In the footsteps of Charity Selborne
Nous sommes en France! As some of you will know, this year my husband and I are celebrating our wedding anniversary in Avignon. This is somewhere I have wanted to visit since first reading Mary Stewart’s Madam, Will You Talk? and now – enfin – here we are.
Having flown to Marseille, we then caught a train to Avignon Centre. From here, we were directly across the road from the Porte de la Republique, entrance to the walled city.
Walking through the Porte to the Cours Jean-Jaures, it was a 10 minute stroll to our hotel.
Which is, incidentally, similar to Charity’s entrance into Avignon within the opening page of Madam, Will You Talk?:
we drove in at the Porte de la Republique and up the sun-dappled Cours Jean-Jaures.
And yes. Yes it is sun-dappled.
Last night we had dinner and coffee at a restaurant on the Place de l’Horloge, which remains essentially the same as Mary Stewart’s description of it over 60 years ago:
… where the Rue de la Republique widens out and becomes the main square of the city, and where all Avignon collects at night…
The square is surrounded with cafes, which overflow the narrow pavements with a froth of gay little tables and wicker chairs, and even cast up a jetsam of more little tables across the roads and into the centre of the square itself. Here, as I said, Avignon collects at night, and for the price of a cup of coffee, which secures you a chair, you may sit for an hour and watch France parade for you.
We had a lovely time there before retiring to the hotel bar, which is where the top image was taken. You can see that this photo includes the beautiful new Madam book cover – I just had to bring it with me to browse through ‘on location’! The photograph also shows a glass of Martini (blanco/bianco) and lemonade, that I drank in honour of Mary Stewart (apparently Martini with a capital M is a brand of vermouth, which is the drink Louise orders before dinner on the first night in Avignon. Charity drank Cinzano and if I spot this on a drinks menu I shall probably sample a glass of this too!). I don’t remember whether I’ve tried Martini before but it was sweet and refreshing and seemed like the perfect accompaniment to a warm spring evening in the south of France.
The Wi-Fi is a little too feeble for me to attempt to upload any more photos today but I hope to blog again soon. A bientot!
You can access my other ‘In the Footsteps of Charity Selborne’ posts from this trip here:
Mary Queen of Plots 
How wonderful to walk in a characters footsteps. Love the “froth of gay little tables” phrase. Enjoy and congratulations!
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Thank you so much! We are having a wonderful time on holiday; looking for Mary Stewart-related places adds an extra little layer of enjoyment
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A lovely report!Thank you.
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Thanks – it’s a lovely holiday!
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You’ve inspired me to go and get it off my shelf again! 🙂 Have a lovely time!
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Oh good, enjoy the re-read! We are having a wonderful time, I definitely recommend Avignon and Provençe
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I re-read MWYT earlier this year so the book is still fresh. How fun to walk in Charity’s footsteps. Be careful however if you drive like a Charity!! LOL!
How fun to retrace the steps of MS’s novels!! Any more books you would like to do? Stewart’s descriptions are always so amazing!
Happy Anniversary!
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Haha, I’m afraid I drive more like Camilla in My Brother Michael! Thank you, I had a lovely anniversary in a wonderful location. It really was fun to have the book with us
and to try to figure out certain locations (after over 60 years and based on what is a work of fiction in the first place!). It is certainly a game I recommend and that I would like to play again, I’m just not sure how well it would work with most Mary Stewarts as they tend to be set in the countryside. My Brother Michael perhaps for Omonia Square, Delphi and Arachova? Thanks for your good wishes!
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