It is difficult getting the timing right when multiple modes of transport are involved ( and, in my old age, i have become more risk averse than I used to be, and less confident that public transport will run to schedule. ) I started early , walked to the correct tram stop and caught a tram to the other side of the central area of Montpellier. This always involves carefully thought - which side of the platform to wait on because the trams are on the wrong side of the road and do you want to go clockwise or anticlockwise. Then, because of the tram network's modifications, I had to queue ( not really, just a disorderly mass) for a shuttle bus ( I refuse to use the word navette) . Luckily I was in the right place, just near an opening door, but that was luck. Not all of the mass of people got on. I knew I wanted to go the end of the line which on my map was labelled as Place de France.. On the bus it said the bus was going to Odysseum. The next bus went from Place de France. Thanks to Google I found that they were quite near. When the bus driver stopped he indicated that Place de France was a nearby street. Every other ' place' in Montpellier has indicated some vacant land with people . All I could see was car parks. Anyway, I found the next bus stop, had enough time to find some coffee and food, then got on the bus for Le Grau de Roi, another seaside town similar to Palavas but where the tour I was booked on left from. An hour later I got to le Grau du Roi, had plenty of time to wander around and then had a nice lunch and went back to the bus stop to be picked up by someone from the tour. All went smoothly in the end, but there was uncertainty at every step. Am I in the right spot? Will the bus come? What if it doesn't, will the next bus get me there in time? I am finding these thoughts are more prevalent than they used to be and more tiring.
So the tour. There was the driver and guide, Sophia, 2 French people who spoke reasonable English, and a family of 4 mum ( french) , dad ( us) and 2 almost teenagers who spoke both and the 4 lived in London. Most of the time the guide spoke in French and then translated for me, sometimes she started with English. The hard part for me was that often I could partly understand her French. It would have been less tiring to ignore the French rather than listen to the French, listen to the English and compare and think, Oh, that is what such and such means. So I was inadvertently trying to learn about the language and the Camargue at the same time. Tiring.
The Camargue is an area of ?? Characterised by very flat land , etungs ie lakes ( Sophia was using the English word swamp. I , politely , said they were not swamps. I described swamps. Luckily the French lady backed me up), lots of canals, flamingos , fruit and veg ( we saw asparagus, lots of grape, vines, rice fields ( the rice from here is red, thin, long grains, nutty, delicious . I have tried it) lots of fruit trees) , the distinctive Camargue white horses, bit smaller than normal, foals are born brownish, then turn greyish at 2 and white at 3ish or the other way around., the distinctive Camargue bulls - different to Spanish bulls , their horns go upwards up not forwards, and smaller ., Large homesteads with attached wine tasting and accomodation. We got to taste some of the wines and food of the area.
Sophia dropped me at the bus stop at 6.15 for the 6.30 bus back to montpellier . The next one, the last of the day , went at 7.30. The 6.30 bus arrived, but it was not until 8.30 that I walked in my front door. That time included a 10 min diversion to get some prepared salad for dinner. So no blog last night.
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