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we're currently staying in the cheap hotel in town since the nicer one missy set up for us ran out of space after our reservation period ended. i guess we thought we'd have a place by now.

the Etap, as it's called, is almost the same price, but, well, i'll let missy complain properly about it. when we mention to anyone in avignon that we're there, they immediately express sympathy for us, if that gives you any idea. at least it has the BBC World channel on the tv. this is just enough english to not go crazy and just repetitive enough to force us to the french channels for real entertainment and proper cultural absorbtion.

but they also have this sign by the elevator that lists all the emergency numbers, should anything untowards happen during our stay. i love the poetry of how it reads:

incident. accident. incendie. évacuation.

describes in four mellifluous words the plotline of any really great evening.

miss takes a well-deserved break from walking to enjoy a pastis at a café. we've been here two days in a row at about 3:30. it's been the same waiter each time. we wonder if we're going to become regulars. just in case, i make a note to remember the price of two pastis: 3.80€. it's an anise liquor from Marseille, heavily watered down. very refreshing.

it's a nice square. there is a big old church (ho hum), an artist supply store (maybe i should try sketching again), Pizza Rapido (yet to try), and two doors down is The Koala Bar. we can't go in there because missy used the restroom without buying anything once and got yelled at. it's ok, the place is bright pink with curvy plastic things everywhere and constant europop. if portland's Tube bar is the man, the Koala is the woman. they would have a torrid disaffected relationship.

also is a homeless guy on crutches. he was here yesterday too. he has a game: he stumbles around, overtly disabled, until a pretty girl walks by. then he drops his crutches in her path. one time in ten, she helps him. actually, those aren't bad odds. for a moment i'm jealous.

(i apologize if any java hacker gets the joke caption. some things, no matter how hard we try, are stuck in our brains.)

looks like i forgot the digital camera. so we're stuck with the lousy one built into my new cell phone. glad i splurged and got it. expect more blurry grainy out of focus entries in the future!

this one i had to take since it references the play on words in the blog subheadline. aix-en-provence is a little town near here. i've been looking for an excuse to replace it with "alx" since long before i got here. yeah, clever. i know.