Avignon, The Next Morning

I’m taking a break from the flu, to bring you this next installment of my birthday weekend in Avignon (Yes, I know it was four weeks ago, just go with it please. And if you missed part one, click here). Please excuse any typos, grammatical errors, and general lack of pizazz. I’m full of germs and the ickies. 

I know I’ve shown you Le Palais des Papes before (like here, and here) but never have you seen it on http://www.sarainlepetitvillage.com quite like this before. Look, there’s nobody there! (OK, if you look closely, you’ll see one person headed inside the Palace, but ignore him/her). And I know I’ve never shown you this… 
This is the Hotel de Ville (Hotel de Villes are not in fact, hotels, but instead, are city halls. It took me a long time of living in France to wrap my head around that one), and the reason I’ve never shown you this is because normally it’s so crowded that it’s basically impossible to photograph. Clearly the best way to tour Avignon is on a freaking, freezing, February morning. Fact. 
Saturday morning started with breakfast at the pub. They advertise a ‘Full Breakfast’. I’m not sure if that means it’s supposed to be a ‘Full English‘ or a ‘Full Irish‘. Either way, we didn’t care. It’s bacon, sausage and eggs which is basically unheard of in France so we happily ate it (Even if the sausage was more Merguez like than breakfast, and the salt in the bacon made us all puffy. It was still tasty).

And the best way to work off all of that sodium is with some cardio…. shopping cardio. Luckily for us (us being Mrs. London and me, I have no idea what the other two got up to at this time and I don’t really want to) not only was Zara and H&M on the same street we were already on, but the winter sales were still in effect. Win and a win. (Actually there were lots of wins. Wins like the black velvet flats with the skulls on them, and the jewelled collar top from Zara I picked up, and the purple corduroy skinnies from H&M… it was a winning day).

Shopping finished, we met the boys for lunch at The Sushi Shop. They were giggly and giddy and generally up to no good. I swear, they’re like, twelve (and this reminds me that I forgot to tell you about their pillow fight in the hotel hallway the night before… see, they’re twelve). When the waitress asked for a name after taking our order, Mr. London quickly replied, “Bumder“.
She looked at him, making sure she got it right, “Bumder?
Oui, Bumder”, answered Mr. London and then spelled it out “B – U – M – D – E – R“.
OK. Merci. Bumder” as she scribbled on her pad before walking away and The Husband and Mr. London erupted into fits of laughter. (If you watch The Inbetweeners then you’ll know why this is so funny, and if you don’t, I apologize. Or you could just watch this clip and be done with it.)

As if the whole ‘Bumder’ thing wasn’t immature enough, Tweedledee and Tweedledum dared each other to eat a big ol’ dollop of wasabi, and that’s when this happened… 

{Tweedledee}
{Tweedledum}
And that’s when Mrs. London and I erupted in fits of laughter, because our husbands are morons. 
bisou
  

18 responses to “Avignon, The Next Morning”

  1. I recall vividly the first time I found a lump of wasabi on my plate at Chinois on Main in Santa Monica California and took a big bite; it was like fire started blowing out of throat up through my nose. Not a laughing matter I assure you. I would love to go to Avignon and find no one blocking my shot of the Hotel de Ville or the Palais des Papes. I am glad you had a happy birthday. I hope you are on the mend. Have a good day.

    Like

  2. Oh no! You're sick! Feel better and get lots of sleep (and meds!).I used to live at the Hotel de Ville metro stop in Paris. For weeks I had been referring to me living at Hotel de Ville during phone calls with my mom. Well let's just say she was a bit disappointed when she finally came over to find a leaking chambre de bonne instead of her daughter being chic and fab, living in a hotel room in Paris. Hahaha. I'll never forget it!I hope I passed on a giggle or two. Now go back to bed! The H&M corduroys!!! YES. I got the mint green ones on sale! They didn't have the purple or the navy in my size otherwise I would have stocked up. Aren't they the best?? Good score, SL!Okay, now really go back to bed. : )

    Like

  3. hahaha eating a spoon of wasabi is my reality show big fear I think.And this: “This is the Hotel de Ville (Hotel de Villes are not in fact, hotels, but instead, are city halls. It took me a long time of living in France to wrap my head around that one)” had NO IDEA

    Like

  4. Thanks goodness for those morons….you have the most joyful times!

    Like

  5. I loved going to the Le Palais des Papes, it is really beautiful. Hope you are a bit better today (I am on day 11 of it!!) and it's good to be reminiscent about birthdays – even if the boys were very naughty!!Ivan

    Like

  6. I've been looking for a pair of shoes with skulls on top for my son-in-law for two years.

    Like

  7. Hi Sara! That castle is magnificent! I hope you feel better soon!

    Like

  8. HAHAHA! My husband and my sister's husband do stuff like this all the time! It's ridiculous, but hilarious to watch them. : )And those pictures of the Hotel de Ville are amazing!

    Like

  9. at least there's no shortage of entertainment! kudos. i LOVE when people around me do ish like this. i get to laugh, and i don't have to partake myself 🙂

    Like

  10. wow, Avignon certainly looks different without all the people! what a difference 5 months makes, hmm?

    Like

  11. and by that I mean the months between summer tourist season and winter cold no tourist season. not like I was actually there five months ago. because unfortunately I was not.

    Like

  12. You should be feeling better soon, 'cause apparently you have sent it ti me. There's no better way to continue celebrating your birthday than to keep retelling it. Keep it coming!

    Like

  13. You're right, I've never seen either the Palais Des Papes or the Hotel De Ville so clear of people! And you're also right, your husbands are morons ;o)

    Like

  14. I've never deliberately had a lump of wasabi, but it happens to the best of us. I react much like your husband and glug at my beer until the burning goes down.

    Like

  15. Okay, I totally had the same Hôtel de Ville misunderstanding. We were supposed to have a big meeting for school there and I couldn't understand why it was at a hotel! I'm glad I'm not alone. Avignon looks beautiful!

    Like

  16. Another entertaining post! What a very grand Hôtel de Ville – I wonder how many people have gone through those doors thinking it was a glamorous five star hotel! Well it's an easy mistake to make. http://missbbobochic.blogspot.co.uk/

    Like

  17. Très belle hotel de villes .Mais je préfère les petite marie de villages .36000 mairies en France

    Like

  18. Haaaaahahaha! At both Bumder and Wasabi!! x

    Like

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s