First Dinner in Avignon, Morning Visit to the Market, and a Day Trip to Orange

Last night we had dinner at La Fourchette, a cute little restaurant recommended online and by our host here in Avignon. The service was excellent, and the little extras like crackers and some kine of spread waiting at our table were nice touches. However, the food left us a bit disappointed. We wonder if their high ranking on TripAdvisor has brought in many tourists (we heard lots of English spoken) and if that has affected the quality of the food. I had some kind of pureed lentil soup with an egg in it for my first course. It had great flavor but was served almost at room temperature. Maybe it was supposed to be but I would have liked it hotter. Greg had escargot and while it looked beautiful, he said it was not at the top of his list... and he's had quite a sampling of escargot here. 

Our main courses were also a little meh. I ordered grilled prawns, and although the sauce was nice, the four little shrimp didn't have much flavor. Greg had veal and some of it was too tough to eat. The highlight was some kind of potato ball that they give with all the entries. 

We have reservations for Sunday night at a place we're anxious to try. It will be our last "good" dinner so fingers crossed.

This morning we went to the wonderful market here and shopped for an at-home dinner tonight. We may be gotten carried away just because there were so many wonderful options. Today I was fascinated by the variety of things they sell there... like at the fish counters! So many types of fresh seafood displayed beautifully in the cases. How can they sell all of that today? Because it certainly won't last long.

And the quiches and tarts....

Late morning we took a short train ride to Orange (pronounced o-RANJ) to see the ancient Roman amphitheater. Of course, we made a quick stop at a boulangerie to share a sandwich and a cookie... and then we were on our way to this amazing site. There are lots of Roman ruins in Provence, and since this one was easy for us to get to, we added it to the day trips.

It's hard for us to get our heads around how old it is. Over 2000 years old! We started with a virtual reality movie that showed us what it would have looked like way back when. And then we were given audio guides to explain things as we moved around the theater. Over the years, much of it has been destroyed but the stage wall is still basically intact. And this is definitely not a site that folks with mobility issues should visit. Tons of steps going up and down, and most of them have no hand railing. Glad we made the trip.

Dinner tonight from the market:

Chickpea salad, octopus salad, stuffed tomato (not sure what it's stuffed with yet), sparerib, gogonzola cheese spread, and turkey, eggplant parmesian. Weird but it should be fun.