A little bit of serendipity

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Geo: 42.8104, 2.50425

We walked all the way over to the food truck for a fresh baguette for breakfast, which we gobbled down with some beurre and lovely berry medley store-brand jam that we bought the
first day in the van. Then we had to say "Au revoir" to our lovely beachside aire (though we didn't get a chance to walk along the beach), and headed out to Montpellier. We'd decided to park at the shopping center where we caught the tram yesterday. After all, we knew where it was, we knew we could park there, and there was plenty of space.

There is plenty of space, though some of it isn't accessible to you if you're 2.5 meters tall (as a vehicle, that is). Which we are. Still, we found a shaded spot, and made our way to the tram. A little frustration with the ticket kiosk (which doesn't take bills, nor credit cards without a chip) didn't do much to delay us. After figuring out that we needed to get off a stop early (due to the Tour disrupting things, and all) we were on our way by foot, to figure out….well, we weren't sure.

But on the way towards that, we stopped into a bank to ask about buying a chip-and-PIN prepaid Visa. After all, that seemed to be the magic ticket to the toll booths, the tram ticket kiosks, some of the aire service stations….. The bank didn't sell them, but the very nice lady said we might try a tabac (tobacco shop / newsstand). We spotted one and popped in to ask about a prepayee carte de debit. To our delight, the clerk turned around to get one out of a drawer. After some fumbling with the language barrier, we managed to buy a card for €15, and load €100 onto it. Boom.

The morning of a stage depart tends to be a better opportunity to meet riders, get autographs, etc. But since we had no idea where the team buses would be parking, we just headed for the
general start area and began meandering. There's the Village, which is a VIP area away from the crowds of peasants, where you have direct access to the team buses. But you have to have a wristband to get in, and since we didn't, we moved on. There's the technical truck area, which might be interesting if we knew more about what was what. And that area was blocking things so that you couldn't just walk around behind the trucks. You had to walk over to that
bridge, down by the school, up a staircase, over the railroad tracks, down through that one-way street, around the end, and back up. Well, since we didn't know where it was that we wanted to go, we went That Way.

As we were turning “around the end”, we noticed a team bus driving down a street just ahead of us. Then another. And another. Duh – of course we followed them. The team bus parking area for this stage was essentially circled up around a park. We found a spot on the barriers where the riders would be passing by to go sign in. We didn't get to talk to or meet anyone, but it was fun watching all the activity. And we marveled at the accessibility of this sport. In what other professional sport can the fans just hang out in what equates to the room outside the locker room, and get to see the athletes prepping & giving interviews, and maybe get a chance at meeting them, too? We did get another look from one of our favorite riders. Tejay van Garderen is from Boulder, Colorado, just an hour away from us. As we saw him coming back from sign-in, Pam yelled out “Tejay, Colorado says 'Hey'!”and he glanced back and grinned.

We hung out there until the teams had to head out for the day, then meandered some more. Picked up a couple of ham & cheese sandwiches at the Monoprix, and after deciding that the line to buy drinks was too long, we opted to cross the plaza to McDonald's for a Coke with ice. It took a little language fumbling and charades to make it clear that we'd like the Cokes to have ice, but it was SO worthwhile. I hadn't realized how much I like those clear little cubes crunching in my teeth and cooling me down. But oh, I had missed that!!! Dejo nearly threw his cup out with a few precious cubes still in it, when I realized what was happening and rescued them.

We stopped by the official merchandise tent to stock up on goodies, and then caught the tram back to the shopping center. We took a few minutes to see about how to activate this chip & PIN card, and realized that the only way to get a PIN was to request one by text. No problem, if you're in a country where your phone has access to a network. But the only phone we had with us was Pam's iPhone, which doesn't work on the bands in Europe. We'd have happily paid the roaming charges to get on the network and send and receive those 2 texts, but there's no way that was going to work. But you know what? We're at this big ol' shopping center, and maybe we could buy a disposable / pay-as-you-go phone.

Big ol' shopping center is right! The Odysseum (the name should have given us a clue) is kindof an outdoor mall. And yes, there were phone stores, but the cheapest plan + phone was €40, which seemed a little steep, for trying to get access to €100. Then Dejo had the inspired idea to ask someone in the States to send that text for us, and e-mail the PIN to us. Great
– we'll send that e-mail once we get on the road. In the meantime – since we're here – there's a Geant Casino (which we'd learned a few days ago is a brand name supermarket, not a very large gambling hall), and we need a couple of things, We'll just pop in.

Ho-ly cow.

Geant? How about ginormous?!? This thing was akin to the biggest super WalMart I've ever seen. If you couldn't find it there, you didn't need it. We probably could have found a stepstool, if we hadn't already given up on the idea. But we found lunch & dinner makings, cheap snacks, a hose adapter (the garden hose we'd been given with the campervan didn't fit all service station faucets), some more toilet paper, and a bottle of red table wine for €1.10. Yes, folks, that a bottle of plonk for about $1.50. Oh, sure, there were plenty of bottles for €3 – 6, but it's not like the 2 of us would know the difference….

So. Back on the road. That night, we were aiming for a place close enough to be able to drive up to a place on the mountain the next day, for the HC climb. We were aiming for an aire in St. Paul de Fenouillet, about an hour's drive from the mountainside. This aire was actually in the village itself, in a parking lot by the church. The service point took credit cards, which meant we didn't have to worry about getting there before shops closed, to be able to buy a tank full of fresh water – yippee!! We pulled in, and our faces fell as we realized it had to be a chip & PIN card, and though we now had one, we didn't yet have the PIN (Dejo's brothers Andrew & Jerome hadn't yet gotten our e-mail asking for help with that). Sigh. So, we had our bottle of plonk with a couple of microwavable spaghetti dinners that we warmed up in the frypan. But we weren't entirely certain that the few young men who kept popping in & out of the pizza place across the street, and hanging out on the walls of the parking area, were a welcoming committee. You know how you sometimes just have this feeling? We were starting to get a little of that.

And then, a dose of serendipity.

A VW van (which had obviously seen many miles, and probably had many stories) pulled up. We were blocking the service point (hadn't thought anyone else would be pulling in, frankly), and this young couple wanted to use it. Not park there, but empty their black water, and top up on fresh water. We watched with envy as they inserted their card, punched in some numbers and got the magic door to open, revealing the fresh water pump and the black water drain. Mostly, we were coveting the fresh water. For €3, they got a full tank of water, and all it took was 4 little numbers.

It occurred to both of us at about the same time that maybe we could give them cash to use that magic card again. We got our point across (the guy spoke some English, and she was trying, bless her adorable little heart), and they granted us access to that magic little door with the fresh water pump. You see, fresh water is the key to being able to flush (well, rinse, really) that little toilet in the teeny bathroom in our campervan, and to being able wash dishes in the teeny kitchen sink, or rinse the toothpaste down the teenier bathroom sink.

As we pumped, and topped up their water bottles with the time we had left (this particular service point was on a timer – supposedly 15 minutes of access for €3, but the timer started at about 8 minutes), we made some conversation. They invited us to join them at what he called a “really cute” campsite, just a couple of kilometers away. We still hadn't gotten a “Welcome to the neighborhood, make yourself at home” vibe from the parking lot of the fellows hovering around it, so we agreed to come with them. It's the sort of thing that might be the beginning of a horror movie. But Mathieu & Elise seemed like really nice kids, and we got a much better vibe from them, so we packed up in a hurry and followed them out of town.

And yes, in fact, this campground was pretty cute. It was a hidden little area just off the road, by a slow-moving river, and we would never have found it without them. We each brought our bottles of wine out, and stood around talking for an hour or so. We met their dog (whose
name I missed), and heard about their travels through France on the beginning of their 3-month holiday. They were absolutely delightful people, and we very much hope to see them again someday. But eventually, we did have to turn in, so we said our adieu and put the cap on
this day.

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Photos

The BMC crew
This was our vantage point for the morning's activities

Peter Sagan
Signing some autographs on his way back from sign-in