Sur Le Pont D'Avignon

One of the things I did while in France was to leave the boys at home for a day and take Lillian to Avignon. The old city of Avignon is beautiful, enclosed behind ancient walls. And there are a lot of touristy items of interest, including the Pope's Palace, the Church itself, The gardens, and of course, the bridge, which reaches about halfway across the Rhone.
Avignon is a few hours from where my parents are, so we left on the early side - 8am. That's early, right? What I had failed to realize fully, or to take into account, anyway, was that it was JULY, and therefore FESTIVAL TIME! Every year there is a huge art festival in the city, and hundreds and hundreds of actors and performers flock to the city and had out flyers to their shows. Hundreds of performances. People walking around in costume, trying to drum up business...
It took us over an hour to find a parking space once we actually made it to the city. We ended up parking across the river and taking a bus (free for festival season!) to the old city, and thank goodness we happened upon it, because I was very close to just stopping the car along the side of the road.
Once we finally got out and started walking, however, we were quickly swept up in the craziness of it all. Street performers sang songs, played instruments... and his old guy whistled a lot and balanced canes on people's heads and shoulders. Everyone wore their costumes. A group of people were dressed as animals. There were flocks of flight attendants. A huge Chinese Dragon danced down the street. One group of performers dressed in Elizabethan collars and sang madrigals, then dragged standers by into a huge human game of chess. I saw posters for so many shows I lost count - the were plastered all over the outside of the bank, above the heads of the people selling bracelets and paintings. Shows including 12 Angry Men (in French), the Vagina Monologues (in French) and this beauty:

All in all, it was a busy and fun day. Festival time is fun. You should go. Park across the river and take the bus - it will save you time and stress.