May 10, 2008

We actually saw the Mediterranean this afternoon! I have pictures to prove it. We also saw flamingos in the water near the road, and palm trees appear to be everywhere. The countryside has sure changed over the last couple of days. Now we're seeing adobe-type houses, with tile roofs. They remind us of Spanish villages.



There are lots of vineyards in this area, and where we travelled today. However they sure look different than those in the Okanagan. Most of the ones we saw today, looked like they had just been started; short, and not much foilage yet. And the countryside reminds us of the Cache Creek/Ashcroft area. The roads quite often have trees growing on both sides and overhanging the road, very picturesque.


I was running low on fuel so we were checking the prices as we passed gas stations. There was a variance of !.30 - 1.52 Euro per liter of diesel within about a 10 mile area. That's about $2.42 CDN. Be thankful for our $1.25+ prices.

We ran into a traffic jam today and almost got routed onto a toll road before I turned away, and finally realized that the "Avoid Toll Roads" exeption was unticked on the GPS. We wasted about 45 minutes driving around before blondie figured out where we wanted to go and corrected our route. Then when we finally arrived in Nimes, she took us to a completely incorrect location. We asked to go to "83 Rue de la Republique" and she took us to something like "83 Chemin du Pont Rue de la Republic"??? It took us a while to figure that out as well. We only had a small hotel map with a diagram on it, with no road names or anything. I finally asked blondie to take us to the train station, and from there I drove around in the most likely direction until we found the correct road. Then I turned right, instead of left, and it took us another half hour to return to the same spot, and find the hotel to the left of where I previously turned right.

On top of the narrow roads and many one way streets, there is a four-day celebration here called "Faria" going on this wekend, so some of the roads are closed off to traffic, and pedestrians are walking on the roads everywhere. The room is quite nice but, although we have a tub, there is no stopper. We asked at the desk for one, but were advised that this chain does not normally have tubs. This is a hotel they have taken over and do not provide stoppers in the tub??? Are these French for real? No supper available until 7 pm, no stoppers in the tubs, give me a break!

We went out at about 4 pm to find an information center, and walked through the celebrations mentioned earlier. We ended up buying some Mexican style thingy like a burrito, which was quite good. The information centre, was, true to form, not very informative. For some reason, they tend to bury them in the most out-of-the-way back roads, where it is almost impossible to find, even with a map. Why can't they simply put them on the side of the highway, just outside the city or province, where the tourists would find them most helpful. Or better yet, put them up at the gas stations on the freeway. Most tourists need to stop for gas, and this would be a great place to find information about the area they plan to visit. Oh, and make sure to have multilingual peopel manning them, who know about the surrounding area and its attractions.

We're staying here for two nights to see a few attractions in the area, if we can locate them!