Day 66, Rousset to Berlou, France

At the village bridge (Berlou)

Today a new phenomenon for me, a first this trip luckily and that's traffic jams. This is not the Moorhouse ave at 5 o'clock variety although that's pretty bad, but this is solid. An hour to move 15 k's on the motorway. And Murphy's law works here too, because as soon as I decided to have a yoghurt to eat the traffic started to flow, happens every time. Then there is the frustrating toll situation in France. Italy has it down pat, smooth as, whereas in France it's major confusing. So you get on the motorway and after 10 minutes you pay €1.00. Not sure if this is for what you have just done or about to do. No, after another 5 minutes you converge into 6 lanes to get a ticket. Then, 30 k's later you converge again into 10 lines to pay for the part you have just completed.

Then you find some idiot in front of you trying to pay and her card won't work. Oh, hang on, that idiot was me....It said you could pay by card, so I tried my Cash Passport card, then my credit card, and it wouldn't take either, shoot! So I ring the phone there and get to talk to someone, have to read my numbers out to her, twice, in my best French (un, deux, trois) . Had to do it twice, as she got mixed up (not me!) all the while there are ten cars behind you, tooting, ARGH. Anyway, the barrier arm went up, so whether she finally got it, or gave up, I don't know and don't care.

I had agreed to meet my host at 3 at the local wine shop, as his place was a bit hard to find. I had left at 10.15 to do 270 k's, so thought tons of time. I didn't stop once, and got here at 2.56, phew. His place is lovely, just my sort of house, old, cozy, comfy. I have my own 'wing' almost, bathroom, bedroom, and use of the kitchen, lounge, terrace. I thought I should get out of my comfort zone a bit more often, it's so blah to stay at motel sort of places; clean and sterile, but you don't really get to know people, so this is a 'home stay', where you really just stay in someone's home. I had dinner cooked for me by my host John, so I'm liking this so far!

Simple, but pretty