A day of polarity

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Geo: 41.9266, 8.73529

Sunday, June 30, 2013

After grabbing a coffee and pain au chocolat at a hip little boulangerie, it was back on the road. The roads out of Propriano were a touch less twisty, but not by much. We made it into Ajaccio by about 10:30 to find a vantage point from which to watch the finish of stage 2, and again managed to find a parking spot across the street from the tourism office, and got the scoop. In fact, the finish line wasn't in town at all, but further out, at a tower near the sea. Since we needed to be at the airport pretty soon after the peloton passed through, we took the advice of the tourism office woman and decided to watch from the beginning of the Cat 3 climb, through town.

But the peloton wasn't expected thru til about 5 pm, and it was now……oh, 10:30 am. So. We parked at the northernmost public parking lot (to facilitate a quicker getaway), and went to pay. I was trying to figure out how to work the automated payment machine, when a character of a guy came over to tell us that it was Sunday, and the lot was free on Sundays. In French, he said "It may be the Tour de France, but it's still Sunday." 😊

We wandered up the hill, found our spot, then continued into the center of town to see what they had to offer. There were some tents/booths set up, showcasing different products of Corsica, like olive oil, a charcuterie, soaps, perfumes, and honey. Ooh, honey! (“Yes, dear?” ba-dum-bump). I stopped to taste some of this local miel, and the man was very nice, and spoke enough English to tell me that this one was from the flowers of tangerines, this from something else, and this one from the flowers of chestnuts. A very strong flavor, but nice. I bought a collection of 6 different honeys from his farm.

We wandered down along the beach towards the citadel. Didn't go in, but really enjoyed looking at the ocean and all its Mediterranean blueness. We grabbed a bite at a snack shack, and caught a little bit of the beginning of the stage, which they were showing on a giant screen in the town plaza. Soon, it was time to go find our spot, so off to the hill for us.

It turned out to be a great spot for a few reasons: 1) It was right at the beginning of the climb, so the riders went by comparatively slowly. 2) It was right at the beginning of the climb, so the caravan went by comparatively slowly. Dejo was en feugo when it came to catching the caravan schwag. They seemed to be throwing stuff right at him. 3) It was fairly near the car. As soon as the peloton had passed, we elbowed our way down the hill past the people who were still watching and got into our car, for a quick getaway to the airport.

Oh, yes. The airport. Mmm-hmm.

Our flight (on a cheapo, never-heard-of-it-but-they're-almost-the-only-choice-here airline called Volotea) was scheduled for 8:55 pm. We figure, what with returning the car and checking in, we should be to the airport by about 6:30 or 7, and who knows how much traffic there might be. Well, with our quick getaway, we had turned in the car by about 5:30.

And then we saw the sign in the airport: Volotea, Montpellier, Expected 23:35.

Well, our flight was expected to land around 10:05, so an hour and a half late, okay.

An hour or so later, it occurs to us that this isn't the expected arrival time. Oh, no-no-no-no. It's expected to leave Ajaccio at 11:35 pm. Oof.

And we've already checked our bags, so there's no changing our minds to see about maybe taking the overnight ferry. No, our choice is to grab a terribly bland sandwich at the one food counter in this bustling center of activity before it closes, and find a place to hang out. So we did. For about 5 hours.

Eventually, we actually did get to take off (though we were already honing our Amazing Race skills by scoping out where we might catch a couple of hours' sleep). We landed late enough at Montpellier that there weren't any taxis to be had. We asked a couple of people waiting if they were waiting for a taxi (not wanting to jump the queue). Turns out, everyone else had a ride coming, so it was us and the now-closed airport, some 15 miles away from our hotel. The people that we'd asked, took pity on us, and went inside to find a security guard with a cell phone, who called a taxi for us. Good thing, as Pam's phone had no service on any carrier so we couldn't even incur the outrageous roaming fees to call for a cab (which we would have gladly done).

We arrived at the hotel, which really looked pretty cool, so we were a little sad we couldn't spend more time there. Check in, take out the contacts, and nighty-night.

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Photos

A little walk around Ajaccio
We rather hoped the guy who agreed to take our picture might think to get the picturesque countryside in the shot, but alas, all you can see is the Mediterranean. We didn't realize we had the camera set to an artsy setting until much later....

The coast off Ajaccio
The sand looked pretty inviting -- on another trip, we'd like to dig our toes in.

Beginning the last climb of the day
The peloton goes past us, as they begin their last climb of the day, before the finish down the coast from Ajaccio.