WHAT A STORY TO TELL TODAY!!!!!!!!
We packed up from our little apartment after a sleepless night due to an extended light and thunder show through the night. We had plotted our route from Beaune to bypass Lyon and then onto Avignon, using other than the motorways. We were told to allow 2 hours to Lyon and a further 2 hours to Avignon.
Leaving around 9.30am we got to Macon around midday, after a very pleasant drive throughout the countryside and the towns/cities on the banks of the very large Rhone river. We were still well above Lyon…so much for the 2 hours we were told. After a short break we headed off again, guided by our GPS lady to take other than the motorways. We seemed to be driving and not getting anywhere other than going around roundabouts and based upon GPS estimates we were going to circuit Lyon and arrive below Lyon circa 5.00pm.
Michael was becoming quite stressed at this stage and we made the decision to change our route and tackle the motorway, instead of the lesser routes through the small villages. It takes us up to an hour to finally get on the motorway, below Lyon. We stop at one of the motorway service centres for a refreshment stop around 3.00pm as we had at this stage no lunch, which we had planned from last night’s leftover rotisserie chicken meal plus baguette. Instead it was a banana, as we needed to keep going.
Onto the motorway and our GPS estimated time of arrival in Avignon is 6.00pm. The motorway flows in both directions with trucks from all-over Europe. Fortunately they are generally restricted to the right hand lane at 90kph, unless overtaking in the centre lane.
Michael gets into the theme of traffic passing the trucks and returning to the right hand lane sitting on 110 – 120kph. The maximum speed is 130kph, but when raining reduces to 110kph. We had intermittent light rain, but for most of the time Michael is being passed as if standing still. We were told in Paris that the French do not have traffic accidents, but incidents….there were a couple on the motorway, that necessitated slowing to a crawl to pass.
We pass on the motorway some old Roman ruins and fortifications sitting high up on cliff-tops. As we start to leave the motorway for Avignon [ Euros18.90 is the toll], the landscape changes with limestone hills very visible, plus crossing the mighty Rhone a number of times.
We reach the walled city of Avignon and enter through one of the portal gates into one way narrow streets and even narrower twisting laneways……….This is where the “fun” starts!!!!!!!!
We are heading up a narrow laneway under GPS instructions when a local lady waves us down to inform us that the direction of this street has been reversed last week…….no where to return and with a very aggressive young male driver shouting expletives at Michael in French as he slowly reverses back up the laneway in order to find a spot to turn around.
Next thing a French male [ possibly in his 30s] jumps from the following car and using sign language has Michael out of the driver’s seat and into the passenger seat. We are then reversing rapidly and then turning around and off up the street, Michael not knowing where. Communication is a problem because he does not speak English and Michael does not speak French that he can understand. We arrive back in the laneway from where this all began, pointing in the right direction………..BUT NO SIGN OF DOT, WHO HAS NO MONEY, NO PHONE!!!!!!
The gentleman who drove me meets up with his lady friend in the open top mercedes, who has been following us. She also does not speak English but they find a gentleman who can translate for Michael to ask whether they had seen his wife…{madame} She indicates she has not seen Dot and they drive the circuit a couple of times without success.
Michael parks the car in a doorway entrance, which has a tow-away sign displayed…no where else to park After a number of unsuccessful attempts to ring our booked BNB, somewhere nearby, Michael spends the next 1.5+hours wandering the laneways looking for Dot, getting quite stressed!!! He evens approaches a couple of police for assistance….fortunately one speaks English, but he thinks it is very funny that I have lost my wife in the circumstances outlined above. He recommends I report to the police station in case Dot has gone there.
In the end Michael is trying to find a square in order to get back to the car and gets himself totally lost in the narrow and winding laneways, even finding himself outside the city walls at one stage. Wandering back he spies [with much relief] Dot off in the distance in the street of our BNB. She apparently has been walking up and down this street uncertain of the exact number. Now with her phone she locates the BNB and our landlady Edith lets us in to her house. She then assists Michael to locate the car and she drives the hirecar through the laneways, back outside the city walls and then back in to park in an under cover spot….it takes a 3 point turn to negotiate the narrow laneway and wall…….Michael makes the decision that the car will remain parked whilst we are in Avignon…..trains & buses will be the order of the day.
The second floor apartment is located behind high wrought iron gates via a garden walkway and internal lobby/stairs. The apartment is very comfortable as we share her kitchen, dining and living areas with a balcony running outside one side of the apartment…Our bedroom has opening windows/shutters over a passing laneway. We are very central to the city’s Palace of the Popes.
Edith’s other guest offers us both a glass of white wine, which goes down well after this stressful days end. Around 8.30pm, not sure whether we were too tired to eat, we walk a couple of laneways to Place Carnot, an open air dining area in front of 3-4 restaurants. The back-light area of church spires and large trees and the still warm night, with a spanish guitarist playing plus some nice local white wine and some food helps us forget our woes of earlier in the day.
