We have 4 days of unplanned travel with no accommodation booked. We headed off in the direction of Arles. We had rough plans to go to Montpellier and back up to Laguoile in the day's drive.
We skirted Arles, don't know why we bothered, we didn't see anything of note, and then decided to ditch the GPS and free wheel towards Nimes . That wasn't overly successful and we went through the pretty little village of Martin de Crau, before ending back in Arles. Having a second drive through showed it to be a lovely village.
Back with the GPS, with the no tollway option, we were off in the right direction. The countryside was beautiful, with fields of sunflowers, grain crops and fruit orchards. We stopped in the little tiny village of Albaron for a toilet break. There was nothing but a school and a church and a public toilet, which by all accounts was not fit for humans (or at least Judes) so we stopped at the little fuel station/restaurant/cafe on the highway. It did have sign saying for customers only, but the cafe looked pretty rough and the restaurant waved us away. Jude took the risk and popped in to the loo. As she was washing her hands the owner came in saying "madame boisson?" Jude nodded "yes,yes" and raced out the door and into the car, leaving Mike standing waiting for her. The lady came out and we drove off in a hurry with her glaring after us, and before she called out her posse sitting at the bar.
While driving we saw the signs for Aigue-Mortes. Mike and Jude recalled visiting this a long time ago and said it was pretty cool, so we headed in that direction. Ken was getting desperate for a coffee and almost had us sitting at a horse riding school. We drove into Aigue-Mortes with many other people. It took us while to get through the traffic. I had woken with a dodgy back this morning so the boys dropped Jude and I off at entrance to the car park so I wouldn't have to walk so far . As we were walking through the gate the bloody boom came and hit me on the head! The two ladies in the next car looked as horrified as me, but without the pain.
Aigue-Mortes is a medieval walled city. It is still a functioning town, though mostly tourist shops. There is a lot of residential but I think it would be a bit quiet and creepy at night. It seems to lack something, but is certainly an interesting historical place. You can imagine it bustling behind the walls and the entrances to the city looks like something out of a movie.
We had a nice lunch at an Italian cafe, half a pizza and a massive salad for ¢10, followed by a great coffee. We had a good look around the town and then the boys went to get the car, leaving us at one of the entrances. They were gone for quite a while, before we saw Mike walking up the road. They couldn't get through and we ended up walking to where Ken was doing bog laps of the town.
Back on the road to Montpellier, the drive was easy and picturesque.
The city is really pretty, the 5th largest in France. We entered over the bay with lovely large buildings and wide streets. Without any real destination Stella took us round and round the city. We finally parked near the train station and walked in to get an idea of where we were. There is a large tram network so we bought a ticket for the loop ride. After the first machine ate our money we sat and waited, only to realise that the line we wanted was out of action. We caught another one and went for a short trip, having a bit of a look around . We got off at the Archeological Gardens, apparently the oldest in France. Not overly impressed, we walked to the park in the centre of town.
We had taken a while to decipher the maps to get here and Mike had us crossing the road "to get our bearings". After all these years Jude still can't understand him, or her mind was elsewhere, she thought he was saying "get a beer in", so that's what we did!
We were liking the look of this city and the day was slipping by, so we booked some accommodation for the night. We ended up in an Ibis in the centre of town.
We walked to the wrong Ibis and were sent to the other, a 5 minute walk, where we checked in. I rested in our room while the other 3 went to move the car to the hotel. It was a short distance away. After about 40 minutes Jude sent a text, "We r still on our way very complicated! I have 1% on my phone". About an hour later I was beginning to think they had had a mishap, when I got another message, "it's ok we r still alive! This is hilarious but nearly there. Held up by an ambulance blocking the way . A true comedy of errors!".
The finally turned up about 20 minutes late, Jude giggling deliriously. It seems Montpellier had beaten all forms of navigation. At one point Ken had Stella (our GPS), the car's GPS, google maps lady, Mike with a paper map and Jude from the back seat telling him what to do. He was surprisingly sane when he arrived. They were chased by an ambulance, thinking it may be the police pulling them over, got stuck behind the same ambulance when they came back around, been in and out of tunnels, gone the wrong way up one way streets and driven round and round in circles trying to determine which of the layered roads they should take.
By now it was 8.15pm. Time for a quick shower and out for dinner. The streets were busy with many bars and restaurants. Montpellier is very multicultural and a big university town.
The first restaurant ignored us so we moved to another where were welcomed and enjoyed a lovely meal, reliving the antics of the drive. The street was lively. At one point a guy in a red morph suit with a Borat mankini over the top was stopped by a little police van for a chat. Then another policeman hopped out of the back of the van and kissed his cheeks. We wandered through the streets around Place de la Comedie,an ice cream and back to the hotel for a good night's rest.


Steps 8,910
Kms walked 6.9