Discovering Avignon ( ;

 Hello Charlie, 

today I've decided to introduce you to the lifestyle of Avignon, my almost-native city. I arrived in Avignon when I was 3, at that moment when my parents decided to come apart. We moved 3 or 4 times with my mother since we arrived in Avignon and we progressively discovered the city during the 15 years we have lived here. But why Avignon? Well, simply because my mother asked for a post in PACA (or region Sud, I don’t know how to call this wonderful region…) and she got moved here (as a primary school teacher). 

Now I come to Avignon every two weeks, except during the lockdown where it was a complete freestyle, but normally, I go to Avignon every two weekends. I don’t know how to start… maybe with a bit of geography: Avignon includes a fortified center , surrounded by ramparts. The circumference of the ramparts is approximately 5 kilometers long, which makes it a rather small inner city. These ramparts are also very questionable, because ramparts means gentrification, and some people tend to think that Avignon is only the inner city, even if the extramural also has a lot to offer. 

However, it’s true that the major part of the city’s activity is focused in the center… but it’s mostly because the administration doesn’t make the opening of new shops or cultural places easier outside the walls. 

Avignon is also known as the city of theatre, with its great festival including more than a thousand plays a day ! Amazing, isn’t it ? Well it depends on the play you’re watching, because among the thousands, most are not worth it. Enough negativity, now let’s talk about the assets of Avignon (if they exist… no I’m joking, it’s just that after 15 years in Avignon, I’m getting tired of this city). So, one of my best experiences in Avignon was CHAT class. CHAT class is not a class where you can chat as much as you want (even though it was looking like this),no, it’s a theatre class. CHAT literally  means “Classe à Horaires Aménagées Théâtre” and it’s a class where you have 4 hours of theatre a week (2 hours of repetitions and 2 hours of “art de la scène”, which was the most annoying thing ever). However, this allowed me to learn theatre (obviously) and to discover many plays, because we also did a lot of field trips. 

Avignon also has beautiful landscapes:

the Rhône and me pretending to be a model

just the cutest dog at Barthelasse island 

(the largest fluvial island in Europe)

the palace square empty because of the lockdown 

me wondering which cake I'm going to bake today

me and my amazing mother on our 14548th trip

 of the month on the Barthelasse island

All these pictures were taken during the lockdown. I used this unique situation to spend one month with my mother during which we baked, hiked and did plenty of activities because we are privileged , it’s true… But still, we kind of struggled during the lockdown because of homeworks and work and doing the ramparts tour everyday made us crazy. We thought we were going to end up like hamsters in their wheels  by always doing the ramparts walk. 

hope I'll see you in Avignon, Eva :)