On the road again

Sunday 12th...Lin here and nothing to report really. Quiet day by the pool, with a game of boules at the end of the day.... have to say I'm not a good loser and Brent, who I have to say has had more practice of boules, having played reserve for Dave and Wendy's Red Lion team...beat me hands down. As I'm already 7-2 down at backgammon my morale is low in respect of these competitions. Any advice gratefully received!!

Monday 13th..still Lin here. Well today we got the car back: this involved a 4k walk to the village of Puget, where the garage was. I'd called earlier to be told it was ready and had taken 2 hours to fix at a cost of 120 euros. Turned out the petrol tank wasn't damaged, just the outer covering. Anyway when it came to paying I was quite pleased with myself as I got a reduction for cash. However we both still feel a bit ripped off...still we needed to feel safe. Returned to camp and tried to renew the green card...therein lies a tale. Spent the best part of £6 trying to renew the card using a card...in the end we rang off having listened to recorded music for much of the time. What makes this all worse is that Gordon told us that in France the green card is automatically provided with car insurance. So much for being in the EU! Anyway..on the road again and headed to the living room of Provence (Salon de Provence) where we found a nice little hotel with free internet!!! Really pleased to have caught up with both Simon and David (Brent's sons) this week.

Tuesday 14th October
Still Lin here as Brent is in the middle of cooking dinner. Today we enjoyed looking around the living room (salon) of Provence. Salon de Provence ... it's old town rang bells for Brent, who thinks he visited it years ago. It was very pretty and we particularly liked the Nostradamus statue, which we photographed and may try to draw at some point.
Brent here now. Packed our things back into car and set off 10km north of the town to find a walk that we had looked up in 500 walks in France. Beautiful, bright sunny day with a hint of crispness in the air that you associate with autumn. We arrived in the village along a tree lined avenue. Rucksack packed with baguette, cheese and salad we put on our boots, got out our sticks and set off. The started up a steep hill which led quickly into sandstone rocks which were peppered with caves. These had a long history dating back to the stoneage but then being re-occupied in the middle ages when a village of 200 people grew up. Was fascinating to think about how people must have led their lives amongst the rocks. We attempted to follow our map unsuccessfully. The area was also wooded with lots of paths criss crossing it. Have found in the past that woods are notorious for getting lost in – so it proved. We aborted our plan to do the walk but had not been disappointed by the area – set off back to the car to carry on our journey.
Attempted to stop in Arle but after Linda had done about 3 circuits of the town to try and find a parking space decided to move on. We talked of our memories of being able to drive in France and pull into small towns and park with ease. Alas seems to be no longer. Carried on our journey feeling frustrated. Amazingly the temperature was probably hotter than we have had.