Au revoir

Things I won’t miss about my life in Avignon:

1.  le Bokaos:  cette boîte de nuit = pain in the butt

2.  dog poo (in fact, there's a whole post separate that could be written on this subject....)

3.  wicker furniture

4.  certain smelly streets

5.  the daily 5:30 am garbage pick-up right outside our window

6  “production écrite” french exams



Things I’ll miss about my life in Avignon:

1.  the sunshine

2.  spending two hours during midi as a family every school day

3.  being able to walk (while the girls scooter) everywhere

4.  hearing the girls speak French daily with their french friends

5.  the view of the Palais de Papes from the other side of the Rhône River

6.  working on homework or reading while sitting at a café drinking excellent coffee


And, lastly and mostly, those lovely residents of Avignon that welcomed the Canadian family into their homes; sharing their culture, their families and their lives with us.  Their generosity was certainly more than we could have wished for and I will always feel grateful to each and every one for making our year that much more enriching.  A year ago, Avignon was a far away dot on a map and, besides a few interesting pictures on the internet, really an unknown.  Now we know its streets, shops, cafés, tourist sites, university, opera house, weekly newspapers and its bus routes.  But most importantly, the faces, names, relationships, dreams, complexities, histories and stories that we learnt while getting to know some of its inhabitants is what has forever made Avignon a meaningful place to us.  Bises and au revoir to our Avignon friends!

                             

People were so generous with having us over one last time before our departure.  Above are some of the special meals we were treated to - from Moroccan coucous we all ate from the same bowl, to a feast of cheeses and wines (including a plate of plain ol' cheddar the hosts had bought especially to humour us).