Avignon, Bang a Gong, Avignon... (Bonne Festivale!)
(Editor's note: When I proposed the title of this blog, Michelle looked at me blankly. Even when I sang it JUST LIKE THE SONG. I may need to work on my singing voice I suppose)
As we wandered in to the walled Old Town of Avignon we were trying to figure out if we'd been here before and what we might do for a couple of days. It was about this point that we realised the streets were blocked off to most traffic and there seemed to be something big going on. Turns out we'd stumbled in to the world famous Avignon Arts festival (running for 69 years) and the apparently even more famous fringe festival - Festival Off!. Who knew? A lot of people apparently.
So we walked in to the perfect European festival atmosphere. Shows on everywhere, cafés spilling out on to the street in the warm summer evenings and the artists wandering the streets in costume encouraging you to come to their show. Posters advertising the shows (les 'spectacles') covering every possible place. We did ask a local the definition of a spectacle but we're still not really clear. Not to worry, all is solved with the cry of 'Bonne Festivale!'
We picked up a festival directory as thick as a phone book (remember those?), and sat down with a cold beverage to pick out a few shows to go to. There was a handy section of shows that would be suitable for Luddites (non-French speakers) like us. Things like dance, music and cabaret. We picked out a few of these and then, bolstered by a week of speaking French, Al decided to also take a look through some of the French speaking shows as well, confident that we could muddle through. How hard could it be?
Our first choice was a hit: The Band from New York. A French guy, pretending to be an American in France, singing famous French songs in English, accompanied by a pianist who was 'translating' for the singer. Sounds complicated but was actually very funny. Everything from the Beatles to Serge Gainsbourg. At one point he stepped into the audience of 20 or so in the tiny venue, sat down on Al's lap and started to serenade him with 'Imagine' (not captured on film).
Al can never resist a show that promises a clever turn of phrase and witty repartee, and he was armed with dangerously enough French (and some of the local 'courage') that when he found one that promised just such a thing, he wasn't daunted by the fact that these witty repartees would, in fact, be en francais. We were full of confidence that we'd be able to understand at least some of the show; the people selling the tickets were less sure. 'You understand, Monsieur, that ce show will be completement en francais, oui? (Il est fou!)' In fact, they were so incredulous that two non-Frenchies were going to the play they sold us the tickets for half price. Any chance of us gleaning some idea of a storyline went out the window when the two actors walked on to a bare stage. An hour of them exchanging what we guessed was witty repartee followed (Percentage of the show understood: Al,25% ; Michelle 2%.) A bit of intertube searching afterwards revealed the guy that was just amazing on stage was in fact quite a famous French actor.
Bringing back memories of the Edinburgh Fringe, we had no time to reflect on our lack of language skills, we had 10 minutes to get from that show to the other end of town and another show, which turned out to be the other end of the spectrum as it was a bit like a show made for young children. Perfect. It was a fun show about the history of music. Later that night we went to a cabaret /clown show which may sound odd but then you have to take it in the context that there was a whole section in the directory devoted to clowns. It started with such promise but then kind of petered out. And therein lies the beauty of a fringe festival like this where the tickets are not too pricey so you can take a gamble and try something you don't know. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it's, um, not so good.
Running around the outskirts of the city on our third morning in Avignon we stumbled on a whole area of the city we hadn't even seen yet and which was obviously the main tourist area. We were having so much fun we decided to stay an extra day as we hadn't yet had a chance to see the must-see attraction in Avignon (Palais des Papes) or to taste the wine which takes its name: Chateau Neuf de..... You guessed it Papes.
The Palais was fascinating, not least for the warren of architecture as it had been renovated by successive popes, by adding sections, turrets and wings in a manner that would put a TV renovation show to shame. We were both intrigued by a throw away line about how in the treasury room there had been all kinds of treasures stored under the floor in secret chambers. Apparently these storage chambers were only recently discovered (no mention of if they discovered anything of value in the chambers; no need to claim that with the tax man I suppose).
We had been promised by the guidebook that the self-guided tour through the Palais would end in a cellar where we could taste 55 Cote de Rhone wines. This was mysteriously missing (replaced with the requisite IKEA style gift shop that takes you through a maze of completely useless trinkets and spits you out somewhat dazed and confused). This left us at a bit of a loose end in terms of our second objective of the day, tasting the local wines. We did remember seeing a wine tasting on the first day so we went in search through the maze of streets to try to find it. Just when we'd lost all hope, a local finally pointed us in the right direction and as soon as we walked in we realised we'd made a rookie error - we should have been coming here every night! We walked in to a gorgeous courtyard with people sitting around tasting wine and eating charcuterie platters as an acoustic two piece sang in the corner. Each night of the Festival they feature a different set of villages in the Rhone area. We had no idea about the wine from the villages featured this night, which was perfect. What we now know is, choose the red; the white's paint stripper. Can't tell you the village.... Got a bit sketchy towards the end of the night.
The next day we headed from Avignon along that squiggly line on the map heading towards San Sebastián, stopping to play golf as we headed West in to the sunset with nothing to lose.....
