travel

It has been difficult to get rental cars in Arles. The town is small, and they don’t have enough supply unless you book a week in advance. I’ve tried Costcotravel, booking.com, tripadvisor, europcar, and they have no car available and directed me to Avignon and Nîmes. Finally I booked direct from Hertz and was able… Continue reading

TGV from Montpellier to Arles took about an hour, and cost about 15€. Always book trains early for a better price, and for better seat selection if you go First Class, which typically costs just a few € more. My first impression upon arriving at the gare was Arles is small. There’s just 2 train… Continue reading

Nº4 wasn’t planned. But I woke up this morning and the sky is still grey and the ground is wet, which means it rained all night, so what can I do today but write? We’re on the 4th floor, so I can’t really smell the first rain, that musty smell of the earth that I… Continue reading

It’s cloudy and very ominous today in M. The sun didn’t rise, the sky is grey with thick clouds, the birds keep circling above the trees. I don’t know what to do here when it rains. So far on this trip, I’ve had cold weather, warm weather, and now rain. One thing I keep forgetting… Continue reading

If there’s a nº2, you can bet there will be a nº3. There’s a Facebook group of Expats in Montpellier that I am subscribed to. They meet every week on Thursday at Cafe de La Mer in downtown M. So we went there and met with, surprisingly, very nice fellow americans who decided to retire… Continue reading

Do you know that the name of the ville is pronounced as “Mohn-peuh-lyay”, not “Mont-pell-ee-ay’? We returned the rental car in Lyon and trained to Montpellier. Less than 2 hours on TGV. One lesson learned from returning rental car is it’s extremely difficult to fuel up the car when you’re inside the town; best to… Continue reading