.fr

this is french breakfast: day-old baguette with jam or honey, orange juice, and some coffee or hot chocolate. it has a point - light, nutritious, keeps you til lunch, but it's not saying much of importance. one of my favorite things in the world is a huge delicious breakfast. substance: eggs and potatoes and bacon and melted cheeses and ketchup is a resounding hell yes. breakfast, if done well, keeps you full until bar time. but since we are actually up early, as opposed to normal brunch time of 3pm, we eat a breakfast portion and it lasts until noon.

we set off to explore avignon by day, for although there is a lot we have to do, today we will be tourists. so we take the tourist train around avignon with all the other tourists and we feel better. we find the palais de papes, a huge medeval castle from the 1300's that at one time housed the papacy, and its huge stone courtyard, empty but for tufts of tourists. the frenchy tunes of a duo of buskers echo off the buildings. we find an internet cafe. we find a place for sandwiches, but accidently get the more expensive assiette.* we find the big indoor market les halles and i buy a little cheese from the fromager for only .60 euros. i also buy a small bunch of raisins, which in french are grapes. the guy tells me how much they are and i can't understand so then i ask him again and i still don't understand. i give him a bunch of change with an embarrassed smile and he gives me back half of it. this is what may was saying when she told me to learn my numbers.

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*literally means plate, so the guy asked us if we'd like a plate for the sandwiches, and we're like 'sure a plate would be fine'. but what it really means is you pay twice as much.