¡Adiós España! Bonjour France!
Although a bit groggy from the day before, we packed up and were rolling out from Castelldefels shortly after 10am.
Aside from some vomiting and a non-functional toilet, the time in Spain had been excellent.
To be honest, I've only known really one French person and never been to France. My thoughts on the country were largely stereotypical and I was not very excited about leaving a place I knew, whose language I spoke, and where I had had such a great time.
A few more days in Barcelona would have been fantastic, but it was time to head on to southern France. Alisa found what looked to be a beautiful town called Cassis.
This link shows the basic map of this part of our travels from Barcelona to Cassis:
Fortunately we were off to a great start once we crossed the border and stopped at a rest stop at Lapalme.
Amazing. It was like a French bistro, a good coffee shop, and a cookie factory made sweet love in a ménage à trois (also French).
After enjoying a good lunch with delicious bread (French bread), sandwiches, and effervescent water (served in actual glasses which blew my mind), the kids played in a small play area after which they went up to a giant wall filled with cookies and candy. It took them quite some time to choose a treat.
Once done, I picked up a tiny but potent latte before getting back on the road.
In homage to this adorable French rest stop, I took this photo:
Alisa had not been able to drive our dynamic Peugeot (also French) so it was her turn behind the wheel!
It's for the best that she drove this leg, as I probably would have stopped at every French rest stop along the way.
The drive was not as smooth as it could have been given our GPS got befuddled by an underground road in Marseilles. We ended up driving the same loop a few times. It was very reminiscent of this classic:
We were able to get some great views of Marseilles though!
Fortunately Alisa powered through it and went underground, breaking that vicious cycle.
Once we escaped, we were immediately stuck in traffic. That inched forward for nearly an hour before we broke free of that.
After the traffic came the rain!
It's safe to call it a deluge as it pounded the windshield and was likely the cause for the traffic as the intensity of the rain slowed all the cars on the highway.
As the rain abated, a rainbow appeared, showing us the way to Cassis where we would be spending the next two days.
Overall the kids did very well during this long ride.
As we exited the highway on the only road into Cassis, France a police officer greeted us. He told us to stop and stay in our car. Fortunately Alisa was able to speak with him and learn there was a single car accident further down the road and we needed to wait until it was cleared.
We tried to enjoy the sloping hills as they darkened with the blushing sunset but it was tough as we were so close to our destination.
Soon we made our way down into this quaint village and looked for the apartment we booked.
Due to my poor calculations, we went too far down a very narrow single lane road.
This is exactly the type of road I feared to drive: so narrow you're concerned about the car being able to navigate any turn without scraping the paint off the sides and so twisting that you can't see anything beyond 8-10 feet, making you deathly afraid when the next turn is revealed that your car is too big and you can't make the turn and you can't back up.
Thank goodness my greatest fears weren't realized at this time. I wasn't driving, Alisa was!
She did phenomenal work navigating this long, twisty U-shaped road and exiting back on the main road. We contacted our host for more precise directions and went back to the beginning and quickly found the entry to the apartment building.
We unloaded everything and settled in. The walk to the city square was short, so once the car was unpacked we went down there for dinner.
It was quiet and peaceful. The dinner was fine and we made the slow walk back up the hill to the apartment.
All stereotypes aside, it was a great introduction to France. I was looking forward to what tomorrow would bring.
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