June 20, Tuesday
Today was perfect and I'm so grateful to David, Chris, and Jorge for planning it for us. We know Jorge and David from work, and when we all went out to dinner a few months ago and told them we would be docking in Marseilles, David said he has a home there. We had mentioned that Michael wanted to see Avignon but we were having a hard time figuring out the logistics because of the distance from the port, and he offered to take us. At first we were very hesitant as that is a pretty big favor, but he was insistent and we were very grateful for the offer. Jorge was excited to join us, as well. It was a wonderful day! We told the kids to meet in our room at 9:30 AM but it took us a few minutes longer than that to leave. We made sure to bring copies of our passports. We got off the ship quickly and then got into the shuttle line, but I asked the lady who was directing people where the shuttle takes us and she said it's to the city center and it's 20 minutes away, so I knew that was a terrible idea. The shuttle was definitely not what we wanted and the only other option was the taxi line so we went in that line. We quickly got to the front of the line and I asked how we can walk out of the port or if we should take a taxi. The lady helping me was very annoyed with me and as I was talking to her, I heard Michael say, they're here! I thought he was pointing to a taxi and I remember looking at the taxi guy and he did a U-turn and cut in front of other taxis and came over to us, but then I soon realized that they meant a different car that was outside of the line of taxis. The taxi driver seemed pretty upset that we didn't get in his van, but we hadn’t actually called him over so I don't know what happened there. Anyway, David and Jorge were in a big van that could hold eight people and Chris was behind him in a sedan. David said three of us needed to go with Chris but really it could've just been two because we had enough room in the van. I felt bad because Jonny got selected to go in the other car with Nathaniel and Audrey and I was worried about him not being with us but it turned out to be fine. Chris is a really nice guy and they talked to him for a while. I sat next to Jorge and he's always very talkative and entertaining. He took pictures of us in the car and multiple pictures throughout the day.
It took about an hour to get to Avignon. It looked like we were on a movie set or something. It was so European. The narrow, cobblestone streets and the cool, old buildings were amazing. The kids all loved it. Daniel said that was one of his favorite parts.
We were actually early for our tour of the Pope’s Palace so we wandered around a little bit and took a few pictures.
I found a little shop that had a bathroom and we got a couple of cookies. Andrew and Daniel had gone off on their own. Andrew found a ring and he was pretty excited about buying it. He used cash. I had given everyone some cash just in case but we rarely needed it.
These are all made out of cardboard!
When it was about 12:50 PM, we realized we needed to hurry so we could make our lunch reservation at 1 PM and Andrew pointed out that there were 14 rooms so we better hustle and so we did. It was a little confusing navigating the museum, but we figured it out. I thought the room where they kept the gold was kind of cool. I sat down for a few minutes and talked to David's aunt. She is 80 years old and she did a great job navigating all the stairs, because there were a lot. Emily had asked me if it was OK if she and Jonny went off on their own or if they needed to stay with us and I said they could go on their own if they wanted to, but I didn't realize that meant we wouldn't see them again until we got to lunch. By the time we got to the gift shop, I was pretty worried that we hadn't seen them yet. They were already at the restaurant, thankfully. I had to get a couple of magnets from the gift shop. The lunch was wonderful! It was called Carre du Palais. There were 15 of us total. Besides David's aunt, there was also his cousin Chris and his daughter Sophie and Chris's grandmother. She didn't go on the tour with us but she joined us for lunch. They're all very nice people and we had a nice conversation with them at lunch.
I ordered the seabass, Michael got a burger, Nathaniel also got the seabass, Audrey got a salad, and all the rest of the kids got a ribeye. They had a gazpacho soup that was tomato and raspberry. It sounded strange but everybody who tried it said it was good. I also really liked my dessert, which was pineapple gazpacho with coconut. Michael and the kids all got a chocolate dessert and Nathaniel got a lemon one.
The food was so pretty!
We paid for lunch as a thank-you to them. By then, it was 3 PM and we had to leave. David's family had to leave even sooner than that. We walked back to the car and they drove us back to the ship. We thanked them and said our goodbyes and got on the ship. We really couldn’t thank them enough. We only had an hour until it was time to get our white clothes on to go to white night. I was so disappointed that they didn't have photographer set up for us to get a picture. The waiter said he would send a photographer over but he never saw one but luckily there was a set up outside the main dining room for us to get a group picture before everybody dispersed.
Dinner was wonderful, and Raj, our waiter, helped bring everything quickly after I told him we had a show to get to.
We had reservations for Hairspray at 7:45 PM. The only ones who wanted to see the play were me and Emily, and Michael joined us. He wasn't super thrilled about watching it but he was trying to support me and wanted to spend time with me so that was nice. He ended up enjoying it. It really was good. The people around us, especially in front of us, were kind of annoying but I really enjoyed the play.
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