We made it to Avignon. We took the red-eye flight from Dulles airport to Paris. There was a 4-hour lay-over waiting in the airport. Then we took the high-speed TGV train from the airport to Avignon. They say the TGV train travels up to 200 MPH. What I can say for sure is that the train traveled 460 miles in 3 hours. Considering it had to crawl slowly through Paris and Lyons, and stopped twice, I’d say we probably got pretty close to 200 MPH.

The first part of the ride was very smooth and quiet. We traveled through mile after mile of farm land. All the cows we saw where pure white, with no black or brown markings. I saw very little that was painted John Deere Green. The fields and buildings looked very well maintained. I didn’t see a single derelict building. Of course, I didn’t see everything. We were both incredibly tired and were desperately trying to keep our eyes open until bed time. After Lyons, the area changed. There were more hills, with mountains frequently visible. There was less land suitable for farming. The farms we saw were maintained just as well. The ride was still good, but noticeably rougher.

Our hotel is in the heart of historic Avignon. The area is all narrow streets that form an incredibly difficult-to-navigate maze. Outdoor dining is available everywhere. Many of the smaller streets are closed to motorized vehicles — except motorcycles, of course. The French seem to accept that motorcyclists can drive and park wherever they wish. We had a delightful dinner at a table in a pedestrian-only cobble stone street. We were interrupted by motorcycles only twice.

The time zone changes affected both of us quite a bit. In spite of having .had an exhausting trip and staying more-or-less awake for most of it, I woke up and was wide awake at midnight, which is 6 AM in Maryland. I forced myself to stay in bed, and finally fell asleep about 4 AM for another couple of hours of shut-eye. We plan to take it easy today, exploring the area and visiting a couple of museums, and acclimating ourselves to the local time.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.