on a fast train to Orange.  Ok, ok it was worth it, dammit.

We spent the morning touring the finest and largest remaining Roman amphitheater in the world, where they still present major opera and theatre productions today.  That place is HUGE. Not, "oh, my, I would hate to vacuum that" huge, its "crap Im getting vertigo just looking up at it huge!"  The pics I took just cant covey the scale of this place. 

Take a look here for more details:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%A9%C3%A2tre_antique_d%27Orange

For luncheon we opted for a little cafe set up inside of a grotto carved under the amphitheater, 16Euro for a 3 piece meal!

Quick cured salmon on a roasted sweet pepper, small rocket salad and citrus creme to start.
Roast pork loin in pastry with a pork juice reduction and roast veggies with herb d' Provence,
Apple clafoutis with a light raspberry and caramel sauce, and a few small chocolate dots.
(Khoni opted for an amazing Parmesan risotto, wow...)

Add in a very reasonable bottle of red wine and great food was had by all!

After lunch we wandered through town to a Roman triumphal arch, a hell of a walk but a damn impressive ruin.

Quick train (17 mins) back to Avignon and we are now at the apartment pondering red wine choices.

Here is a quick pic of the main living space in the apartment.  One of 3 "salons" on the street side of the place.  Huge windows, amazing details.

Well after 15 hours on the planes and an amazingly easy hour private taxi ride from Avignon(was cheaper that 6 train tickets!) we are in the apartment at last.

The flights were easy, not a whole lot bad nto say about anything except KCI sucks!

Apartment is incredible.  Posting doesn't do the size of this place justice, its gigantic.  My best guess is somewhere over 2000 square foot, with 18 foot ceilings and original 18th century floor and plaster moldings. 

This will not suck!

Crap!  Tomorrow!

We leave the house 1030ish and then spend the next 15 hours traveling to get to our apartment 24 hours after we leave.

Damn time zones...

6 days?  Really!?!

 Didn't we start the planning 18 months out so people would have plenty of time to save funds and get their ducks in the appropriate rows?  Well my ducks are scattered to the 4 winds and I'm pretty much assuming that Nita and I will be wandering around Avignon like stunned kittens for a few days after landing.

Stressing baggage weight limits, clothing, meds, etc.  Im sure things will get much. much better once we get through the weekend.  I tend to stress terribly up the the point there is nothing more I can do and then I embrace the cool tranquility of the inevitable...

Excited as a sugared up 5 year old!