Rugby, Wine, and South-Eastern France
When I wrote my Top 12 Personal Travel Recommendations for 2023, two of the places I recommended were Japan, which had finally reopened, and France, particularly because this year it was hosting the Rugby World Cup. Somehow, magically I was able to visit both countries this year, including getting tickets to the Rugby World Cup! Since flying across an ocean is a commitment, I spent 8 days in France: four in Lyon which was near the match I was seeing (the match was in Saint Etienne) and four in the Cote du Rhone, with Avignon as my base.
It was a very low-key trip, where I didn’t overpack my schedule and spent a lot of time chilling, but it was also a ton of fun. Here is the awesome, the random, and the frustrating from Avignon and Lyon.
The Awesome:
Seeing a Live Rugby World Cup Game
There is nothing quite like seeing live sports, especially in something like a major sporting event for a sport you love. My first live professional rugby game and it was the World Cup!! The game was more sedate than one might expect - Namibia vs Italy at 1pm in a suburb of Lyon, but whatever! I was there and I saw it and I was Part of the Experience - from walking through the rugby village with random activities for kids, to drinking beer from the novelty cup, to the crowds of people, to the game itself. It was awesome and worth flying from DC to France for.
Watching the Opening Rugby match in a bar in France
Ok so this is not exactly a repeatable thing for other travelers but it was seriously awesome and one of the biggest highlights of my trip. I was in Lyon for the first game of the World Cup – France vs New Zealand, and went to a small-ish sports bar for the game. It was packed, fans were randomly breaking into La Marseillaise. There were several bars showing the game and people in the pedestrian street between and around all of them yelling. By the end of it I was sweaty and sticky (beer was spilled on me multiple times) and had such a freaking blast. So if you like sports at all, while traveling go to a sports bar when a major game is playing. It is an experience if nothing else. I might have enjoyed it more than the game I saw live - the experience was so incredible. Nuts but incredible.
Cote du Rhone wine tour
I’m an amateur sommelier and being in the Cote du Rhone region meant one of the absolute top things I wanted to do was go on a wine tour. And it was a fantastic experience. It was an all-day small group tour, and I learned so much about the Cote du Rhone wines, particularly about the white wines from the regions, some of the specific AOCs (like Tavel must be a rose) and how global warming is impacting the vineyards and the wine. Also, we went to Chateauneuf du Pape, which is the most famous (and expensive) wines produced in Cote du Rhone. Even if you aren’t as intense as I am, if you like wine at all, check out a wine tour while you’re there. It’s worth your time.
Pont du Gard
The Pont du Gard is a giant Roman aqueduct that crosses a river in the middle of nowhere (45 minutes – 1 hour bus ride from either Avignon or Nimes) and one of the greatest Roman ruins in France. And having seen it, I can say, it was one of the coolest things I saw this trip. Is it worth taking a trip to the middle of nowhere to see a giant aqueduct, especially if you’re me and had to take multiple buses to get there? Yes, yes it is. The scale and grandeur are immense, and it is in remarkably good shape. It’s also a park so people can go into the river or hike along the area. There is also a museum (which I didn’t have time to visit) and a lovely restaurant that had fantastic views of the aqueduct. It’s a bit out of the way, but totally worth the half-day trip it takes.
The Random Fun
Dancing on the Pont d’Avignon
Since I was in Avignon, naturally I had to go to the Pont d’Avignon (Bridge of Avignon). It’s technically the Saint Benezet Bridge, but the children’s song doesn’t include that name so whatever. The bridge only goes partway across the river before stopping, and at the end of the partial bridge I did in fact do a little dance. No one else was dancing (and a few other tourists looked at me weirdly), but it was random and funny and there way I wasn’t going to do it.
The Frustrating
The Palais du Papes
While I tend to be a fan of innovation in how to display and enjoy historical sites, innovation almost ruined the Palais du Papes for me. Instead of audio guides, the Palais du Papes have these “histo-pads” which are iPads with information on each room and when you hold them up in rooms it shows you what they’d have looked like in the 1300s. Sounds nifty, right? Wrong - they are a pain in the ass. Very confusing to use, there are no instructions on how they work, and they make weird noises at you when you do something it doesn’t like but doesn’t explain why. And all the signage was in French so the histo-pad was the only option. I spent the first 15-20 minutes at the Palais du Papes wanting to smash the damn thing. We eventually came to an accord and it became vaguely function, but they were the perfect example of more technology being a hinderance rather than a help.
Public Transportation
France is known for the TGV and having fast, efficient trains that get you around the country easily. And this is true, the trains in France are great. What isn’t great is literally the rest of France’s public transit systems. When I was trying to go to the Pont du Gard, the bus literally didn’t show up. Not just late, just never showed up and the people working at the bus station were like *shrug. The metro system in Lyon was decent, except for when an entire Lyon metro line shut down without any notifications in the stations warning you. So if you are an American and think it’s just us with weird infrastructure and Europe has it all figured out, rest assured that is not the case.
