Wednesday Sept 4, 2024 Lyon to Pernes-Les-Fontaines (France)

Breakfast at the hostel and a nice mix of people. Reminds me of the hostel our daughter Hannah worked at in New Brunswick years ago. Mixed age interesting people “wandering”.

We walked the three blocks to the station and caught the TGV train with reserved seats. We are down to our last clothes and are ready to settle a while after all the adventuring. The French crew was very friendly and having a good time themselves. They told us the top speed of the train was 320 kph (199 mph) but they only go that fast when they have a good straight track and they are running late. We got to Avignon and went to the rental car company at the station and got an Opal car with manual transmission. It’s good to drive a stick shift again. The town we will be staying in for the next week is called Pernes-Les-Fontaines. The town used to be called Pernes and when they discovered a regular source of water in the 18th century added 4 large fountains around town. They renamed the town in 1936 and by then had 40 or so fountains around town.

We were early so we got lunch at a roadside place (Marie Blachere) just outside of town. Food here seems much cheaper than at home.

We got to the place we are renting a little after 2pm and Yves and Estelle were there to greet us and show us our place. It is big with three bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, kitchen, dining room and living room and a big gated yard to park the car. It is an easy walking distance to town which is perfect. We are ready to park it for a while.

First thing was to get the washing machine going since we are down to greasy rags to wear. Next stop showers and then next stop a walk into town to get some groceries and stop at the farmers market which was going on this evening in town. Yves and Estelel had provided enough food for our first day or two but we were eager to get some fresh local fruits and veggies, which we did. The farmers market had around 10 vendors so it was pretty small, but the whole town is pretty small (10,000 people). We made dinner of eggs and cheese (of course) with fresh bread (of course) and jam. Can’t wait to explore the ancient town.