June 4 driving to Gignac-la-Nerthe, near Marseille

We leave the Aude Department to go at Aude’s. Ha-ha. Aude is Rachel’s stepsister, and Rachel is our son Jean-François’ companion.

It was raining heavily as we left Montreal. Sixty kilometres down, the sky cleared. Right now, it's still gray and overcast, but no longer raining.

We’re looking at a three or four hour drive today. A little over three, says the GPS. A little under four, says the iPad. Strange. We'll see.

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The GPS has the knack of sending us on small roads where you have to drive very carefully, keeping to the middle of the road to avoid the constant sheer drops, while moving carefully to the side when meeting a car coming at you. As the speed limit of such roads is 90 kilometers per hour, the Garmin algorithm, which was, I believe, designed by a hermit who never went out of his cell, figures that going this way is faster. Or shorter. Whatever.

Note: I would say we are not entirely happy with our new Garmin GPS. Since the beginning of the trip, there were only a few places where it was really off, such as a newly built roundabout not being shown. But it’s slow to get back its bearings when we take a wrong turn. Also, it will often stop indicating ETA and current driving speed, though at that time it does keep providing correct driving directions. Most importantly, Garmin should consider adding additional settings, such as maximal easiness, maximizing freeways or minimizing freeways. Maps’ search algorithm on the iPad usually traces easier routes without unnecessary loop, so it's doable. And the onboard GPS we have pn the CSX at home has an "easy" setting which would prove very useful around here.

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Fortunately we were driving on freeways because the weather got really bad. Periods of heavy rain, lightning, thunder, we were treated to the full panoply of special effects.
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And now, the Mediterranean has just appeared on our right. It is not as blue as it is on postcards or puzzles because the weather is not the same as it is on postcards or puzzles. The blue Mediterranean is in fact a steel gray. Still, it's there.

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We arrive at Aude’s, who left the key under the doormat. We get the luggage in, eat a bite, and away we go. Roger wanted to see the harbor, we did not make it, tomorrow is also a day. And he wanted to see a chapel (he has become stunningly pious) and he saw it.

We wanted to go there. The route indicated by the iPad brings us to a gate. The site is protected, no car allowed. We’ll walk.





We walk for about one kilometre, the last half being uphill and rocky but we do get there. Roger takes his pictures, while I take to filmmaking.

Crossing over to the other side of the trees:

It was swarming with slugs, I didn’t much like it. When you have to watch where to put your hand on the guardrail because there are slugs climbing up the rail ... yuck ... Returning to the car, we hear thunder. Go, go, GO. We’re hungry.

A really interesting evening with Aude. Yes, she agrees with Roger on the drivers (she says, a couple of times every day, I’m like, will you look at that idiot!) One week from now, she’ll get her degree in special education, but she has three orals in the next few days. She describes her work with children who are institutionalized for their own protection. We also talk about economic conditions in France. Aude notes that France will shortly stop being able to maintain its unemployment insurance system, which allows for two full years of full or partial support, including lots of special subsidies. She suggests we take the train to visit Marseille if we go tomorrow. I second the motion. We’ll see.