Day 16, July 21

Last full day in France!  

Left the B&B at 7:15 AM, stopped at local boulangerie for coffee and a few croissants for the road and headed southwest toward Avignon, an easy 3 hour drive on the highway.  Arrived around 10:30 and headed for Lou Mistrau in Avignon, our favorite cafe, located right in the center of the city.  It's a great spot for people watching.  July is the theatre festival month in Avignon, with hundred's of theaters of varying sizes, all competing for your interest.  Throughout the day, the cast of the shows are performing in the streets and actually walking among the tables in all the cafes, handing out flyers and engaging anyone who will pay attention.  Based on the costumes of the actors, and the thousands of posters that occupy every free space on every wall, the Avignon theatre appears to be quite progressive, avant-garde, and risque.  Every production appears to push some limit to grab an audience.

Joni had a few items left on her Provence-only shopping list, so as she got in her final hours of shopping, I sat at the cafe, read the paper, and watched the continual show in front of me.

We left Avignon around noon and continued toward Nice, which was another two hours to the south.  We stopped in the hilltop village of Biot, which is just 20 k from Nice, for a late lunch at  l'Auberge du Vieux Village, which specializes in crepes and omelets. Joni had the former and I had the latter and for dessert, we both had crepes sucree; covered in ice cream, chocolate sauce, creme Anglaise, and whipped cream.  Sinful.  

The main reason we stopped in Biot was to buy some of their unique glass which is filled with bubbles as a result of a special technique that is only practiced here.  We bought four glasses for ourselves and four for another.  Our luggage is going to be well over the limit due to all the glass, pottery, and wine we've bought!

We checked into our hotel around 5 pm, I went down to the beach for my final swim in the Mediterranean, it was 93 F, and Joni repacked our bags to evenly distribute the weights and protect our fragile purchases.  

For dinner we walked to Old Nice and returned to a restaurant where we had lunch earlier on this trip.  I had gaspacho for my entree, and we both had veal with a cream tarragon sauce for our main dish.  We continued our decadent practices for one last evening, Joni have a creme brulee for desset, and I had a chocolae fondant.  We took one last stroll down the Cours Salayea in Old Nice, and returned to our hotel for our last night in France.  

All in all, this was a perfect trip, but I"m ready to go home too!