Southern France: Nicole DriVes

We are slowly driving back to Perpignan to return the car and fly home from Barcelona.  Because we're taking backroads,  it takes us a long time to get somewhere but the sights are worth it. Some of the drive was along the Mediterranean and part was in farmland and the Camarague.  Lots of buildings advertising local goods which are usually fruits and vegetables.  Fields of grapevines and sunflowers. We stopped for lunch at a seaport called Grau du Roi. It's the only resort town in the area that faces the Mediterranean.  Lots of yachts in the port and restaurants,  most of which open around 7. We found a place that was open and had moules.  In some of the big cities, the wait staff doesn't exactly like us and make no effort to hide their feelings.  Their small town people are great. We stopped at a truck stop for a cup of coffee and everyone was delightful.  One woman walked me to the bathroom instead of telling me where it was. I'm using on...

No more sighteseeing for us. We could barely walk around the last two days and now we're facing temperatures of over 100. We are currently in an air conditioned apartment-hotel close to Aix-en-Provence. Our plans include sightseeing from an air conditioned car. We've been in Nimes for two nights and drove the backroads to Orange one day. On the way, we drove through more cute,  quaint towns which are the highlight of the whole trip. It's amazing how good the roads are whether they're motorways or one lane roads.  Nimes and Orange both have famous arenas. The one in Orange has concerts and other events and the one in Nimes has gladiator demonstrations. Arena in Nimes Orange St. Perpetua, Nimes We saw the side road for the Chateauneuf du Pape so we drove to it. The actual winery is outside the city. The town is on a hillside and the streets are so narrow that they've made a one way route so people can drive in and out. We found parking at the top but...

Van Gogh and his artist buddies came to Provence because of the light here. It really is beautiful.  Gigantic white clouds. Blue skies that change tint throughout the day. 16 hours of light in the summer. The drive to St. Remy takes you through adorable small towns and the town itself is lovely.  Lots of farm houses where you can buy local olive oil. We drove through St. Etienne which is mentioned in guidebooks as one of the most beautiful towns in southern France. The description of most of these small towns includes the idea that you will see how French people really live. There's limited parking in the touristy towns and you have to pay about 3 or 4 euros an hour. We drove around for awhile to park close to St. Remy. We didn't go to the  historical sites because they were about 1.5 kilometers down a hill which means it's the same distance back up. I can't walk that far. As in Arles, there are reproductions of Van Gogh paintings next to the places he was painti...

We had a big plan to drive to St Remy and Les Baux de Provence today but I had a back spasm when I got up and it took 3 hours before I could walk upright. Once I felt I needed to walk, we decided to go to the Van Gogh foundation which is a minute away. It has 4 terrible Van Gogh's on display but sometimes has exhibits of his works from other museums. The mission of this foundation is to pay tribute to Van Gogh and display art inspired by him. The main exhibit now is by a Georgian artist, Niko Pirosmani. He was not famous during his lifetime but about 200 paintings remain and he is now exhibited throughout the world but especially in Georgia. The exhibit is great but I haven't figured out what he has to do with Van Gogh. He was the first influential avant garde Russian artist so maybe that's it. There were other modern artists whose work paid tribute to him. View from the top of the Van Gogh Foundation On the walk back, we saw another small gallery with beautiful jun...

We saw all of Arles, but let's get to the important thing. Laundry at the Speed Queen. Once again, for all I know we have this kind of laundromat in the US but I haven't walked into one in a while. Nicole always over packs so she had lots of dirty clothes but she had sand in her suitcase from the delta and had also spilled sugar in it.  We decided to wash everything whether we're going to wear it again or not. The clothes filled the bigger suitcase which Nicole rolled to Speed Queen.  It didn't look odd because most rentals are by the river and we see people all day rolling suitcases to walk to their airbnbs. The coolest thing about these washers is they add detergent and softener automatically. No buying it or deciding how much detergent or softener to put in. Or, more importantly, what to buy. I'm convinced I once washed clothes in softener only. Laundry words are hard to decipher in other languages.  The large washers cost 8 euros, the small cost...

It's over a 3 hour drive from Carcassonne to Arles if you take mainly backroads. Wine country is beautiful and there's lots of wineries. Some of them serve food but they're all off the highway and you can't tell when they're open.  Our Carcassonne place was like an old-fashioned motel. Six units with doors to the outside. People in the other 5 all had dogs. It was small but very cute and had a great shower. I chose it mainly because it's a very short walk up a hill to the city. As for Arles, it was a big mistake to try to book someplace the day before arriving. Most hotels are expensive and I wanted more room anyway.  Looking for places at midnight drove me insane so I waited for the morning to book. First I had chosen a studio apartment and paid the deposit but didn't realize it just had 1 foldout sofa. No bed. I contacted the agency and asked if I could switch to a 2 bedroom, 2 bath apartment and that's what we got. The apartment is in an anci...

Here we are on Le Petit Train de Perpignan. I thought it was for children but the earliest train was full of school children while ours was adult tourists. Mostly French. I know that because only nonFrench people were given headphones to plug into the tape player. French blared from speakers in the train. It was difficult to take pictures because you're riding on narrow streets and pedestrian sidewalks with buildings in both sides. Dali was here. He loved Perpignan  There is only one section of the walled city left. The rest was torn down in 1906 to expand the city. They saved the part that had houses built into the walls. Even though there are 10 tour trains a day, many people waved and yelled Hola or Bonjour as we went by. Many people in this region speak both Catalan and French. The children's choices for languages on the train were only those two. There's a lot of construction in the old town. I'm guessing they're trying to attract touris...

Left our lovely friends at the lovely Delta d'Ebre and took two trains to Perpignan.  Perpignan is one of the first Mediterranean cities in France, coming from Spain so it's where many tourists rent cars to tour Southern France. That's why we're here. We took two trains,  one from Aldea to Barcelona and then, after a couple hours at Barcelona Sants, another train crossing the border into France. Most of the trip borders the Mediterranean but we were on the other side of the train. It was exhausting even though each ride lasted less than 2 hours. All we've managed to do is see the Palace of the Kings of Majorca because it's next door to the hotel and find an open restaurant (it's Monday ). Most of the French restaurants are closed so we settled for French Italian--pizza. Ours was  tuna and capers. There's Roman ruins in the city but it has a strong Catalan influence. Dali once called it the "center of the cosmic universe" but most people ca...

According to Google translate, musclarium in English is musclarium.  If you Google it, you'll get the place we went to today so I guess it's a made up word. On the other side of the Delta is a huge marina where you can take a water taxi to an oyster farm restaurant.  For dinner, they offer all kinds of seafood but we went for the champagne lunch which includes a bottle of champagne, 3 oysters with mussels or 6 huge oysters. 17 euros. View of the oyster beds from the restaurant  Before you order, you're required to listen to a lecture about how oysters are farmed.  I didn't understand a word since the lecture was in Catalan but Beata says it takes over 3  years for oysters to mature but 7 months for mussels. The speaker pulled up a rope with young oysters from the pylons and explained they have to be separated from each other or they'll grow together and that they wrap them in plastic to keep them closed or they might open while they're small. They mu...

We've been curious about a boom sound we hear all day. At first we thought it was people duck hunting but it didn't exactly sound like a gunshot so we decided it had to have something to do with the rice fields. A boom occurs about every 5 to 10 minutes. The landlord came to collect the rent so Beata asked him because she has enough Spanish   while the rest of us can say Boom and look quizzical. That would work, of course, but we wouldn't have been able to translate the answer. Turns out farmers have machines that make that sound to scare off the ducks. It's hatching season so ducks want to eat the rice seedlings. They fly in a circle ready to land and the boom scares them so they keep flying in a circle. I don't know when they ever land because I've never seen one. He assured us the sound does not hurt the ducks. I'm glad because I like ducks. Chickens would be another story. The boom season doesn't last long. I guess ducks don't want grown rice. W...

This house was built by the guy who rented it to us. It's beautiful. It's solar powered so we can't plug in all our phones and computers at once. No hairdryer is allowed.  Beata thinks my hair will dry naturally in 5 minutes but she obviously doesn't know my hair. Fireplace which we actually need at night Wood beams everywhere Beata will grill anything on anything that even looks like a grill. This house has a wood burning grill. Last night for late dinner, we had grilled shrimp, lamb chops, salmon, onions, potatoes and zucchini. Also salad. So a complete meal. She's a master. If I wanted to learn to cook, I would definitely take lessons from her. Beata at the grill Today we took a picnic to the beach or rather Beata cooked a Spanish tortilla and packed the leftovers from last night and fed us on the beach. The spot we went to is famous for wind surfing. A few people were out but it wasn't windy enough for a crowd. We did see flamingos but n...

We made it to Barceloneta with little drama except for the fact we landed in different terminals and I had to take a shuttle bus to meet Nicole whose plane landed later than mine. Of course, it took her 15 minutes to find me because I was waiting where I thought I should be, not where I actually should have been. We napped and then had some mediocre tapas which was somewhat of a surprise although the place was really a soccer bar. Only tourists were having food there. Most restaurants don't open for dinner until 9 or 9:30 so you have to find a tapas bar if you want to dine earlier.  Until the last minute, it seemed I would have no one beside me on the plane from Atlanta but then a perky, blonde nurse from Montana sat down and said she'd be my travel companion.  She's going on a 10 day tour with family. They're meeting in Barcelona but not staying here. They're going to southern France and into Italy on a private bus tour.  The girl has been to Euro...

The first part of this trip isn't in France at all, but rather in Spain. We're flying into Barcelona for a night and then traveling south about 2 hours to the Delta del Ebro, also known as Delta de l'Ebre and other names because you know...Spanish. The Ebro river is the longest in the area and is used to produce hydroelectricity. The area is also used for farming, including rice fields, and is known for its wine production. Tourism has become its most important asset. There are two major parks which are home to over 95 species of birds including flamingo colonies. Fishing, cycling, canoeing, hiking, etc. are popular with tourists who can camp or rent a holiday home.  What I hope to see: What I'm not doing: