Provence day 1: Avignon

So, "the Steves" (this is how we now refer to our "dear" friend Rick Steves) says that to see Provence, you really need to rent a car. The trains don't go out to the beautiful countryside, and we didn't want to miss that. There was also rumor of 20 euro a day car rentals (that turned out to be false as far as we could tell) that fueled the fire to rent car. We weren't really worried too much about driving in France for a few reasons. They drive on the right side of the street, we both already drive manual, and we weren't going to be in a city. The largest hurdles would be figuring out street signs, and after a month and a half of seeing and using them, we were pretty sure that we would be able to get by. So with all of these reasons we signed an agreement and got a car for 3 days. However, after shopping around for a bit, the 20 euro per day car dream was quickly shattered and we settled on a tiny new little two door convertible Fiat, grey with a burgundy roof. What? I know. This time of year it was the cheapest option, so we went with it and we kind of forced it to be "top down" weather (it was already sunny, and we pretended it was warm, too). Naturally, the first thing to do was explore Avignon, our first city in Provence, so we drove to the city center and searched for a parking spot. We hit trouble when we accidentally turned down a one-way road. The car did not want to reverse! And an angry frenchman trying to get through is staring us down! So on every manual transmission, there is a diagram showing where all of the gear are located. This one tells us that to reverse, we have to go down from fifth, to the right, and then down again. It does not want to go right. We try twisting the nob. We try pulling. Pushing. We try straight down instead of right and down. Without the clutch. With the clutch again. Nothing works, did we rent a lemon??!! It WILL NOT go right. What the heck, man!!!! As a last resort, we put the car in nuetral, Andy hops out to push, and I steer. Of course at this point we are facing just slightly downhill and one person pushing it is not enough. Two young French guys come to the rescue and help Andy back it up. They ask if we needed any help, thinking it must be an engine problem and maybe we need a jump. We let them continue to think that, but Andy says "no, no. I think it will be okay," and when it starts up, they nod and walk off, not knowing what the problem actually was. "That was just about the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to me." Yeah, and we still don't know how to reverse it. We pull off onto a sidestreet where there are just a few cars and we can park without putting it in reverse. After about ten minutes of trial and error (and feeling ridiculously inept and demoralized) we figure it out. Although we tried pushing the nob down, and pulling it up, we didn't consider grabbing the donut like structure encircling the shaft and pulling THAT up. Free at last!

With our newly acquired skill ready for honing, we parallel park the car without issue, explore town, and grab a light lunch. We stop in a little bistro with a relatively inexpensive lunch menu. I order a delicious omelette and Andy a (less than stellar) salmon tart. They offer wine by the cL, either 25 for 3 euro or 50 for 5. According to my recollection, 25 cL is quite small, so we each order 50. When the wine is set down in front of us, my mouth falls ajar: we have each ordered two-thirds of a bottle. Oops. I guess I was remembering that 25 mL is quite small. I guess we are going to be here for a while... Eventually, we down the last of our wine and walk off our buzz before heading out for an evening in the Provencal countryside. We pick up a map at the tourist's office that has little icons representing different towns and attractions (ie grapevines for vineyards, towers for castles, etc). Based on what appears to us to be one of the more interesting icons, we decide to head toward Roussillion, about 45 minutes east of Avignon. The drive is stunning. We are engulfed by rolling hills, olive groves, miles of vineyards fresh from the harvest, and an endless expanse of violet hues- lavender and rosemary. The sun, though not quite setting, has painted the sky an ostentatious shade of orange, and we can't help but stop and take a few photos. The town of Roussillion reminded us both of the (American) southwest, in both climate and color. Red rocks suddenly rose up out of fields of herbs and vines, and vegetation quickly dropped off. It was dry and warm when we arrived, but as the sun set, the temperature quickly fell. We got out of our car and explored the charred red cliffs of the small village, finally trekking to the town center, perched non-discreetly at the summit. Now the sun is in full on "set" mode, and the views (along with more photo-ops) are amazing. After poking into a few shops (wine, cheese, etc) we move on. We stop in an equally beautiful town called Gourdes, a few kilometers away. Gourdes does not have the same southwestern feel to it, but it is atop another hill, with winding cobblestone streets and narrow, climbing alleyways. At this point the sun has nearly disappeared and it is cold and windy. We are hungry, but every affordable place had shut down for the night (it was monday in off peak season, so we couldn't blame them) so we get in the car again and set out in search for food. We find it in another town on the map, Apt, which turned out to us to be a bit... hick. But the people behind the counter at the bakery where we got our dinner were very, very kind and even offered us an extra item at no charge for no apparant reason other than they seemed to be closing up shop for the day. As we haven't found accomodation via couchsurfing for the night, and we aren't ready to shell out cash for a hostel when we already blew our budget on the car, we make the decision to drive back to Roussilion, eat our dinner, and sleep in the Fiat. Several sleepless, backaching, cold hours later, we regret it, but do wake to a beautiful sunrise. :)