Avignon – Leucate

“Life is a journey…not a destination.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson said. This applies to traveling too.

I cannot remember how man times in the past we hit the road to drive down to Spain. In general we were always in a hurry to arrive at our destination.

Now for once we had the luxury to have time and stopped in Avignon on the way down to the South:

A beautiful city, the intra muros part is easy to discover by foot, but public bicycles can be rented at several points outside the city wall. Obviously you must have a look at the “Pont d’Avignon” – the bridge of Avignon – which we all know from the famous children’s song. The “Palais des Papes” is also a must and you might be just as amazed as me what a big machinery the catholic church was (is?) from an organizational point.

And here is my tip for a restaurant “La Manutention” – an intimate, cosy, bistro like place next to the Palace’s wall. Enjoy the courtyard which is charming. We regretted to not have  enough time for one of the movies in the theatre Utopia next to it. They are not just showing blockbusters and on their program it says “100% 3D free”.

On the way back up from Spain hunger led us to a lovely meal in a restaurant near Leucate called “Les Pilotis” with a view onto the sea and the leisure to admire gifted kite surfers. Food wise this might have been just about the best restaurant of our entire journey thanks to a fabulous tuna steak. Don’t miss it.

Both short extra stops made the entire trip even more worthwhile.