Avignon, France
    Walking from the train station to the Palais des Papes (Palace of the Popes), it's hard to imagine this small, provencal city was once one of the most powerful in the world. Just around the corner from the Palais is a Sephora and a McDonald's. It's tourists shops sell more lavender products popular in Provence than anything related to the golden years of Christianity in the city. If it weren't for the giant cathedral and palace, Avignon would seem nothing more than charming, medieval city. But from the years 1309 to 1377, the city of Avignon, not Rome, was the seat of the Catholic Church.
            Like most papal doings of the time, the land for the Catholic seat was bought somewhat unethically. The fiery former Queen of Naples, Joanna I, sold the land to the pope on the condition that she would be exonerated for alleged murder of her husband (her first of four).
            During the sixty eight year reign of the popes in Avignon, the palace and cathedral was built and modified by seven different popes.

Palais des Papes

Courtyard of the Palais des Papes
     And what is a day trip in France without an unbelievably interesting meal. For lunch, my friend and I ate in a restaurant just off of the courtyard around the corner from the Palais. Because le mistral, the chilly wind that runs throughout the south of France, was very present that day, we ate inside. One thing to remember when coming to France is to specify how you want your meat cooked, otherwise they will place in front of you a steak as red as a flamenco dress and as raw as a cow still breathing on a farm. One thing that is so universal it makes me happy inside is that French fries always taste incredible in every country, and no matter how fancy the meal, they are always acceptable. 

Moelleux au chocolat

    Now, I'm going to be 100% serious when I write this next paragraph, because dessert in France is serious. Up until this past weekend, I'd always remembered the best thing I'd ever eaten. The year: 2012, summer. The place: also in France, in front of Notre Dame. I'd bought it at the bakery around the corner, a raspberry and pistachio eclair. Ditch the preconceived image of those stale Stop & Shop eclairs lined with cheap chocolate. This eclair was filled with an almost frosting like consistency, a pistachio cream in the center, lined on the outside with the most perfectly ripe raspberries you've ever tasted. It was heaven to enjoy, and gone too soon. How could anything compare to this dessert that made me feel closer to God than the giant cathedral before me?
  My answer didn't come until this past Saturday, in Avignon, eating this chocolate cake that was so much more than chocolate cake. Beneath the thick and moist cake was a liquid center of pure chocolate batter than flowed slowly out of the opened cake. The small glass on the side was filled with Madagascar vanilla cream that you could pour over the dessert at your leisure. When every last bit of the cake was scraped off the plate, I was brought back to that same place of utter contentment I only felt once before: when I ate that raspberry and pistachio eclair almost three years ago.

From the park, the Alps in the distance
     After a quick sunbathe and nap in the park, we visited our last destination for the day, the ancient bridge that crosses the Rhone, the second largest river in France.

From the bridge