$1200 Train Ride

Train ride today from Antibes to Avignon. Usually I force the children to look out the windows periodically on the train ride, but they had been so good and were really looking forward to catching up on their video games. We had seen much of the trip through Toulon anyway on our way down to Antibes.  So I let them plug in for pretty much the whole train ride.
Luckily for me, two nice gentlemen came and sat across from us and I struck up a conversation. I got to speak more french today than I have on the entire trip. I figure from what I've been paying in schools and tutors, I got about $300 worth of lessons in conversational French from them.
As we were talking, I noticed an acquaduct over the man's shoulder. I asked him what it was and he casually said "oh, that's the pont du gard" I said "really, pont du gard? Right there?" I showed him the picture inside the cover of my guide book, just to be sure. "Oh yeah." I laughed and said "I'm paying a guide 300 euros to take us there tomorrow!" Of course he said "well there it is" and then asked me for 300 euros. I looked over at the boys and of course they were all looking down at their iPods.

And then it was gone. 300 euros, $414 (the dollar lost 5 cents since we got here btw, what the hell are you people doing to our economy while I'm away? Is my not going to costco every week really that big a deal?).

Well, the guide is driving us to Arles ($21 train ride) and showing us the Roman ruins. I hope it's worth 300e. That's like two trips to costco! (One if I need gas).

Boys were awesome today. Upon the advice of Rick Steves and our waiter today at lunch (at restaurant recommended by Rick Steves, hmmmm), we skipped the tour of the Papal Palace and enjoyed the grounds instead. When I offered for the boys to go out and dance on the half-broken Pont d'Avignon, we all agreed it would be hard to get a better view than where we were. So I got a coffee at the garden cafe and let the kids play.

The walls of the city are very impressive, definitely more medieval looking than those in Antibes, cut outs for crossbows and dentil towers, so the boys were definitely loving it. Samuel said "now I feel like I'm in history" (although parts of the walls of Antibes waaay predate those of Avignon!). Funny. I think he just really likes the rocky outcrops in the park and all of the schoolchildren running around. There are lots of tourists here and he met two different groups of American highschoolers. He impressed the ladies with his French.
We had to cut our tour short because Coops has a little cold and ran out of steam on us. We settled into the hotel for a movie and well see how far we can venture out for dinner. Would love to see the old waterwheels on the Rue des Teinturiers but I think the kids are done with me and Rick Steves ...and our tours.