Greetings from Arles, France!
The hotel we are now at has unlimited internet access for free! The catch? It's a French keyboard and many of the keys are in the wrong place (more so than Spanish!!!). So, I'm back to hunt'n'peck days... Also, it was a long day, so if I stqrt typing like this I hope you understqnd:::
The long day: Yesterday we got our reservation for Barcelona to Arles, France. Just two trains, or so we were told... We had a scheduled stop in Narbonne, but when we got there today, there was no train to Arles. Here we are, Jenn and I speak almost no French... Finally I manage a little 'oo ay la train poah Arrrl?' The train conductor was helpful but assured me that the train to Arles left an hour ago, despite the schedule the people in Barcelona gave me. 'Oh,' I said, 'la Span EESH!!!' He laughed. I felt pretty good about deparaging the Spanish in front of a Frenchman...
So, he tells us to take the next train to NEEmah, and points to the board with the name Nimes. We wait in the station then catch the train to Nimes. No problem. We get to Nimes, go to information, give them my best 'oo ay la train pouh Arrl?' But, there is no train to Arles! None. Ever. We must take the train to Avignon, THEN we can take the train to Arles. Is this for real? It's starting to get later in the afternoon and I'm starting to wonder if we will figure this whole thing out before the trains shut down for the night. But, we take the next train to Avignon and go to Information and OUI, in half an hour there is a train to Nice... with a stop in Arles. FINALY we get to Arles about 8 hours after we leave Barcelona...
France is beautiful, but noticably different from Spain. Hard to describe without a degree in architecture, but the buildings look very different. It's a nice change. Alres is very small and sleepy compared to the noicy cities of Spain. We had our first Provencial meal of local red wine, fish soup with a side of croutons, cheese, and garlic paste, AND a main cource of trout. 'tray bone' I managed... It was very good. Tomorrow we plan to kick around town then we'll start planning day trips via, gulp, more trains...
Until then, 'of-wah!'
The long day: Yesterday we got our reservation for Barcelona to Arles, France. Just two trains, or so we were told... We had a scheduled stop in Narbonne, but when we got there today, there was no train to Arles. Here we are, Jenn and I speak almost no French... Finally I manage a little 'oo ay la train poah Arrrl?' The train conductor was helpful but assured me that the train to Arles left an hour ago, despite the schedule the people in Barcelona gave me. 'Oh,' I said, 'la Span EESH!!!' He laughed. I felt pretty good about deparaging the Spanish in front of a Frenchman...
So, he tells us to take the next train to NEEmah, and points to the board with the name Nimes. We wait in the station then catch the train to Nimes. No problem. We get to Nimes, go to information, give them my best 'oo ay la train pouh Arrl?' But, there is no train to Arles! None. Ever. We must take the train to Avignon, THEN we can take the train to Arles. Is this for real? It's starting to get later in the afternoon and I'm starting to wonder if we will figure this whole thing out before the trains shut down for the night. But, we take the next train to Avignon and go to Information and OUI, in half an hour there is a train to Nice... with a stop in Arles. FINALY we get to Arles about 8 hours after we leave Barcelona...
France is beautiful, but noticably different from Spain. Hard to describe without a degree in architecture, but the buildings look very different. It's a nice change. Alres is very small and sleepy compared to the noicy cities of Spain. We had our first Provencial meal of local red wine, fish soup with a side of croutons, cheese, and garlic paste, AND a main cource of trout. 'tray bone' I managed... It was very good. Tomorrow we plan to kick around town then we'll start planning day trips via, gulp, more trains...
Until then, 'of-wah!'
posted by Greg | 12:19 PM
2 Comments:
J'aime beaucoup touts des histoires de votre "blogge".
Hee hee hee!
Moi aussi! It's kind of funny that "blague" in French means an outrageous joke...
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