The next day I packed up early and drove the 30 Km down to Arles. I wanted to see the town and call in at another (friendlier) SFR telephone shop. Arles is on the coast but it is in the middle of the vaste swamp area called the Camargue so there is no beach here. Not that I saw anyway during my brief visit. It is yet another old walled town.
I arrived about 11 am and parked the car illegally just outside the wall. I had just 1 hour to find an SFR shop, explain the problem in French and get it sorted, before they closed for 2 hours. I was hoping to drive 100 Km to Beziers this afternoon so if I missed the 12 deadline the trip to Arles would have been a waste. Either that or spend the night in Arles.
Now, find the office du tourism I did very quickly. Picked up a map, had the girl pinpoint the location of the shop which was only a 5 min walk and I got there by 11.30. Good no queue! There was a big demonstration going on outside and they were closing the roads – thankfully I just squeezed through! I explained to the young lad Sebastian using a combination of hand gestures and very pigeon French what the problem was, I made no effort in English and neither asked if he spoke it. Within minutes he was on the case. He made several phone calls. The people at the other end obviously said, ‘well everything is fine here – it should be working’. I had bought the laptop and could clearly demonstrate that it did not work. The connection was made but then the other computer says ‘non!’ and disconnects. Several more phone calls and ring backs later Sebastian clearly had an explanation and explained to me in English... ‘Le problem... it is not yours... it is whole of France. Le Network!’. “But for 5 days?” I said, “everywhere I’ve been – even in the middle of Avignon”. “Yes!” they have big problems, he said. But it should be ok now. Clearly it wasn’t. So I said “ok then”, show me it working. He tried, 5 times to connect, 5 times it failed. On the 6th time it worked! We loaded a web page then it stops again.
So now you know why in France you pay for time used, and not megabytes downloaded. Because you pay for your time which is then wasted because the network is so patchy and unreliable. But clearly there was no problem with my account, just the network. I had to live with it. I thanked him for his efforts. Now why couldn’t the girls in the Avignon shop have done that?
I got back to the car (hadn’t been towed despite being parked round the back of the police station) and got on the road to Beziers. Arles? lovely place by the way.
Autres Directions
This one amuses me. Several times while navigating my way out of the town I follow the ‘Toutes (all) Directions’ sign. All the major routes and inter-city signs are marked like this on green signs. You pass several junctions and roundabouts following ‘toutes directions’ and then the next green sign you see says ‘Autre (other) directions’. Hold on! Did I miss something? What if the one I wanted was included in the ‘All’ but not in the ‘Other?’.
Services
So problem resolved, I’m on the road to Beziers by 12.30. I stop at a motorway services to fill up. Diesel this time as I haven’t seen a Lidl’s in a while. I buy something that resembles a sandwhich.... but doesn’t taste like a sandwhich. French motorway service food is cheap looking, only it’s not cheap. They dress it up in brightly coloured packaging like you do with kids toys to make them look more appealing. 4 euros 90 I paid for my ham mustard baguette which was so lubricated by the mustardy mayonnaisey gunk inside that it soon disintegrated and most of it ended up in my lap while I was driving. The lemonade was nice though.
As I was pulling out of the services a guy on the motorway overtakes me. He is waving as he passes. Landrover? – no not quite – he has a Hilux – Ah! English number plate. It really is that rare to see English people here. On the campsite in Avignon I only saw one other – a large motor home.
I got to Beziers in good time and despite being close to the sea this is the first time I have actually seen it. Beziers like all medium sized towns is not actually on the beach. There a small village / resort called Valras-Plage which has the only campsites. Its 20Km into Beziers so I won’t be walking into town in the evenings. Now most of the campsites on the beech are about 2Km from Valras-Plage so even that is quite a long walk.
The thing is that these sea-side campsites are more like holiday camps, with prices to match. The average 14 euros / night I have been paying so far has jumped to £25, and apparently it’s still low reason, the high season starts in a few days time (depending on the campsite and the prices will then jump to 35 odd euros). Many people have semi-permanent holiday homes within the campsite.
Now, there is no reason for people to want to walk into town, all they have come for is the sun and the sea. There are restaurants and shops on the campsites, several swimming pools complete with slidey log flumes, even a stage where people can be entertained. Most people it seems don’t even make it the few hundred yards to the beach, they sit there on their sun loungers next to their caravan or by the pool, getting their leathery skin as crispy as they can. Are their lives really so empty that they crave this? Mostly they are 60+ and all Dutch or German, but really no different to older English couples. When I’m 60 I’m gonna be experimenting with homemade unmanned space vehicles! For some reason I haven’t yet worked out the English don’t come here (probably all in the Dordogne).
I think it is nice to see all these old couples enjoying life together. Though they are very friendly and I get on well with all of them, I really have little in common with these people. Neither it seems do I have much in common with the younger super-posh super-snobs that end up in places like Avignon and other large towns in the area. I am here alone, surrounded by people but for the first time I am actually feeling a little lonely. The likes of Francious and Andreas are my kindred.
I had heard that campsites on the beach are like this and I wasn’t really expecting any different. The pictures on the DVD rom typically feature lots of grinning kids standing in a pool being entertained by a grown man dressed as a pirate. I couldn’t find a single picture of the surrounding countryside, except.... yes there is a place just outside Narbonne about 30 Kms down the road where the campsite is situated on a beautiful inlet of sea. It looks great. Also I could walk into town from there. I’ll go there tomorrow.
Later, as the sun set over the med I sat there in my little camp eating my Mediterranean dinner of French bread, ham, tomatoes, olives and of course, sausage. I went to bed about 11 to read my new book – Songs of Distant Earth (by Arthur C Clarke) – Awesome book. I’m only 15 pages in and I’m hooked.
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