Europe 2018: Off-Roading in a Rental Car (Google Knows All)
This trip has been a series of lessons on patience, flexibility, compassion, spontaneity, unexpected pleasures, and enjoying the moment. As I write this, I am sitting outside of the Hotel Le Verdon in Greoux-les-Bains watching a serious game of petanque. The weather is lovely with a light breeze, with nature all around. It is a nice change from the craziness of Nice last night. I couldn’t rent the car and get out of Nice fast enough and I am somewhat dreading going back tomorrow night. I now have a day to spend (Tuesday) on the Cote d/Azur and am wondering how I can escape the throngs of people.
My son’s girlfriend Alyssa researched places for me to visit as I traveled from Nice to Hotel Le Verdon. I didn’t really look at them before I got on the road and plugged the addresses into Google Maps. I simply put the top down on the Fiat 500 and got on the A8 towards Marseilles assuming I would figure it out along the way. And I did.
The first stop was Chateau d/Entrecasteaux where I had an amazing lunch at Chez Ellie…a literal hole in the wall (the kitchen used to be a Tabac) with tables lining the street. The owner, Ellie, is an American (her mom is from Iowa) but she grew up in France. She is working on re-inventing restaurants for millennials and I think we will be seeing more than one Chez Ellie.
I decided to take a super-scenic route to Castle Robernier and kept thinking of the joke: what is the difference between a 4 wheel drive and a rental car? You can take a rental car anywhere and anywhere I did. The single-track road up to the chateau was super rocky. Turns out there was a wedding there the day before and they were just wrapping up brunch. You too can rent it out for your wedding. Per the mother of the bride (who lives in Washington DC; the bride and groom live in California) the owner takes care of everything and is lovely to work with. They had 150 people at the wedding and took over the hotels and restaurants in the local town.
The next stop should have been about 30 minutes away but ended up closer to 50 since I decided to be kind and let a gentleman on a motorcycle (with a sidecar) pass me and I turned onto a side road. Google maps redirected and lo and behold, I ended up on the same damn single-track road I took to get to the previous place (there were two different ones: one that was just narrow and the other that was narrow and rocky).
How I managed to do a circle using the same road is absolutely beyond me but I did. The universe works in mysterious ways, though, because I’d wanted to get a picture of some rock outcroppings the first time around but missed the opportunity. I was able to get the pictures the second time around. I guess Google really does know everything even if we are just thinking it. Eerie!
By the time I arrived at the Chateau de la Verdiere, it was closed. Or it was never open today. I couldn’t quite tell from the sign on the door. It was a good spot to walk around briefly before continuing on the last leg of my journey.
At this point I needed to use les toilettes and was pretty thirsty so I beelined it for Greoux-les-Bains, looking for the actual gorge the entire time (seems I was west and off track by a few km) . The landscape was changing from the vineyards of Provence to trees and forest. I passed by a beautiful field of lavender and need to get a picture on the way out of here. It was spectacular.
And so now I am here at a place where I am easily 20+ years younger than everyone else. It’s an old school hotel and restaurant a bit outside of the local village so I am not sure what my plans will be for dinner (Update: went to the Villa Borghese restaurant and it was outstanding! Well worth the diversion to this little place).
There might be actual hot springs here but I haven’t read the brochures. I am hoping the bar is open soon (it’s nearly 7 PM) because I could use un verre de vin rose. And the Spain/Russia World Cup game was on the TV so I may have to check that out too. (Update: it was still on when I got back from dinner and ended up watching the two overtimes and the PKs with a French man from Monaco who was rooting for Croatia because the keeper was from Monaco or at least I think that is what he said. He didn’t speak English and wouldn’t slow down his French!)
Ma chambre is petite but clean and has a lovely balcony. I plan to leave the windows open and enjoy the sounds of the cicadas which remind me of our home exchange in Provence three years ago. I plan to be too tired to let them disturb my sleep. Zeke will tell you that they are really loud down here.
Time to go practice my French and see who I meet in the process. It’s been so lovely to connect with people from around the world on this trip and be reminded that despite what we are bombarded with on a daily basis with our current administration, there is goodness (and kindness) elsewhere in the world.
