This day in Avignon was museum day for me. Most Museums in Avignon are free.

The first museum of the day was the Musée Calvet. This is one of the two big art museums, the other one being the Petit Palais. They had a nice selection of Egyptian artifacts. I couldn’t believe how close I was able to get to them. The museum also has a lot of paintings of Avignon which was nice to see.

The next museum was a tiny natural history museum, Musée Requien. It had a few rooms in a big circle and took maybe 20 min to walk through the whole thing. And I was taking my time. They had some fossil teeth and tusk fragment from a wooly mammoth as well as a lot of fossilized shells. They had a few taxidermy animals and some beetles and butterflies.

After lunch, it was time for museum number 3, The Petit Palace! This had beautiful painted ceilings and tiled floors. Also on display are the works of Botticelli, and Carpaccio.

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Museum number 4 was The Palais du Roure “A Mansion Full of Memories”. This small museum came with a printed guide. It gives you the history of the building. Some rooms are still set up as they would have been. There’s a great bread box hanging on one of the walls. The lady of the house also collected bells and they can be seen all over.

The final Museum of the day was Musee Angledon. This put my museum count of the day at 5. This museum had hidden gems featuring Degas, Vernet and beautiful Japanese art.

They also had a temporary modern art exhibit.

I had dinner that night at La Cuisine du Dimanche. It was delicious. It is run by a couple, Mathieu and Pauline. When I told them my grandmother’s name is Pauline they were excited to hear someone else had the name. In French the spelling of my name means I love. J’aime. They thought this was amazing and at the end of the night when they walked around to all the tables to see how everyone was they brought me an aperitif and enjoyed saying my name over and over. I also had one of the best ile flottantes. It’s a large and fluffy meringue “island” floating in a sea of English cream and drizzled with caramel and slivered almonds. Amazing.

After dinner that night I saw a street show and wandered around a bit. I wound up back at the Palais des Papes and saw the light show again. It was so good.

The next day I would be off on the next part of my trip: Renting a car, and heading to Port De Gard.

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