journal

Thank God and all his merry men, We have escaped! You would not believe it. But I’ll say it anyway. We caught a taxi to Spain today. Today we went to the station, railway, having been told the one train that would not be cancelled was the 12:30

It would have been a pretty tale of Collioure and the Spanish Gothic, its lightness as opposed to its oppressive heaviness in the North, a relief, presaged by reliefs yesterday, undone, done up. Hard to say. Instead it was more bureaucratically sanctioned bad service, sanctioned, because, it seems that anybody

A day car-bound, travelling from Carcassonne. Mme D. dispatched us from our top floor gite. We ended up not mentioning les blattes, or cockroaches, in the microwave, in the dishwasher, as well as everywhere else. We decided what her response would have been: Yes. They are a problem. Or: Yes,

A day begun with impossible things overcome and ending with further impossible things to do before breakfast, like find accommodation in Barcelona. Eurocar repeat in various places ONE MUST CONTACT 4 WORKING DAYS BEFORE DROPPING CAR OFF. We forgot. Rang before my brain was working in English, let alone Francais,

The whole of Carcassonne, Basse Ville, had a hangover and stayed in today, after last night’s wine fair finale – the Fete had been going since the 21st. The streets were empty apart from old men, either on their way, with irregular patterns of footfalls echoing, home, or out for

… time running out on our sojourn European… Leaving Les Saintes Maries de la Mer realising how special a place it is. The commencement of the Mediterrannean coast proper with its shift in scale from hotel to resort says it. First we had to cross the Petit Rhone by wired paddle-ferry,