After grabbing my staple French breaky (pain au chocolat), we got to the car hire station to pick up our car. I was very worried because I only had my international licence (Aus licence and credit cards were in my stolen wallet). Fortunately, they did not ask for my Aussie licence. The only problem was that they needed the credit card of the driver. Problem was solved by paying the 30E "extra driver" fee and added Mrs Chan's driver's licence + credit card.
My baby Benz (A180 diesel) for my next 7 days.
Off we went down to Spain... and we really appreciated the freedom of being in our own car. Probably the 130km/h speed limit helped :) The baby Benz drove fine on the motorways, got to "just more than 130km/h" without any problems.
The motorways are fantastic and I certainly don't mind paying the few euros to use them.
Pyrenees
The 1st major town on the Spainish side is Figueres and we got into their Police station. Not many officers spoke English, so they said they needed to get an interpreter in and that will take about 1 hour.
Figueres police station
Perfect chance for us to head across the road to stroll through a hypermarket (similar to Walmart). Bought some hot choc mix, lunch (jamon iberico, strawberries, bread).
I'll miss the Spanish Jamon Iberico!!!
Went back to Police after 1 hour and still no interpreter. The helpful officers took our statements anyway as they didn't want us to wait any longer. Using our broken spanish/french, drawings/writings, and their broken french/english, we got through the statements within about 30 mins.
Time to finally say Adios to Espana!!
Nimes
Got to Nimes in France by around 4pm, and did our 30-min touristy thing around Les Arenes (the ancient Roman arena).
Les Arenes
French autoroute toll gate incident
We had to cross quite a few autoroutes (motorways) and we had to grab a ticket at the beginning, and pay by credit card at the end of each motorway. At one of the payment toll gate, my ticket did not like the machine. So I pressed by button for help... and started with "Parlez vous Anglais"... she said "Oui, where do you come from"... I answered "Australia".... and she asked again "where do you come from"... i soon realised the correct answer was "Nimes"!!!! hahaha.... we couldn't stop laughing for quite a while after the toll gate.
Our home away from home - in Provence
Got to our cottage in Beaurecueil (near Aix-en-Provence) by early evening and were greeted by the lovely hosts of Warwick and Monique. We actually met Warwick when he was in Sydney a few months ago, so this was a nice feeling to see a familiar face (eventhough we only saw him ONCE!)... best of all... he speaks English (kiwi).
The cottage is all that we were hoping for - rustic, clean, with some modern touches. Love the rustic furniture and the Provencale window shutters.
So nice to be in the country area to get away from big cities, and enjoy the lovely scenaries, food and culture in Provence.
Dinner
Dined locally at a restaurant called Chez Thome. Almost like in a country club with outdoor garden sitting (for drinks) and country-rustic interior.
Creme Brulee of Parmesan
Stewed beef with pasta - not as good as Mrs Chan's Beef Burgundy! haha. And quite odd to just have plain penne.
Lovely chocolate fondant type pudding with ice cream. Wonderful!
i am so excited to see the little cottage !!! is so nice and romanic! please do some cooking there and post pics :) ...
ReplyDeleteOnly managed some simple dishes or bought ready-made food. But the fresh produce are very good here - eggs, veges, wine ... lots of decent French wine <$10AUD :)
ReplyDelete