We're home today as the winds are blowing cold at 35 km/hour (about 27 mph) with gusts that are stronger.
We are experiencing the Mistral - the cold wind that blows down out of Russian and channels along the Rhone River. It's too cold and especially too windy to do anything outside. So today's post is about random things I've found to be interesting.
We have wind most days here it seems, but this is the first time its forced us to stay inside.
This was the wind in Avignon on April 12:
Toilets
Toilets are a traveler's necessity and you can almost always find a public toilet in every town or village. It may take some reconnoitering to find them. It could be at the end of a parking lot, built into an old wall, near the tourist office, or in some other public building. There are usually signs pointing toward its locations when you get near. You learn to keep your eyes open for little signs labeled W.C. or toilette. Interior accommodations vary and it is always wise to have a tissue in your pocket.
Perne-les-Fontaines: Sometimes there are only footprints. Some of these toilets are cleaner than others.
Tarascon - free, self-cleaning, even had paper (white pull slot in upper right)
view of sink and built in dryer
Tarascon - in parking lot by castle. free use. push a button to lock, push the button again to unlock and it automatically flushes the toilet. little spray heads on the floor clean the floor at least once per day.
Mail Delivery
Mail delivery on tiny streets up cobbles that rattle your teeth is a challenge. There are mail vans, but I've never seen anyone delivering mail on foot (although I'm sure it happens in some places). Here are a couple of mail delivery options I've found on our explorations.
A bicycle works in Aix-en-Provence
Scooters, like this in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer in the Camargue, are used in many small towns and villages.
Oh, and remember post offices, especially in small towns, close from noon to 2 or 2:30 for lunch, like this one in Boulbon
Little Libraries
Little libraries can be found in lots of places, often outside the town's library, town hall, or post office.
Boulbon: This box says: Cultivate the taste for reading
Boulbon: The side of the box (put up by Lions Club of Provence) says: I leave a book here, I borrow, I read, I return.
Roses
Roses are out and they're beautiful. You find them everywhere, clinging to walls in narrow streets, filling pots where there's no dirt to plant in, filling yards with pops of color everywhere.
The Countryside
In the fields, the first (of four) harvests of hay are in and baled. Looks a lot like home, but with more hills
Hay bales near St. Michel de Frigolet
We frequently drive through lovely alleys of plane trees. Conventional wisdom holds that Napoleon had such alleys planted to provide shade for his soldiers as they marched through the countryside. These are the trees that are so ugly in winter, pruned in horribly nubby spiderwebs. But when their leaves come out, they provide wonderful canopies of shade that avoid rubbing on the tallest of French trucks. To me, they always feel calming.
in Malaucène
Other side of the road in Malaucène
It's hard to get a good photo from the back seat of the car. This is April 10, leaves just coming out
GPS
Our GPS is crazy. It is constantly sending us down one way streets, the wrong way. We don't know how to change it - we think it takes the most direct route. Luckily, we can see the no entry signs (red circle with a white horizontal line). But she's been known to take us on paths through farm fields, rutted gravel "roads" or roads that get narrower and narrower. Luckily, the map that shows on the GPS can usually help us back out of whatever trouble we get into.
Our GPS (named Michelle) considered this driveway a "road".
In this case, the narrow road wasn't the fault of our GPS - this road to the Bories seemed to be one way but...
it wasn't. With the rock walls on the sides of the road, it's almost impossible to pull over enough to pass another car. In this case, it took a full minute of inching by both cars to be able to pass. Sheesh!
Gates: It's rare to find a house without a gate and without privacy shrubs over 7 feet tall. These are usually well tended, clipped to make a smooth wall of privacy. Bamboo is everywhere here. At first, we thought it was invasive (well it looks like it is) but it is clearly purposefully planted to create quick-growing privacy hedges and windbreaks between fields. Gardening articles suggest species that don't spread like wildfire and ways to keep other species from spreading beyond the desired locations. We find it annoying while driving because it often blocks our sight of the landscape behind it. Clearly the French care about their privacy. I suppose I would too if I were living within inches of my neighbors. I'll post some photos when I find them.
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