Lauterbrunnen to Avignon – Day 05 Topdeck Mega European Tour

The Topdeck Mega European adventure continues today as we jump back on the coach for this next portion and head further south back into France and onto the historic city of Avignon. So far we have started our journey in London and crossed the channel driving onto the capital of France, Paris and spent two nights here. We then continued onto Switzerland and stayed in the beautiful village of Lauterbrunnen at the base of the Swiss Alps, without a doubt one of my favourite stops along this entire tour.

RECAP: London to Paris – Day 01 & 02 Topdeck Mega European Tour

RECAP: Paris to Lauterbrunnen and the Swiss Alps – Day 03 & 04 Topdeck Mega European Tour

Tonight for our stay in Avignon we spend one night in this historic UNESCO World Heritage listed town that was the home of two Popes while they were exiled from Rome for a period of 70 years before they were able to return.

Lauterbrunnen to Avignon – 05 May, 2012

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This morning we once again started our journey early as we are in for a long trip today as we depart Switzerland and the village of Lauterburnnen. We didn’t arrive at our destination of Avignon until late in the afternoon with our accommodation tonight being at a comping ground again called Camping Bagatelle just across the river from the Avignon old town. It wasn’t the best facilities especially coming from where we had just stayed the night before but it was in a prime location and was only for one night so it didn’t really matter. Tonight we are not provided dinner by Topdeck and must fend for ourselves which was good as it would get tiresome being provided every night.

Straight after checking in to the hostel we all gathered out the front to meet our tour leader for our walking tour of Avignon and before crossing the bridge we heard about some of the history of the town. Once we walked inside the city walls we were taken to the main square of the town and given some rough directions to where we could find things of interest and were then left to our own devices for the rest of the night.

Outside the town hall there is a old style carousel, this is when I found out an interesting fact about France that there is a law that every town hall in France must have a carousel out the front. So there you have it, if you ever see a carousel out the front of a building in France you are more than likely standing outside a town hall.

For dinner tonight we decided we would keep it simple and have something very French… McDonalds. In my defense, I had a McBaguette so that was kinda French. After having something to eat it didn’t take us very long to look around the whole city so we headed back and sat by the river to have a few drinks before getting some shut eye.

With not a whole heap to do in Avignon tonight was an early night, tomorrow we are in for another long drive as our tour continues onto Spain and to the city of Barcelona and along the way we check out the historic Roman aqueduct Pont du Gard. Did someone say Sangria?

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DOWNLOAD: Topdeck Avignon City Guide

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