Avignon

I am going to post travelogues by sequence--so even though we say we are back in the last post, I am going back to Provence and then forward.

Just for context--the road to Avignon via TGV--the super high speed train I already wrote about. We are way to the south now.

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This is our hotel in Avignon. The little window by the narrow cedar tree is our bathroom. We looked out onto this nice little park. Notice the lack of grass --very common in all the parks we have been seeing. Just a gravel surface. Seems to work just fine for them!

Here is a nice aerial that shows up on windows live local. The arrow shows our hotel and you can see the little park.

This is the covered market (less Halles) on the Sunday morning we were there. This aint no Walmart, folks. Local people selling local goods! A real smorgasboard of good stuff. And lots of local interaction going on as well.

Typical market stall. Oranges obviously not local (from Spain), but there was abundance of good local stuff--strawberries, for example. I am probably trying to figure out how to ask about local apples or something as I peruse my French dictionary!

Leticia just outside the market in one of the many squares that dot Avignon. No lack of public civic space!

How about this for a wonderful square with lots of great public activity. A good example of the way public spaces intersect with what some urbanists call "third places"--the bars and restaurants that are so important to civic life. It is all together right here. As in much of France--the thing to do is to sit with your drink and food and watch people.

A windows live local view of the same shot from above, showing location and direction. Could there be a better demonstration of how density helps make a place?

This is a small square just off of one of the "main" squares of Avignon. When you see kids playing in the square (there is a soccer ball in there somewhere!), you know the design is right!

All is not perfect in Avignon of course. Outside the old walls things go downhill pretty quick in some directions. There is a whole lot of development that is just as car dependent as anything in Houston. This picture shows low income housing not too far from the old walls. Mainly inhabited by Muslims as far as we could tell, mainly middle eastern but some African (Algerian?) as well. Not too happy of a place. Could the public realm been designed a bit better here?? Many of the riots that occured a few years ago in Paris were likely in neighborhoods like this.

There is no subway in Avignon--too small for that (about 90k people), but it does appear to have a very good bus system. We met a couple of Peruvians selling jewelry on one of the squares. How do you guys get around we asked--do you take the bus? Not us--we drive! they said. The allure of the car...