8. Avignon/Annecy (France) & Paragliding!

Day 21.Thursday 6/11/26 

Transit Day Nice —> Avignon 

Walking Tour of the city. Incredible; more on that later. Hiked over the river and through the woods (or in this case, the Palace of the Popes), down a steep flight of stairs on the edge of a cliff, down to the ferry. Caught the last ferry by 2 seconds (he closed the door behind us) to cross the River Rhōne for drinks & dinner at the only restaurant on that peninsula. We enjoyed live music, cheap drinks, and a surprising number of locals. 

Incredibly beautiful tapestry hidden in a dark, small church. Looks like 20x20feet, all cross-stitched with panels sewn together. Incredible that this is just chillin in a secluded church. 

Golden Hour was incredible whilst viewing the famous Bridge Ruins of Avignon. You think you’ve seen one sunset, you’ve seen them all. No. Total Cotton Candy Sky. Speaking of which, shout out to Daniel Dorsett’s recently composed/Cincinati Children’s Choir Performed choral piece  “Cotton Candy Sky”. The sky set to music. 

Day 22.Friday6/12/26 

We stumbled into the local indoor market. Mom tried to dive into all 317 jars of spices. Everything was so fragrant and beautiful. We returned to this food hall a total of 3 times and sampled different quiches (salmon, Lorraine, other), dense fig cake, and brittle. Local baker, Rose, of Rose’s Bakery, complemented/made fun of me for saying “yes” the way the locals say it. The traditional French “oui” is pronounced like [wee]. Local/casual pronunciation [mweh]

Palace of the Popes. A surprising highlight of the trip so far. At one time in history, there were TWO popes. One at the Vatican in Rome, Italy, and one here in Avingon. Seven popes lived here across 100 years. They moved to Avignon (and literally bought the whole city and put it on the map) to escape the crime/violence/danger in Rome. This colossal structure is empty of furnishing (stolen/burned during The Revolution), which made it feel extra ancient and mysterious. I’ve never toured such a large ancient structure of this time period (1300-1400ish). 

Musically, this space is significant to visit as it is one of the birthplaces of the ars nova (“new art”) that developed in France in the late Middle Ages. This is effectively the birthplace/time of modern mousical style into the new era, namely “polyphony” (think Sicut Cervus by Palestrina). Time to go write some polyphony! Easy: just write a melody, then repeat it in canon offset by a 5th — how hard can it be? Jokes. 

Incredibly well-preserved aspects here. The ornate floor decoration, original wood carvings, the largest kitchen chimney I’ve ever seen — literally it’s own steeple like 75 meters tall! 

I’ve never seen an archichoke blossom. Purple, looks like a giant thistle. 

Pont d’Avignon (“The Bridge of Avignon”.) Seeing this historic bridge was a major reason for visiting here. The bridge was built over the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries. several centurieis evnetualy 920meters long with 22 arches, but so narrow that only foot traffic and barely a horse could get through — no big carts. The museum featured fascinating explanations of how the wood pylons were installed in the quick-moving river and then covered in stone. Incredible engineering. Because of “The Little Ice Age” in the 15th/16th century that wreaked havoc on much of European architecture/infastructure/civilization. The freezing/thawing/ice-ramming river destroyed much of the bridge. Plus the wars and fighting. 

“Sur le Pont d’Avignon” (French folk song). There were songs about the Pont d’Avinon back in the 15th century, but they have been lost to time, with the exception of one, which is sung at weddings. These “pillow songs” were traditionally sung to newlyweds as they entered their bedroom. The song we know today was imported to Canada from France and is a well-known folk song, which was later incorporated into an opera, a play, and then an operetta by the same name. From the placard: “The sound has become famous throughout the world, and has contributed more to Avignon’s fame and reputation than any advertising campaign ever could have done!” 

Had lunch on the terrace at Le Gallia, the oldest restaurant in Avignon. Croque Monsieur, Catch of the day, and “salad” for dad. We are loving that “salads” can be a place of greens, then with 3 thick pieces of bread with mounds of oven-baked goat cheese or camembert smeared across the top. We experienced this multiple times. America is doing salads wrong.

Avignon is a global capital for Theatre/Plays/Drama, hosting one of the largest theatre festivals in the world in July (something like 400 shows in a month), which started after World War II. We didn’t see any since it was June, but you could see the town prepping for it — posters everywhere.  

Day 23.Saturday 6/13/26

Took a small group van tour all over God’s green earth surrounding Avignon. We visited: 

• Fontaine-de-Vacluse 

• Gordes (One of the “most picturesque places” according to whoever decides that)... Gorgeous.

• Roussillon (Lavender Fields! If this is what “not full bloom” looks like, I can only imagine how colorful and fragrant they would be two weeks later.) 

• Saint-Rémy-de-Provence: This is where Van Gogh lived when he was in an institution for his mental unwellness. 

  

• Pont-du-Gard — the famous Roman Aqueduct that is incredibly intact. The westside is fully original. The east side, they built basically a mirror image of it (in a historic style) right next to it to support it. If you weren’t paying attention, you might not notice. The new part has a walkway to get across and enjoy the sights. Very lively swimming hole below with many locals and beyond, enjoying the sun and water on the rocks.  The Wooden beams show where the crane would sit and progress higher and higher to hoist materials up and up and up. The entire top bit is an aqueduct to transport water across the country. 

Such a unique dinner. I’ve never had anything like it. Octopus on a sweet bed of slaw with peanuts. Strangely balanced and good. I talked to the chef after. Used to work at a Michelin star as assistant head chef. He looked 23 max. And seaweed tapenade.I asked him to pick a white wine. And then pick my meal to go with it. What do *I* know about *your* menu to make a decision?

Day 24. Sunday 6/14/26

Annecy Day 1 (AH-nuh-see OR AH-see) 

Trained from Avignon to Annecy. Boy trains are convenient, functional, and easy. Wish we had this infrastructure in the States. 

Enjoyed local quiche (Lorraine and salmon) from the market and a few assorted pastries that jumped directly at me. Look at the size of these quiches, These knives are giant, giant kitchen knives. These quiches are the size of a giant steering wheel. A man playing chess (blindfolded) at a cafe. 

Dinner at a tapas bar. “We’re not that hungry” always seems to turn into eating more than we would back home. How good could a deviled egg be? Um, no old church ladies could approach these. Why? Not sure, I think an exceptional mustard and a small sliver of fried garlic on top does a lot for the aromatics. Also new. We had leaks smothered in a lemon/mustard sauce. Never had anything like it. Very acidic and delicious. So good we ordered another one. Would like to try to make at home. (Or see if Mom will first.) 

I chatted up our server, who said they were tired from a party the night before. I asked for a favorite local shot for after dinner. She mixed Cartron 1882 and Chartreuse Liquor (very popular here), and it was delicious. 

Day 25. Monday 6/15/26

eBike Rental. This was such a pretty day! Ah! We were only in Annecy for less than 24 hours, but you could live on this lake. Woah. This lake is huge and is surrounded on all sides by mountains. The third-largest lake in France. It’s 9 miles long, 2 miles wide.

We rode around the lake, 26 miles. And it was so gorgeous, I did it again. There were 3 particular views that I wanted to experience again. One of them was after a long, steep climb, the trail sloped, um, down. And while riding down across switchbacks was the most stunning reveal of the lake and the mountains.  

After museum, ruins, church, old building, the romans, REPEAT — it was so nice to just be outside to be outside. Love all the other stuff. But it was nice to just take some time to smell the roses (alpine mountains). 

On my second ride around the Lake, I stopped to swim for a bit. Again: my tender feet vs rocks and my Gulf-of-Mexico-normal-temperature-temperament vs. the cold lake water. The cold water zapped my system and woke me up. Glad I did it. 

Had a light dinner downtown. "Light", meaning the local specialty of a cheesy cheese dish with cheese and potatoes (covered in cheese) and some great white wine. 

Did a lot of composing in stops along the way. Exploring lots of poetry about nature. 

PARAGLIDING!

Dad, Mom, and I went paragliding! This was in Chamonix (shaw-muh-NEE), France, our next city. Including it here because it works better.

Months ago, Mom texted me: “Do you want to go paragliding in Switzerland?” [Pinky out] Absa-flyin-lutely! We discussed paragliding when we planned the drip and it was a definite yes from me, and I maybe from Mom and Dad — in the end we all did it! First time for all of us. 

It’s simple.

1. Meet a man for the first time. 

2. He provides under 10 sentences of instructions while he clips you into a diaper harness attached to him. 

3. He shouts “Run”, and you run of the side of a perfectly good mountain.  

4. Sail fills, and you FLY! 

More detail. 

1. Meet a man for the first time. | He’s the pilot.  It’s always a man. I saw 0 female tandem pilots. No idea why. You make small talk where you sus each other out: Us: “How many flights has this guy done, and is he going to keep me (us) alive?” Him: “How much of a problem are they going to be, and can they be compliant enough in following instructions that we all stay alive?”

2. He provides under 10 sentences of instructions while he clips you into a diaper harness attached to him. | I’m not kidding, I’ve never received so few instructions for something seemingly so dangerous. “Couple of things while I get us in this harness. This is really easy. When I say “Run!”, you’re going to keep running that way (off the side of the cliff) and keep running, even when your feet leave the ground. You’ll feel resistance like you can’t run forward, but keep running. It might look like it drops off the edge of the world, but there’s more runway after that ledge if we need it. Once we’re flying, sit all the way back in your harness and get comfortable. 

3. He shouts “Run”, and you run of the side of a perfectly good mountain. So that’s what we did! It was pretty motivating to run right off the edge of the perfectly good mountain — because those were his instructions. And I’d really like to not screw up the take off at 6,150 feet off the side of a mountain. 

4. Sail fills, and you FLY! Exhilarating. Loved it. Felt like I was flying, and isn’t that every kid’s/adult’s dream? It’s a physically/psychologically strange experience, because there’s all this build-up, but in like 3 seconds you’re comfortably in the air, and you don’t feel much. Just like being a commercial plane in the air — you don’t feel like you’re hurdling through the universe at 600mph, but you do feel the take off and landing or turbulence when there are those changing factors. 

I tried to keep my joyful I’m-flying shouts of joy more reserved, but I definitely let them out. My pilot was terrific. I told him I was a teacher and I was curious about the whole paragliding process, so he taught me everything he could in our flight (20-30 minutes or so). Short very: “It’s really very, very easy” he said many times. You can get trained to jump on our own in 2-3 weeks. He said he took lessons as a kid because it looked fun. The whole time, before take off and landing you are researching and understanding the weather conditions. You can “see the wind” based on seeing how other fliers/birds are behaving. You can also sense subtle/overt changes throughout flight. Air behaves like water. It flows and moves in a complex 3D. 

“We didn’t get enough wind.”, he told me within the first 30 seconds. I was like “Uh, I don’t know much about this, but doesn’t this thing run on wind?” He navigated about working to “get more wind”. (Between you and me, I couldn’t see the wind he was looking for.) 

He talked about “cheap adrenaline sports” like basejumping, speed flying/riding, etc., and how they are dangerous because they are addictive like alcohol/drugs, once you get used to the thrill, the thrill wears off and you want more and more thrill. Well, the only way to get more thrill is to fly faster, closer to the ground, and deploy safety measures later — and that leads to more accidents. 

After he told me that, he paused, then asked me if we wanted to try some tricks. (I told him before that I was down to try some additional thrill seeking. He said yell “stop” if I was uncomfortable. Basically, we took 60 seconds doing some fast 3D figure 8s (like a Mobius strip), where we end parallel or a little higher than the sail and the apex of each turn, and experienced weightlessness, then a lot of force falling back down. It was crazy cuz like a new experience, like a rollercoaster, but in wild 3D — thousands of feet up in the air supported by wind. 

Then he was like, “Okay, now your turn to fly. Grab here.” He had me reach up and grab both handles of the sails up above my shoulders, like doing a “please honk” gesture towards truckers, but with both arms. Easy: lift right and drop left = turn left. And vice versa. Pull both down = go up. Extend both out = go down. He instructed me to make some simple maneuvers. It was strangely fun for how simple it was. 

“Now let go with both hands,”, he said. And I was like, “Um, sir, I know you’re in charge, but aren’t I like holding the steerry thingies that hold us up?” Hey’s like “yeah, there, attached up here. Just let go.”. 

So I let go. 

I don’t know what I expected to happen, but nothing happened. The handles just stayed up there dangling. Neither of us had our hands on anything. Once I looked up, I realized they are threaded through a loop close to the harness, like a string on a lawnmower, so they don’t go far. Still, wild! 

Coming in for our landing, he said there were a ton of people circling to land so we would need to zip in and claim a spot. We did. Smooth landing. Slid in on our bums. Which was not the plan, he said he was going to tell me we were going to land on our feet and run, but he changed the plan. I think in the very last seconds, your options are super smooth landing = gliding on the bum. Fast and fast descent = running. Chaotic other = chaotic other. 

While my take off was easy. Mom had multiple false starts. Not one, not two, but FOUR attempted take-offs that were abandoned. Her pilot said she didn’t do anything wrong; it was just a different issue each time. Wind/sail did funny things, didn’t catch the wind right, a guy cut in front of them. She did great! I’m glad I didn’t have to see that because that would have made me more nervous. Also, I can’t imagine how scary that was the fourth time they actually ran off the side of the mountain!