While we will be in southern France for over 3 weeks, a friend of ours is taking the TGV down for a the day. This will be in early October.

We will pick him up with our rental car at 9:30 am and will have to return him to the station for 8 pm departure.

How can we best use our time so that we can maximize what we see? Museum or 2; a palace; architecture; shopping not necessary. Do we have time to venture from Avignon to explore the country side?

Also, suggestions for places to have lunch and dinner appreciated.

Thank you.

It is a walled city with lots of twisty streets, residential and commercial, so just walking around is picturesque.

From the SNCF station (not the TGV station which is out of town) you can walk up the main shopping street, rue de la Republique, to the Palace of the Popes. Behind it, acros a large plaza, is an art museum, the Petit Palais.

The Cathedral fronts on this plaza, but across the street from the side of it is a park, up a hil, where you get wonderful views of the ruins of the bridge made famous by the French children's song and of the surrounding countryside. I learned the hard way that it isn't particularly worthwhile to go down to the bridge itself.

There are tons of cafes where you can sit outside, eat, and watch the world pass by. We had a wonderful meal at the Grand Cafe, which gets one really lousy review on TripAdviser and a bunch of good ones. The bad review came from someone who tried to take a large party. Wrong place. One of the French reviewers mentioned that it was "bobo", or "yuppie." Yes.

We also had a fun lunch at Le Bistro Lyonnais, over near the University (an interesting walk). Every other person eating there was clearly a faculty member, and every one of them (and we) had the daily special. I just wish I had been able to drink that much wine when I was at a faculty lunch!

The owner-chef is a stitch. He worked in Canada for some time and speaks English well. He likes to practice on you. Food was traditional Lyonnais, not Provencal. One of the French reviewers on TA found it "lourd" -- heavy. That's Lyonnais cuisine for you. I don't remember what we ate, but I will never forget the bread -- among the top five I have ever eaten.

Christian Etienne is famous but, but we didn't eat there. it may have been closed that night.

If you are at all anxious about driving into/near a walled city, you could leave your car at the TGV sta

Sorry. Random computer glitch. You could leave your car at the TGV station and take one of the frequent navettes (shuttles) into town.

My memories are vague--too much rosé wine, I bet.

Meals: We had two lovely lunches at the Hotel d'Europe. We stayed there a day pre- and post- our Provence cycling trip. Delightful courtyard.

I'll try to remember the place we had dinner at. Sort of a hole in the wall that I found through Chowhound, but really good. Will get back after I dig through files.

We had a great time taking Le Petit Train, but them again, I'm an admited Petit Train wh...uh...addict. It was a relaxing way to see the city, and we then could decide where we wanted to trek afterwards.

We climbed up to Rocher des Dames, a beautiful park. Just keep walking uphill beyond the Palais des Papes and the Church of Notre Dame. Worth the effort.

We thought the Palais des Papes was a "meh", but I think we got a two-fer pass for that and le Pont Saint Benezet (yep, the actual Pont d'Avignon).

Big square is Place de l'Horloge where you can chow down at a variety of places. Great people watching.

The Rue de Teinturiers (the place where dyers worked) is a really neat street to stroll around.

We capped off our first evening riding the ferris wheel along the river.

PS-I finally got my Andrews Global Trek Card (won't be used for 10 more days). Have to post on that extended thread.

Found the name of the restaurant: It's spelled either "Newground" or "New Ground"
27 rue de la Saraillerie, 84000 Avignon
http://www.restaurantnewground.com/

It's still getting good reviews from what I can see. Really small.

We have eaten at La Fourchette over 3 decades and it remains as good as ever.

Good information. I am not ready to post questions for next summer but I am reading any information I can find on Southern France.

I'm wondering if you have to go to Avignon. Since you will have a car and will have to pay to park it in Avignon, why not do instead a drive around more rural Provence? You could do Nimes/Uzes/Pont du Gard. Or St-Remy/Les Baux/Eygalieres. Or Orange/Vaison-la-Romaine. Or L'isle-sur-la-Sorgue/Gordes/Fontaine-de-Vaucluse. Or some subset of the above.

Gotta go back to Provence. But not to Avignon; I didn't like it that well.

I'm the one she is meeting at the train station, I've never been there before, interested in scenery more than food. Suggestions for things to see? Thanks for the food suggestions though.

The parking--As someone mentioned, no problem parking the car at the TGV station and then taking the navette into Avignon proper for the day. When you guys go back to the TGV, you can pick up the car again.

For a drive though, I thought Mimar's suggestions were good. Of the three routes, my favorite would L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue/Gordes/Fontaine-de-Vaucluse. You won't have wall to wall tourists, so that's good.

You might want to have Plan A, Plan B depending on mistral activity, too.