I must first start by tipping my hat to an amazing lady. My Grandma’s 95 years old today. Although I’m 8 hours ahead and it’s only 10 past midnight, I’m sending her birthday wishes. Ninety-five years is quite the accomplishment.
I’m sitting in the dark, around the pool at Le Patio 34 with a glass of rosé handed to me by Stéphane, the hotel owner. Could he tell I was frazzled and that I needed a drink? Well, no matter, I’m now officially on vacation and it is desperately needed!
So a couple hours into my adventure and what have I just learned? Well, playing-it-by ear travel is fun. True. Unfortunatley, playing-it-by-ear travel can also be expensive. Sigh. I didn’t book ahead for the rental car and I arrived at the Montpellier airport at 11PM tonight. I got the last car, a medium size and will pay roughly 300 Euros for two days. Ouch. That’s worse than Iceland and I thought THAT was expensive! Still – I am an advocate of going where the wind-blows you and not overplanning. I just want the flight and the first night’s hotel booked. After that – let the wind blow!
Another thing I’ve learned is that my efforts to fight my way through the learning curve of learning to drive a manual transmission car were worth it all those years ago. When I sat down in the rental car tonight and looked at the stick shift, I took a moment to appreciate that it wasn’t a problem for me. By contrast, I know several otherwise competent and capable people who simply cannot drive anything but an automatic. Knowing how to drive a stick certainly makes things easier when renting cars internationally and opens a lot more doors to seeing and doing things off the beaten path.
What else have I learned? Well, turns out I have joined the ranks of those who rely on GPS’s to get around. Part of me feels that they encourage laziness and they dull people’s ability to follow road signs and read maps, but that part of me was in the minority tonight when I showed up to the car rental place with nothing more that the address of the hotel ready to key in to that pretty handy little device that I have such mixed feelings over. However, when you’re on your own and you have no co-pilot, the company of What’s-Her-Name is better than nothing when trying to find the way.
I made it to the hotel in the dark eventually. It was rather tricky to find but I ‘tourner-ed a gauche’ when she said and took my foot off the accelerator when I ‘’depasser-ed la vitesse limite’ a couple of times! I’m here, it’s warm and summery even after midnight. I’m definitely on vacation!
