Lazy Sundays... and Mondays, and Tuesdays...

I really have absolutely no excuse for not posting a lot more often than I do, except that I am trying to live in the moment of being here, in FRANCE, for only a few more months!  I am sure you all understand that I prefer to be away from the computer, as much as possible, until I arrive back at my job in Wichita Falls.  The past few weeks, Mark and I have been trying to be consciously aware of how leisurely our days are passing by here (hence our accurate post title), and aside from his classes and school work, we spend a lot of time outside, picnicking in the parks, riding bikes, and exploring. So, relinquishing absolute control over the laptop to Mark has been a very liberating experience.  He submitted his thesis last week to his adviser and is now waiting anxiously for it to be returned to him so that he can revise it.  Speaking of revision, I agreed to edit his thesis during the writing process, and as you might all imagine, it led to MANY disagreements between us.  I resigned my position as editor and critic several times, but Mark always convinced me to continue.  We do agree that despite the strong differences of opinions on many academic issues that stem from our very different areas of concentration, the draft he finally submitted had come a long way from the original, and although Mark is still sickened by the sight of the thing, I have to say that I am proud of the outcome and of Mark's research!  Our marriage is still intact after the first round of the revision process, and I am glad that we are able to agree to disagree and still love each other fully during such heated and passionate discussions.  When Mark expressed such relief at being able to submit the first (actually, fifth) draft to his adviser, I didn't have the heart to tell him that there is still such a long road ahead, full of more revisions, and that the hatred of his thesis is likely to grow tenfold before the end...  the poor soul... I remember the tortured process well.  However, the end result will hopefully be triumphant, and I am going to do my best to keep his spirits up until then-- at least he has access to endless supplies of delicious cheap wine and gorgeous train rides to French villages to distract him throughout the process, which is much more than most of us have to provide relief!

Speaking of French villages, we recently traveled to Avignon for a weekend away from Lyon.  It was a great two-day trip (we were able to utilize our carte weekend once again), complete with a visit to the Papal Palace, a lot of wandering and getting lost along tiny streets and alleys, and the learning of a great new French children's song!  Also, to be fair to Mark, I have to confess that I had my own little embarrassing moment on this trip.  We stopped for a coffee after a lot of wandering, and I made a quick trip to la toilette before leaving the cafe.  Before exiting the facilities, I stopped to wash my hands (bien sûr!).  I squirted soap out, and then began waving my hands before the water faucet (many of them are motion-detected these days).  However, as much as I waved, nothing happened.  There were no handles or knobs, so I was completely baffled at the fact that no water was coming out.  I tried tapping the faucets (yes, all of them), I tried wiggling the water spouts, but alas, to no avail.  Somewhat dismayed, I exited, explained my plight to Mark, who poured water onto my hands from our water bottle so that I could wash them while complaining about no water, and how they need to post a sign.  After the rest of our adventures that day, we ended up in a restaurant for dinner, and I again needed to use the facilities.  So, I headed upstairs, and upon trying to wash my hands, encountered the exact same situation!  By this point I was beginning to think that Avignon's water supply must be endangered.  This time, I was determined to figure it out.  So after a longer period of time than I am willing to admit here went by, with me twisting, banging, and jiggling every possible piece of plumbing in that restroom, I spotted it-- a tiny little black button ON THE FLOOR!!  I stepped on it, and sure enough, like magic, water poured from the spout.  When I finally made it back downstairs, Mark was staring at me with a questioning look, and I busted out laughing and refused to explain what happened.  After he visited the facilities, he came back out laughing, and I knew he realized what I had done.  The sad thing is, Avignon is not the first place I have encountered plumbing like that; it had just been so long that it never dawned on me to look for it on the floor.  Here are some beautiful photos from our trip for you to enjoy, along with your good laugh at my ignorance:

Avignon is a medieval city that is still completely surrounded by a city wall.  They have had to expand the city outside of the wall, obviously, but the original centre ville and all of the wall are still intact.  This photo is the main entrance into the city, as you exit the train station.

Speaking of train stations, we have another humorous story.  We allowed the SNCF to reserve our hotel along with our train tickets because they offer discount packages.  We emphasized that we would be on foot and that we would need a hotel very near the train station and the city center.  The kind employee behind the window assured us that the place he reserved was only a 5 minute walk from la gare.  However, when we arrived and began looking for it, we soon figured out that the hotel was about 1 1/2 miles from the train station where we arrived.  The mistake on the SNCF worker's part had been to look at the distance from the TGV train station, which is well outside of the centre ville, rather than the station where HE booked our tickets to, which is the regional train station.  So, we had a lovely hour long walk down a busy French highway before arriving at our hotel.  We did discover that there was a bus stop across the street where we could take the bus directly into the city center, but that discovery didn't make us any less tired by the time we arrived.  Oh well, lesson learned!  We will be booking our own hotel reservations in the future...

This is the opera house in Avignon-- very beautiful architecture.

 Our first view of the Papal Palace.  The Pope lived here in Avignon for a period of about 70 years in the 14th Century. 

 City center square

 There were quite a few murals on buildings all throughout the Old Town.  Mark captured a few here.

 Another shot of the palace

 Mark waiting on me to climb up the stairs so we could begin our visit!

 "Let me out, the smoke is black!"  These doors in the palace courtyard were pretty impressive.

 We caught someone studying her notes as she looked out this window over the palace courtyard.

 Inside another courtyard

 Shot of the bell tower

 One of the hallways leading to the rooms

 Cool ceiling

 View of the palace from the top of one of the towers

 Sitting on the roof!

 View of the city

 This guy happened to climb up and pose on the roof at just the right moment.

 My favorite photo of the day

 Mark, peeking out of the tower and having way too much fun visiting the toilet in the palace.

 "Yeah...yeah the smoke is definitely black!" No new pope yet.

 Another palace shot

 Cool covered street-- there were souvenir shops lining both sides

 Another cool side street near the palace

 Dancing on the pont d'Avignon!  Speaking of that, we totally have to share the song with all of you.  I'll save it for the end of our Avignon visit.

 Another view of the bridge

 Mark on the bridge

 Mark, in the lookout point from the chapel under the bridge

 A beautiful church we stepped inside

 Church from the outside

 On top of the park above the palace

 View of the Pope's vineyard from the park

 We aren't sure why Mark looks as though he is afraid he might fall off, but the view is stunning!

 Hanging out in the park

 Visiting another park, on the sight of an old monastery.

Okay, so here is a link to an adorable version of the "Sur le pont d'Avignon" song.  It will get stuck in your head, so be forewarned:

And that was our trip to Avignon, in a nutshell.  Mark somehow hurt his foot on that trip (we think it must have been all the walking on uneven, cobblestone streets in the Old Town), so he has been taking it easy so that his foot can heal before our REAL traveling begins this spring.  Other than that trip, we have been keeping ourselves occupied in Lyon.  We have met up with Mark's classmates for drinks and snacks on several occasions, and we had a surprise visit from Shar-Né last weekend.  She was coming to Lyon to meet up with a friend from her language school days in Nice, so she crashed on our couch for a night.  We took her to our favorite park and Place Bellecour before leaving her to catch up with her friend.  It was great to see a familiar face and to catch up on her latest adventures in Nice:

 In the park!  It was such a beautiful, sunny weekend.

 All the girls!

 Shar-Né, posing successfully as an incognito flamingo

 Also, Shar-Né and her friend rode the giant Ferris Wheel at Bellecour, which reminded me that I forgot to post pics from when Mark and I rode it back in December.  Here are our photos!  Above is a view from the top, and below is a photo of Mark and I, trying to smile despite the freezing wind blowing really hard!!

 He actually didn't have a popped collar that day; the wind just hit it at the right moment, haha.

 Another view from up top!

Who's got two thumbs and loved riding the Ferris Wheel??  This girl!

Other hidden gems that we never posted include these photos:

 Mark took me to see The Hobbit for my birthday!  It was our first 3D experience (I know, we are so behind), and it was so much fun!  The only other 3D adventures I had been to previously were at Universal Studios and the IMAX many years ago.  We were actually quite impressed by how cool it was; I never realized it would be so intense.

 And due to the sad ending of our stay in Barcelona, I don't feel as though I gave as much attention to the delicious wine and tapas as they deserved.  We had some AMAZING meals in Barcelona!  This little hole-in-the-wall tapas bar we stumbled upon was my favorite.  That wine is as tasty as it is beautiful.

 Pan y tomate and fresh (really FRESH) ham.  Yummy!!

These don't look very good, but I promise, they are.  Those 'orangey' things in front are called las bambas, and they are these meat/potato things covered in a spicy tomato sauce; next are fried crab cakes, and last were breaded zucchini sticks.  Delicious!

Mark's classes are dwindling down, so we hope to do a few more weekend trips before our big spring Eurail adventure in April.  However, I won't make any promises that we will blog more often.  We have less than three months to soak up all that France has to offer, and we plan to continue taking full advantage of the opportunity.  A la prochaine fois, alors!  We hope all of you back in the states enjoy your Spring Break!