Travelling Robin: Travelling to the south of France

Hi all

Well quite a time has passed and I haven't had access to a computer since Delhi airport. Have a guess what I lost there (first thing that has been lost....). My USB with all my photos of the first couple of months of travel. Lucky I travelled with such wonderful photographers!

Anyway, Catherine and I left Switzerland and travelled by Eurail - Sierre, Geneva, Montpellier and Beziers. All fabulous (with the quick change over time until the last change). I thought that we had 14 minutes to change, not so. We locate the correct train and Catherine is accosted by the ticket conductor who demands to see our paperwork. C is now on the train with the conductor when, without even a whistle blow, the train begins to pull out of the station!. She said that my face was a picture..... she reached out and grabbed me and hauled me and my bag onto a moving train! What a woman!!! Just the sort you want to travel with. After we got over the shock of nearly being separated we killed ourselves laughing and thanked our lucky stars.

We arrive in Beziers, now we just need to get to a little town called Fontes. We have booked a car and head off....... nup! The rental car place is closed, there is a notice in French saying that there is no car for us. We line up to get a train ticket, no trains in that direction! Perhaps a taxi? No. I find a bus to go to the centre of town where apparently we will get a different bus. No again! But now we have a taxi driver who is prepared to take us to Fontes. 90 euros later he drops us at the door. It has been a long day! We now look for the man who has the key, he is not at home...... Finally a man approaches us and explains that he has the key, but we don't understand him too well because he has no teeth and his French and English are totally undecipherable!

A long day, but we have finally arrived - no key just yet!

We settle into an exquisitely renovated 4 storey house on the town square (with the balcony on top of the public wc) and as it is Sunday evening and there is not a shop open we make rice with leftovers and drink gin with water!

three storeys above the public wc on Fontes town square

We have decided (after making plans of all the places in the area that we would like to visit) that we won't get a rentacar and settle into enjoying a town that is only 200 metres in any direction from the square. We soon learn the characters of the area, when we are supposed to be inside either eating lunch or siesta-ing, when to approach the bar-tabac for little cups of coffee and where to buy saucisson.

Check out some of the highlights of our accommodation.....