Our intention with this blog is to write descriptions of day walks, but our latest holiday was an organised walking trip based in Avignon. Like many people without close family links anymore we often go on holiday at Christmas. We’ve been walking with Ramblers’ Holidays, over Christmas several times, on city visits and walking holidays. We have always enjoyed our trips. This trip was no exception. We chose Avignon as our destination, because we’d driven past on the autoroute several times, plus we have been studying French at night school and we could travel easily to Avignon by train. We were fortunate to find room on the trip even though we booked very late at the end of November.
We took high speed trains from Mannheim to Avignon, changing in Karlsruhe and Strasbourg. We met the group at Avignon TGV station and then took a taxi to the hotel. The weather was awful on our arrival, bucketing with rain. After a short break to unpack we retired to the breakfast room to meet Rob our leader and the other members of the group. Rob from the Wirral gave us quick description of the five days to come. As a Northerner I was glad to hear him speaking clear English. The group were mainly retired people who’d worked in various fields and seemed to have lead interesting lives.
The hotel only supplied breakfast, so we went out to eat that evening. According to the trip description dinner was to be taken in local restaurants. We only ate in two. They were reasonable, fortunately not Michelin starred restaurants, which meant we got enough to eat. Some meals were excellent, others less so. We noticed the vegetarians had a rough deal, confirming our opinion that the French catering industry does not understand the concept of “no meat, no fish”.
Ramblers’ Holidays grade their holidays to reflect the effort involved (E easy, D for slightly longer days to C for hard work) with an additional sightseeing category (SS). This trip was graded SS/D. One walks while sightseeing. There is no sitting on a bus, admiring the urban scenery.
Day 1 (21.12.2012) Avignon: We wandered through the old town. There was a Christmas market (Marché de Noël) on the main square of the city. Most of the group indulged in a cup of coffee. We don’t normally bother with such fripperies and wandered off to buy a book or two. After coffee the group reassembled, climbed to the heights above the river to view the bridge. This was our next port of call and afterwards we dispersed to eat lunch. Later we hit the papal palace and then wandered through the old town back to the hotel. We walked about 11 Km including a 2 Km trip through the papal palace. That evening we ate in our second appointed restaurant and whilst some of us enjoyed the meal many did not.
Day 2 (22.12.2012) We took a train to Arles where our leader left his rucksack on the train and set off in hot pursuit to the next station down the line. The group agreed to meet him an hour and a half later at the arena. This was good chance for the group to indulge in a leisurely coffee. We wandered off to peer at the town. Our leader appeared with rucksack. We visited the arena and after lunch a roman cemetery, the catacombs under the town hall, and the church of St Triophime with its cloister before returning to the station.
Day 3 (23.12.2012) We took a bus to St Remy and wandered round the pleasant old town, before pausing for coffee, yet again. We then followed a trail up to the psychiatric hospital where Van Gogh was interred following his attempt to chop off his ear. He was lucky enough to be allowed to wander out through the area to paint. Along the way there are a number of reproductions of his paintings showing the view as seen by Van Gogh over a hundred years ago. One can compare then and now. After a picnic lunch in the garden of the hospital we set off into the woods and passed the site of the roman city of Glanum, before walking up into the woods. We returned to St Remy to catch our bus back to Avignon. We were in luck and our bus was delayed by a parade of locals in Provençal clothing which we were glad not to have missed.
Day 4 (24.12.2012) We took a bus to the village of Vers Pont du Gard to wander along the line of the roman water supply to Nîmes. First we had to have a coffee break in La Fournil de Pont du Gard, so we wandered off as usual. We reached the Pont du Gard, ate lunch, visited the exhibition about the history of the water supply - excellent, watched a film about the site, of which the less said the better and enjoyed a good walk through woods to Remoulins to take the bus back to Avignon. The restaurant pulled out all the stops for a festive meal that evening, Christmas Eve being the high point of celebrations in France.
Day 5 (25.12.2012) On Christmas Day we visited Villeneuf-lès-Avignon and had long rather boring walk along the Rhone. The evening meal was fairly dreadful, basically thinly disguised leftovers from the night before. Fortunately some folks had eaten well at lunchtime in Villeneuf.
Day 6 (26.12.2012) On our last full day we visited Nîmes, to see yet another arena. I suspect the organisers of such trips would do well to learn a variation of Vargo's law laid down by the daughter of American friends of ours on a visit to Britain: “Not more than one castle or museum a day!” My variation would be “Not more than one arena a week.” We visited the ruins of the cistern where water from the Pont du Gard aqueduct reached the city, which were a bit disappointing. It was a beautiful day with blue skies and very warm in the sun, so we enjoyed poking about in the little squares and alleyways of Nîmes, a delightful, lively place. After lunch we saw a film about the history of the city of Nîmes in the Maison Carré, a former roman temple, before wandering back to the station. We all enjoyed our evening meal together in the other restaurant in the old printing works.
Day 7 (27.12.2012) We all went our separate ways.
Epilogue
The company, as usual on Ramblers’ trips was entertaining and the weather was fine, if grey and dull at times. Two out of the three walks were excellent. We saw a lot of history. Rob had worked out a good programme, but we suspect the description of the holiday should be revised. This holiday tries to be all things to all men. Two members of the party came expecting a sightseeing trip with leisurely meals in a range of restaurants. Another, a keen walker wanted to walk in the countryside more. We noticed today that Ramblers' Holidays offer two leaders on some holidays with two walks daily: one long and one short. In this case it might be an idea to offer both a cultural and a hearty walk daily. Although all the places suggested as lunch stops did have cafés or shops, this was not certain. The exceptio to this was the tower in the park above Nîmes. Each day some of us rushed around Avignon to buy provisions for lunch, not always easy when one of the days was a Sunday, closely followed by Christmas Day. Our French was useful since we asked the waitresses in the hotel where to go, but others found that bakeries or shops were closed. The hotel lacked a sitting room, and there was absolutely no place to socialise after walking or evening meals. Some party members enjoyed leisurely ambles around Avignon in the evening. Ramblers’ leaders report their experiences in a document that is continually updated. Our admiration of this report system is less than it was. One of the earlier leaders had written in his report that there was no public transport on Christmas Day which is true for Britain, but nowhere else in Europe. Trains and some buses were certainly running. Are these reports never checked by head office or a critical group of experienced leaders? The slog (13 miles by my pedometer) we ‘enjoyed’ on Christmas Day was suggested by an earlier leader.
