Our next destination from Toulouse was Avignon, the ancient Papal city. The distance between the cities was about 331km – Google estimated 3hrs 13mins which would meant the actual driving time was going to be around 4hrs.
The journey was one of the longest ones during our road trip, therefore, mum and I decided to take it steady.
We took our first coffee break at Aire de Toulouse Sud on A61. ‘Shall we have a cake as well?’, I asked mum as I placed a tray with our cups of café latte on the table.
Mmmm, which one am I going for…
I decided on a Tropézienne, aka ‘La Tarte de Saint-Tropez’.
As legend has it, Brigitte Bardot loved this pastry so much when she and her then husband, a film director Roger Vadim, were filming “…And God Created Woman” in St Tropez and she came up with the name, tarte tropézienne.
The appearance of the cake was deceptive…
At first glance, the cake resembled a sugared doughnut because of the pearl sugar on the top. However, the pastry was surprisingly light, thanks to the airy texture of the brioche and the lemon flavoured custard filling. ‘Oh wow, this cake is divine!’, mum and I really enjoyed this sweet treat.
While we were at the cafeteria of the service station, a large group of nuns had arrived and they soon formed a long queue for the cakes.
‘Do you remember the nuns in your school?’, mum asked me as she ferried cake to her mouth. ‘Of course! How can I forget them?!’, I retorted. Those nuns buzzing around the cashier like the Minions in Despicable Me, reminded me the nuns I had to put up with when I was in high school.
‘I am very sorry but I don’t have a very high opinion of nuns in general.’, I shook my head and mum nodded in agreement. ‘Yes, they were a bit too silly and vindictive sometimes, weren’t they?’ Yes, most of the nuns I met in my school were cruel, cynical and narrow-minded! ‘Look at them. They are all middle-aged yet acting like a bunch of school children!’ The nuns were still clamouring at the cake counter, each of them demanding their treat impatiently.
Oh well, after sacrificing most of the pleasure the life offers, eating is the only fun left for them, I imagined…
Hopefully, the calling to be a nun is gently fading into history.
I still don’t quite get why those women want to be nuns. You kind of leave everything behind, like friends and even family, when you decide to be a nun, don’t you? Why do you need to do that? I just don’t understand🤔
Old religion – now seems more than ever out of tune with women’s lives in the 21st century.