Avignon then Vichy
What a bad sleep in Avignon. Like goldilocks but without the just right. First pillow too hard other one too big and soft, but no just right. Pushed together beds which had the worst downhill slope to the outside which made you think you were going to fall out. Hotel in a great location right above the square but the bottle clang of tidy up at 2am is jolting. Then for one strange reason we wake early just when we need to be asleep.
The early morning makes a nice time to head out in the cool and the quiet and we decided to go to the famous post du Gard. When we reach it we didn’t realise it was something you had to buy tickets to and its closed. We wander down to the river and I clamber along the bank and get the shots of the day.
We walk around in circles and enjoy the sights and sounds of a new day. There seems to be 100s of different varieties of small dogs all out walking their owners. Stall owners are starting to set up the wares. Tables and chairs are venturing out into the square. The thought of a kiwi flat white at this moment nearly does my head in. It would make the morning perfect.
We go back to the hotel and have a cup of machine made coffee and pack our bags and then zoom once more down the avenue of many walks to catch the tourist bus. I am first in the queue.
We take the tour and its a great way to get around as it covers the ks over the bridges, past the towers, castles. on the horizon, markets on the fringes and we soak it all in.
We refuse to yet again walk up the avenue of many walks so we zig zag our way through side lanes until we are lost and then stumble onto a landmark that leads us to where we want to go. The morning is over so we grab our bags from the hotel and make our final journey down the avenue of many walks to the train station. To catch the train back to the TGV car park, to pick up the car to head to Vichy. I can not help what you are now probably thinking, the car park was just right there.
We drive and drive and drive to Vichy. Its not a great road trip. I am not a great roadie sort of person. The novelty of the 130kph four lane motorway wears thin. We drive and we drive. The overhead motorway info signs keeps flashing a message and I look it up on the app (the favourite translation one) and it says beware of extreme thunderstorm and then 10 minutes later it pours and pours and pours. We slow to 110 as per the rules for rain and we drive and drive and drive and it rains and rains and rains.
A couple of traffic jams and a stiff back and butt later we arrive in Vichy.
Its late and we are hungry so we wander to town and find a restaurant where we eat a very average burger then head back (in the rain). There is a light show on at the opera house but we are told it might not go ahead but we are glad we made our way back as we watch the illumination under a tiny umbrella in the rain. We have a wonderful sleep on a flat spongy mattress with a perfect goldilocks pillow.
We wake in the morning and the rain is still steady so we laze around and then decide to walk anyway. Vichy feels like a town trying to get back on its feet. It may be the rain but everything feels a bit down. There are things that are still “temporarily” closed. Others need a lick of paint or two. My shoes are wet and the temperature is cool. The morning is gone so we go back to the hotel and get in the car and drive and drive and drive and it rains and rains and rains.
