The Car

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First driving day today, not sure if I'm looking forward to it! We get a cab to the waterfront, a bit away from the centre, cabbie has a bit of trouble finding it as it's a small office in a shopping centre - closed but directions to the basement carpark. 2nd problem, no GPS available (I had trouble booking it on line and thought big city no worries, wrong!). Anyway Sat Navs are for pussies, adds to the fun doing it the old way, besides I had printed a few Google maps, I'm sure we can wing it to Millau. First issue getting out of Barcelona, decide to avoid the freeway while I get jused to the car, an Audi A4 and left hand drive. Hence we go via the marina and port, not quite the waterfront route I was planning but we eventually get out on the highway and we are on our way.Then suddenly the highway ends and we come to a small round about, unsigned and 2 options - we pick the wrong one and finish up in a little town, u-turn back to the other one and we are back on another motorway. On the way to Girona, Jules says "mmmm that was interesting - that girl on the side of the road didn't seem to be wearing very much and he arse was showing, but don't look you'll run off the road". Then another one, I look, and then on every bend for the next few k's - we Google it that night and discover they are the famour prositutues of Girona, none of them Spanish (mainly south american) who are dropped at the side of the road each morning by their pimps to perform tricks for passing motorists with the urge and the cash! We make our way north into France and into Narbonne. At this point we are going quite well so I decide that rather than follow the mapped route, we should head to Carsaconne and then to Millau via that town, couple of recommendations to see the castle. Due to a couple of unforseen detours we don't actually get there until 5PM, no time for the castle this time and we try to find the exit to Millau. Not easy, this one says Mazamet, maybe we can get across from there? It then dawns on us that this is NOT a major road & we find ourselves going up through narrow tree lined roads, many curves & snow coloured hills, spectacular scenery but only doing about 40km/h, a long night ahead? By 6PM we have driven through some very pretty villages, much snow but are now thinking, mmmm! We hit Mazamet at around 6:30 and decide to try to find somewhere to stay there, bugger the Mercure Millau! We do a bit of a recky, finish up in some way too narrow side streets, just enough room to get the Audi through, narrowly missed some walls on the right! We get back to the start of the town and find a motel - looks a bit basic but what the hell. They are full and when we ask about alternatives in town the old french wench grunts and points over the street - we didn't even see that. We are greeted at the door by a portly pommie chap, they are empty, phew! He shoes us a couple of rooms, the one we choose he'll take 45 to prepare, we say relax we'll be back in a couple of hrs, he recommends a restaurant and we first need a quick drink, so into the local pub and then to the french restaurant, looks a bit flash! Jules has duck la orange, me a cassoulet, traditional dishes, very nice, waiter a but stuck up (french afterall) and wash it down with a nice bottle of Medoc, 1986. Back at the B&B we are greeted by Katie, the wife, who is from Sydney! They both love a chat and we eventually settle into the salon with the wifi code and our bottle of scotch, day 7 and the bottle is already gone, need to restock somewhere!

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