So I went into the shop and explained to the very young girl... in French, that it stopped working and I haven’t used my first lot of 15 hours yet. It connects ok but then is immediately disconnected by the computer at the other end. She said she spoke a little English so we proceeded in English. I asked her if she could check how much time was left on the SIM card. She said she couldn’t, but suspected I had run out of credit. But she couldn’t check that for me. It’s simply not possible she said!
So I said thank you and went to a nearby cafe and activated the second lot of credit I had pre-paid for (there were two lots of 39 euros). The helpful girl at the campsite reception later called the same number and verified that it had happened ok and should be fine. Only it wasn’t. It still didn’t work and now the clock was ticking. I had only 30 days to use all the internet I had already paid for... and it wasn’t working. The problems seemed to start when I sent the form back to get my 40 euros reimbursed. I never really quite understood why things were this complicated, but the girl in the SFR shop in Normandy said I must do it before the beginning of July!
So I went back to the shop. While queuing behind one guy for a while the girl at the counter (a different girl) looked around him and said to me, in French. If you can’t speak French we can’t help you. Now I know they can all speak adequate English but I’m not expecting it. I will speak in French I said, and continued to wait. What I was going to ask was quite straight forward and I knew how to say it in French, but clearly she wasn’t going to give me the opportunity. Then the Arabic looking guy in front of me asked if I spoke German? No I said, fully believing him to be trying to help. I honestly thought he was trying to find a common language to try and translate for me. “Italian? Spanish? Chinese?” he said with a big smile. Oh! I understand this primitive form of humour... sarcasm right?!! With my laptop in one hand and the bridge of his big Arabic nose just two foot in front of me it suddenly occurred to me... a new use for my otherwise redundant laptop! Yes, but then I’d be dealing with the very unhelpful French police, right? You had a lucky escape pal! “Gavareet pa-rooskie” (I speak Russian) I said to him in Russian, “do you??”.
Now the kids in the SFR – telephone shop will most certainly flunk their basic maths (when they start school!) and probably end up packing biscuits in St. Etienne. Trouble is I have work to do. And I’m beginning to wonder whether it’s worth doing the blog because I’m not sure now if what I’ve been writing the last 4 days will ever get uploaded. So if you never get to read this, you’ll never know the reason why you never read it!!! Does that make sense?
The real shame of course is that I’ve been ranting about this problem rather than describing the beautiful city of Avignon! Still overshadowing things it is and much as I try I can’t pretend otherwise. I will move on tomorrow..Probably to Nimes or Narbonne. Haven’t decided yet.
As if to compensate me for the days grief the old Avignon palace that overlooks the river provided me with one of the best evenings yet. I sat up there as the sun went down and it was the most serene and beautiful spot you could imagine. Below me was the river with its bridge that only half spans the river. Was it destroyed by and invading army? The rest of the city is intact. Maybe the French built half of it then thought... ‘oh sod it... let’s go to the beach!’.
Isn’t it always the case – when you see the best pics, all you have is your mobile phone camera!
In the distance about 40Km North east is a very high mountain, so high that even in the middle of summer there is still snow on its peak. Yesterday I thought it was cloud cover but today it is still there. Getting my bearings from the setting sun I looked at my map and identified it as Mt Ventoux (2000 meters).
In the other direction is a long chain of very rugged rocky mountains which at first I thought was the Pyrennes but then realised they were too close. These mountains had to be about 60Km away and the Pyrennees start at about 200 Km. These mountains I believe are the southern hills of the massif central as they point down towards the Pyrennees. It all looks very impressive but is the kind of view that doesn’t come out well in a photograph.
When I got back to the campsite, they had erected a large projector near the gate and were watching the Germany / Ghana match. Germans make up about half of the people on the campsite so I sat there and watched the game, which unlike the ones I’d seen so far was quite entertaining.
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