Our plan to visit Pont du Gard, the famous Roman aquaduct west of Avignon, was re-evaluated about 10 minutes into our drive as we munched on pastries from a boulangerie in Lauris. The day seemed exceptionally dark due to a light rain and overcast sky, so we’ll make that drive another day. All the great photos of the Pont and Provence’s beautiful villages seem to have been taken on perfectly sunny days; we’ll hope for at least one in the week ahead.
We went nowhere the previous day, which started with New Hampshire primary results and TV pundits trying to explain how they got it all so wrong. Later that morning, the scheduled appointment by a satellite technician who was supposed to make an adjustment to our hosts’ TV system came to naught. The company apparently hadn’t mailed a card required to update the account. Since the language barrier was insurmountable, we called a neighbor, who drove over and tried to help, but without the card, nothing was possible. The technician’s expression in the accompanying photo captures the moment. (A day later, the card still hadn’t arrived – and neither has that fourth box of clothing we mailed from Paris to Honolulu three years ago!)
Back to our drive. Instead of turning west at Lauris and following the Durance River, we went back toward Pertuis again for some exercise and window-shopping up and down its two main streets. Every store displayed soldes (sales) signs. It’s interesting to us that these sales periods are held in stores throughout the country at the same time – a couple weeks in winter and summer – and apparently are dictated by the government.
Then, more shopping at Pertuis' Hyper U, our main source for groceries so far (they know us by sight in the cheese, bakery and wine sections), and then lunch at the attached and highly trafficked cafeteria.
(To our friends and relatives: Our apologies. We’re doing the best we can with the mundane details of our vacation – but this IS a vacation, so we’re chilling. The BIG news is that Lennie finally is getting over her cold!)
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