From Bath, UK to Robion, France

It has been a nice trip down memory lane to revisit the five week European holiday my husband and I took in the fall of 2017. Many of my blog posts have been about our time there, including our first stop, Loch Ness. We wanted to get acclimated to the time difference before heading to The Backies where we stayed with some friends for several days. From there, we drove to Edinburgh where we met up with some friends who had just arrived from the U.S. Castle Douglas was our next stop, and from there we had a long drive to Bath. See previous blog posts for more information about these places.

After leaving Bath, we drove to Bristol to turn in our rental car. We had an early flight the next day to Nice, so we stayed at a hotel by the airport. We arrived early enough in the day so we could spend a little time seeing the Harbourside and Old Town areas in Bristol. We had a delicious lunch at Paco Tapas, wandered though a street market, and visited an old church.

Bristol is a vibrant city with an interesting history, and spending only an afternoon there wasn’t enough time. If you visit, be sure to allow at least several days to see the highlights.

The next morning we were up bright and early for our 6:00 flight to Nice. There are numerous small airlines in Europe that offer cheap tickets, EasyJet being one of them. We paid less than $100.00 for our two tickets. We have flown with them on several occasions and had good experiences each time.

We arrived in Nice on time, rented a car and drove to Aix-en-Provence for lunch. The iconic, tree-lined boulevard, Cours Mirabeau is a beautiful place to stroll and people watch. There are many restaurants, shops, fountains and monuments to see along the way.

Aix-en-Provence is another town that you will want to spend several days visiting since there is so much to see and do.

Our next stop was to find our Airbnb in Robion. We had a little challenge along the way at a toll booth. The directions said to insert un billet, but we didn’t have un billet so my husband pushed the call button to get some help. I tried to communicate in my limited French, telling my husband (who was in the driver’s seat) to tell the man “je n’ai pas un billet” but it came out as “je n’aime pas un billet.” Rather than “I don’t have a ticket,” it came out as “I don’t like a ticket”, sigh. In the mean time, the cars lining up behind us were honking and people were yelling, when my husband noticed someone approaching us with a credit card in her hand. He quickly put his card into the machine, and voila, the gate opened and we were on our way again. Pas de probleme!

Finding our Airbnb in Robion was a bit of a challenge as well. We ended up parking the car and wandering around the neighborhood’s narrow, twisting streets on foot until we finally found it. Our hosts were very friendly, and invited us in for a chat and a glass of wine. They spoke no English, but my limited French helped, and we were able to communicate without too much difficulty. The apartment came with a friendly cat that seemed to love everyone!

Robion, is situated close to Gordes, Rousillion, Bonnieux and many of the other villages in the area. See my other blog posts for information about these places.

Traveling and adventure go hand in hand, and the experiences we have along the way enrich our lives. Getting stuck at the toll booth was stressful at the time, but it’s one of those memories that we now look back on and laugh. I expect that the assistant is still laughing about it as well, “I don’t like a ticket” rather than “I don’t have a ticket.” Crazy Americans!