Leaving

Our departure from Vias was smooth.  Maybe because it was so early (6:30) that no one had time to think.

The trip to Lyon went well, also, even the hour stop in Avignon.  Tamsin and I stayed in the station with the bags and everyone else ran out to see the Palais des Papes (old pope's palace).

We're heading out to catch the train to Paris so I''ll post about Lyon later.  Let's just start by saying that we're experiencing our first bit of wet weather this whole trip.

Last day in the house

Today is Packing Up Day.  We lock our door and catch the train to Lyon at 7:20am tomorrow.  No one wants to leave.

We were planning a trip today to Perpignan, the closest we could get to Spain, but we wasted time earlier in the week and now have too much to do, especially with the early train trip. I'm afraid I'll always regret not having just dumped the bags in the Barcelona train station and taken a quick bus trip around the city.

Getting the train tickets was a source of stress yesterday.  Because we were unable to make a decision (who, us?) about whether or not to rent a car, we had serious difficulties finding 7 seats on a train.  Initially, the train agent said it would be impossible to get to Lyon but when pressed was able to find a ride through Avignon.  It's not on the TGV so it'll be a little slow-going but we'll be there by noon.  Our next agent gave us a price of 500E for the trip to Paris; I suggested a reduction a former agent had mentioned to me but this one shook his head.  While we were on the phone with the credit card company because the card wouldn't work, the agent actually tried my suggestion and we ended up saving 160E by the time the card went through.  1. Never take no.  2. There's always a better deal.

Hopefully C will get her videos up. She's got more great pictures.

Picture trouble

So yeah. My camera got sand in it :( It wouldn't open, and when it did it wouldn't take pictures or close. But...I've gotten it to work :) Yay! All I have to do is tug on it a little when it opens, and push on it a little when it closes! And be super careful not to get any more sand on it... I'm sorry I haven't gotten any pictures up of Montpelier... I spent over an hour working on it yesterday and the day before, but when I tried to publish (aka permenantly save) it, it froze and said "not responding" I had to exit out, and lose all the work I had previously done. that's sorta dampened my spirits in the whole movie making of Montpelier... I don't really want to put much effort to do it again. I guess now I've learned to save it in the beginning and throughout the making process.

Great catastrophe

Cecilia's camera has sand in it.  We've had outrageous wind the past few days and up at the beach there was no protection.  It remains to be seen how we'll get future photos (Lyon!  Paris!) up on this site.
Today we showed Rich Pezenas and he was suitably impressed.  We also climbed the tower in the Cathedral in Beziers.  I was panicked that Tamsin would be blown off the ledge; no safety measures for kids here.
We're debating the rental of a car but the decision might be made for us: they  might not have a car big enough.  Our final trips here are up in the air because of this.
Tonight, Leigha are going to watch Flamenco dancing in the square while I kicked Rich out with the rest of them.  They're walking to the beach in search of some food because I just didn't feel like cooking tonight.

Rip-offs

There have only been a couple times here where I've felt taken advantage of because of being a non-local. Maybe "taken advantage of" is wrong in this first instance; things were clearly marked yet somehow I still feel cheated.  In the market was a breadseller with gorgeous, enormous loaves of different things but the spice bread was the most appealing to me.  I say enormous and I mean like 12" x12"x18".  I've been in search of a cake that my host family had in Lyon; a cake with the perfect blend of spices and dried fruit (I make a different fruit cake recipe every Christmas, hoping to hit on the right combination). Anyway, the first week we saw him he spoke very good English to us and I instantly didn't like him.  The next week, I just had to stop.  The bread was something like 4.5Euros/100 gms.  He takes the loaf and measure off a wedge; I consent and he cuts and weighs it.  End price: 34 Euros (around $42); I only have 20.  Long story short: he accepts my 20 and tells me I've gotten a very good deal.  Now why do I feel ripped off?  It would seem I'd gotten a bargain. There was just something about this guy (and everyone with me agreed) that made you feel uneasy, like he went home and hurt little animals.  Also, the cake was dry as a bone and every market sells a similar cake for 6Euros/cake.
Last night was another instance but I was too tired to argue.  Classic tourist trap: the taxi driver didn't set the meter.  I couldn't see it because I was crammed in the back but honestly I don't know if I would have said anything.  We took an 11pm train home from Montpellier (great town) having retrieved Rich and arrived in Agde at 11:30 to find the last two taxis leaving.  Two other girls were waiting and when a taxi finally showed up at 12:05am, I was just relieved to be getting the kids home.  He charged us double the price (and I tipped him!) and when I questioned him about how much more it was than the usual price, he said there was a nighttime surcharge of 25%.  I'm too non-confrontational but that won't happen again (and no more tipping because now I feel really stupid).
There are a couple other minor issues (the Moroccan cookie-salesman comes to mind) but for the most part people seem to have been above-board and honest. We are an easy target, though, aren't we?