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CitizenM Hotel at the Paris airport is our kind of accommodation - its mission statement speaks of affordable luxury. It’s the kind of hotel chain where someone has thought about what a traveller really needs on arrival and provides it in a funky and high tech way. We are given early checkin free, because it was just after
10 am and the room was available - perfect. The shower is a huge rain head - glorious. The bed is enormous - heaven. There are multiple charging hubs, stylish furniture and quality toiletries. The whole room is operated with the iPad - lights, TV, mood lighting, blind settings, alarms. We reclaim our sanity with gratitude and sleep for a couple of hours.
We had thoughts of going into Paris when we recovered but realised that we both needed to regroup for the next bit so just relaxed. Peter always manages to find an adventure, and when he came back from a look around, he asked me to guess what he had just done. I had no guesses, but it transpired that he had somehow made connection with a guy who took him for a ride in a driverless car! Of
course - why didn’t I think of that? Dinner was buffet and tasty, and by
8pm our bodies were screaming that it was actually already
4am, so we hit the goodnight switch on the iPad soon after and the whole room closed down and so did we.
What a difference a sleep makes, even if I was awake
at 3am! We felt ready for the trek south and, miraculously, my feet were functioning again. This was what I have looked forward to - a train trip! After the strikes of the last two days, the airport train terminal was crowded this morning, and people watching is always fun. The unions are strong here and the strikes are causing total chaos, except that they are at least calendered. With two out of every five days being hit, people holding reserved tickets are finding that they can’t reschedule because the trains are full on the days they are running. We are very grateful that our advance, cheap fare tickets are still valid, but don’t really trust it until we are on the train! Just adds a little frisson to our travel. The thing in Europe is that everyone uses trains, rich and
First stop in Beaumettes
Cant believe we have driven this far on the opposite side of the road! poor, young and old. I love the atmosphere, and watch the people and really enjoy the ride. It’s a lovely moment when we are in our seats and the train slides out of the station without an announcement. We listen to the French being spoken around us and try to tune in. The family across the aisle are playing cards and having a fun weekend trip. We are living our French dream at last.
Only three hours later we have travelled the length of France and arrive at the Avignon TGV station. Now my dream turns into a nightmare as we head for the Hertz car rental office. Are we really going to drive this car out of here on the wrong side of the road? Even Peter seems nervous, and that’s unusual! Forgetting how early we had breakfast and how much walking I have done, I choose this moment to have a diabetic hypo, so Peter had to go back to the station to find some food - he needs me to be completely with it as chief navigator in a foreign land! No more delays! With our map speaking to us and Peter concentrating hard, we started to drive out of the car park. A couple of stalls later, he found first gear (yes, it is a manual Toyota Yaris) and we lurched into the traffic in Avignon. I suspect the locals are used to giving a wide berth to cars with a rental number plate that hesitate at roundabouts and cling to the far right of the road! Yep, that’s us. I am proud of how calm I stayed and kept my screams on the inside, and how amazingly Peter drove! Only once, when he stopped to photograph a duck crossing the road, as you do, did he get back in and start to drive on the left, because there were no cars to remind him; they say you only do it once. A brief stop in Beaumettes where we found Les toilettes and we started to see signs to places we recognised. We really were driving in the Luberon on a glorious sunny day and even managed to relax a little to take in the stunning scenery.
Blossom, fruit trees, olive oil farms, abbeys, lavender museum: we must be in Provence! The road headed into the foothills and then we saw Bonnieux - a stunning hill town perched up so high that it is draped over the peak like topping on an ice cream. Memories of reading Peter Mayle's “A Year in Provence” flood back - we are about to drive right through his area. We will come back here and explore in the next weeks, but for now Peter concentrates on squeezing through the narrow, winding streets and negotiates the hairpin bends with flair! Every roundabout successfully negotiated the opposite way from oir instincts is a success and we look forward to it all becoming more natural. My adrenalin has slowed a little but we are not there yet! Across the valley we spot Gordes - also on our must see list. We wind our way down the mountain , somehow fitting between a solid stone wall and oncoming traffic, and our destination is finally close. The signs to Lourmarin seem to light up for us as we keep descending, and then we see the tree lined boulevard that we have looked at on Google earth. We are here! We have practised this route and now are on it. A nervous left hand turn via the right side of the roundabout into Route du Vaugines, and we see the gate: La Luberonne. We have found our cottage at last.
(Wifi not great so photos waiting to be added!)
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Howard
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Happy to accompany you
Just been looking around Lourmarin on street view on Google Earth. Enjoyed wandering down Rue Albert Camus and some other beautiful streets. A tew attractive eateries I would like to drop in to.