Saint Antonin Noble Val
Hello again! I’ll pick up where I left off.
Sunday night we stayed busy on helpx messaging scores of hosts. We got some responses of people available in a few days and such, but we were really trying to get out as soon as possible. It wasn’t that our situation was so bad, but we were about a 25 minute walk to the heart of town, and we didn’t want to do that very often because we needed to stay in our hotel with WiFi. Our location also wasn’t ideal because transportation was nonexistent. There were no buses or trains from our town, so we had to use a common ridesharing company in Europe called Blablacar. It took us until Sunday night to realize that was our only option other than hitchhiking (we strongly considered it) was Blablacar, and after trying to sign up discovered we needed a phone.
Luckily, Monday morning we went to town and found a cell phone to buy from probably the only shop in town selling them. We could now use Blablacar and get out! Problem is, Blablacar still isn’t that great, and you have to find a driver that is travelling on a similar route as you. Finally we found a host that would accept us as soon as possible, and had a blablacar going nearby from our location. Hooray!
Our Blablacar didn’t leave until 1:40 on Tuesday. We met him at the grocery store just down the street. He drove a little Renault Clio. We drove about 3 1/2 hours to a town called Montauban. The drive was gorgeous. Much more beautiful than the France we had seen between Clermont and Vernusse. There were large rolling hills that transitioned from river to farmland to trees to big sky. It was like if eastern and western Washington had a baby. It was also sunny and clear - 2 ingredients everyone appreciates on a road trip.
About 20 minutes after being dropped off, our new host picked us up for a 45 minute car ride to his house in Saint Antonin Noble Val. Our host, Denis, doesn’t speak a word of English. In fact, Tawnie and I are the first Americans he has ever interacted with! Tawnie rode shotgun and they chatted it up in french, while I sat back and understood maybe 30% of what they were discussing. All the laughing was reassuring.
The drive was nice most the way with farmland and trees but mostly flat. Then as we got closer things began to change. It got pretty hilly, then the road got curvy, and then we were struck with the view of a beautiful river valley with trees and cliffs and an old town thrown right into the thick of it. Denis informed Tawnie that there was canoeing on the river and that the same river we were looking at goes by their house! A couple minutes later we rolled down their driveway and were introduced to Perrine. She broke her foot badly in a weedeating incident, so she’s in a cast and isn’t super mobile right now.
Denis gave us a quick tour of the property, and I’ll dive into more details about that tomorrow hopefully, as well as some backstory on Denis and Perrine. For now I just wanted to get y’all caught up and let you know we’ve made it somewhere that should be good until our next hosts on October 15th. Tomorrow we go canoeing, so I’ll surely have much to write about. Until then, au revoir.
Sunday night we stayed busy on helpx messaging scores of hosts. We got some responses of people available in a few days and such, but we were really trying to get out as soon as possible. It wasn’t that our situation was so bad, but we were about a 25 minute walk to the heart of town, and we didn’t want to do that very often because we needed to stay in our hotel with WiFi. Our location also wasn’t ideal because transportation was nonexistent. There were no buses or trains from our town, so we had to use a common ridesharing company in Europe called Blablacar. It took us until Sunday night to realize that was our only option other than hitchhiking (we strongly considered it) was Blablacar, and after trying to sign up discovered we needed a phone.
Luckily, Monday morning we went to town and found a cell phone to buy from probably the only shop in town selling them. We could now use Blablacar and get out! Problem is, Blablacar still isn’t that great, and you have to find a driver that is travelling on a similar route as you. Finally we found a host that would accept us as soon as possible, and had a blablacar going nearby from our location. Hooray!
Our Blablacar didn’t leave until 1:40 on Tuesday. We met him at the grocery store just down the street. He drove a little Renault Clio. We drove about 3 1/2 hours to a town called Montauban. The drive was gorgeous. Much more beautiful than the France we had seen between Clermont and Vernusse. There were large rolling hills that transitioned from river to farmland to trees to big sky. It was like if eastern and western Washington had a baby. It was also sunny and clear - 2 ingredients everyone appreciates on a road trip.
About 20 minutes after being dropped off, our new host picked us up for a 45 minute car ride to his house in Saint Antonin Noble Val. Our host, Denis, doesn’t speak a word of English. In fact, Tawnie and I are the first Americans he has ever interacted with! Tawnie rode shotgun and they chatted it up in french, while I sat back and understood maybe 30% of what they were discussing. All the laughing was reassuring.
The drive was nice most the way with farmland and trees but mostly flat. Then as we got closer things began to change. It got pretty hilly, then the road got curvy, and then we were struck with the view of a beautiful river valley with trees and cliffs and an old town thrown right into the thick of it. Denis informed Tawnie that there was canoeing on the river and that the same river we were looking at goes by their house! A couple minutes later we rolled down their driveway and were introduced to Perrine. She broke her foot badly in a weedeating incident, so she’s in a cast and isn’t super mobile right now.
Denis gave us a quick tour of the property, and I’ll dive into more details about that tomorrow hopefully, as well as some backstory on Denis and Perrine. For now I just wanted to get y’all caught up and let you know we’ve made it somewhere that should be good until our next hosts on October 15th. Tomorrow we go canoeing, so I’ll surely have much to write about. Until then, au revoir.
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