136 miles
It's been an odd day.
Laura, our youngest daughter who has just started university. phoned late last night to say that she had to be rescued by the fire brigade after an incident In her hall of residence. She became trapped in her kitchen after something on the cooker set the sprinklers off and the fire door automatically locked. Not surprisingly this has knocked her confidence, and we really need to get to the bottom of how this could happen in a brand new hall. In our absence our elder daughter, Sarah, who also lives in London, has been on hand to help (big hugs all round).
We'll just have to see how things progress, but it's a horrible thing to happen in your third week at Uni.
As for us, we woke up in Vaison la Romaine to a mixed forecast, so we decided to head towards the coast where France Meteo still had full suns on the map. Back at home I had followed the road from St Remy de Provence to Les Baux over Les Alpilles using Streetview. I had concocted an idea in my head that we would park the van by the roadside and wander across the limestone plateau for a kilometres or two, before returning for a simple lunch of bread and cheese. We did manage the lunch, but the rest of my fantasy had not figured-in the fact that it was a sunny Sunday, and more or less the entire urban population of France's Mediterranean seaboard seemed to be determined to share my vision. The roads on the northern side of the escarpment were packed; to the south, beyond Les Baux, empty. So we did manage lunch, but somewhat later than the Galic mid-day moment.
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| Lunch stop south of Les Baux |
Next we skirted across the Carmargue. The afternoon was crystal clear with big skies and distant glimpses of the hills of Languedoc in the far blue distance. Perhaps we should have stopped here, pressing on to St. Maries de la Mer. Instead we headed for the large aire below the ramparts of Aigues Mort.
Big mistake!
We had visited the town before in 1994. I have a video of denim clad old men playing boules beneath the medieval walls, ancient gateways and shots of the distant hills and the gleaming white salt flats beneath a chalk blue, cloudless sky. You could have still shot the same video today, but you would need to a skilled editor to screen out the traffic jams, crazily parked cars, garish funfairs and a massive circus tent which took up half the car park. After some difficulty we did find the aire, it was packed. Maisy was adding to the chaos by trying to squeeze through the crowded narrow streets. We took refuge in an Intermarche car park on the edge of town. Lessons learned - don't head for tourist hotspots on sunny Sundays, especially near the coast. We got out the All the Aires book, found a likely place a few kilometre inland at somewhere called Sonnieres. It turned out to be utterly charming. A riverside town with old houses and arcaded squares and an esplanade with tall Plane trees. The autumn colour was spectacular at sunset. We sat in a riverside cafe with 'deux noisettes' and discussed which of the overgroomed young men around us should be accorded French young prat of the year. Gill attempted to nail her contender by taking surreptitious photos. Then back to the van to continue our exploration of the subtle differences between the named Cote de Rhone Villages - tonight's subject for academic discourse - the wines of Roaix (next slide please)....
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| The sunny south, bottled. |
We phoned the all three children to check on how they were, and especially what was going on with Laura's situation. The more we find out the less happy we are. No way should a fire prevention system in a residential block trap someone in a burning kitchen, it transpired that the fire blankets are situated in the corridor outside, that is on the other side of the fire door. Laura has a burned forearm, she is very lucky that her injuries are not more severe. Sarah will help Laura when she meets the accommodation people; personally I think the Student Union needs to know about it too. Most important, however, is that Laura gets her confidence back and the incident does not make her feel negative towards Uni more generally.
As I said it's been an odd day.
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