Last day in Cucuron and the roads to Munich

17th Aout 2006

Today is Thursday and we must leave Cucuron early to travel to Munich for a family gathering and the, celebration of Ruth’s birthday. Ruth is the daughter of Jeff's grandmother Anne, who was Wil’s mother. Yesterday we spent out last full day in Provence with a visit to the market of St. Remy. It was the wildest, most colorful market of the three we visited (Cadenet – very colorful! and, Cucuron, quiet and nice…). We wandered the narrow streets of St. Remy and shopped with all the locals looking for things that struck us as unusual. My favorites were the olive and herb vendors…those olives were so colorful with so many varieties and flavors, tumbling out of the containers, inviting people to sample and take some home. Although I was tempted to try many, I settled on les olives provencal with used the herbes de provence, a blend of thyme, basil and lavender, among others, I believe.

I was also intrigued by the soap makers and selected a few to take home. The fabrics are fabulous but very, very expensive…I just could not justify buying fabrics. I looked for my nieces but it also seemed slightly outrageous…45 euro for a provencal skirt…I passed. I wanted to find an out of the way fabric store (comme Joanne’s) but we did not cross it in our travels. We then went to Les Baux, a fortified city but it also was quite crowded and parking was expensive and scance…we looked from outside the village and moved on to an open museum where images of Cezanne’s works were projected onto the caves where the huge stones were mined for the village and the chateau. We really enjoyed it and it was a great review of his art works, especially since this year is the 100th anniversary of his death.

We traveled home to Cucuron and while Jeff and Amy recuperated from our travels, I visited the local museum. When I asked the caretaker if C’est ouvert?? He replied in French, of course it is open…see the doors are open! This little museum chronicles the farm implements of the past centuries, as well as the very early traces of the community BC. This is a medieval town with many walled remains…and the remnants of the old castle can be found at the top of the village on the donjon.

I wandered the town once more and then returned to find Jeff recovered enough to try the last part of multipart geocache. It is so unusual that of the few caches in the south of France, one multipart cache was in our village. Amy wanted to stay in Le Grenier (the old granary that is our home for this week) while we went off to find the cache. We went slightly out of town to a road which led to the church of L’ermitage. We debated about parking near the olive maker’s farm but decided to take this little road .7 km. It looked passable…We turned the corner to find the road gated off, due to the high fire danger. We backed up down the narrow road and Jeff’s thought he was turning back into the driveway (Janet—are your ready for this…start laughing now…) when he fell into a little ditch. Hmmm…interesting…but we were stuck. When I got out of the car and looked, the right wheel was in the air, about 5 inches above the ground, and the base of the car was sitting on the ground. We *were* definitely stuck. Jeff tried a variety of lever options with pieces of wood and rocks under the wheels, but after a half hour, it was clear that we needed some help. A young French woman came out to hand her laundry on the line and I asked “Parlez-vour anglais?” She did speak a little English so she went to get her husband. They were also vacationing and lived outside of Paris. They had four children under the age of 10. He also spoke English and after a few more tries, he suggested he ask the farmer who had a tractor…the farmer also spoke English and lived in San Francisco in 1973…very charming and gracious and quickly deduced that we needed a tow truck. He called Monsieur Blanco who came out from the Cucuron garage with his tow truck…(Are you still laughing, Janet??) Remember we are on a little road about 7 feel wide and we are now perpendicular to the road…

In a very French way, the three men discussed the options and then the farmer explained to us that Mr. Blanco was afraid to take his truck through the fields since it had rained heavily the night before…but away they went…we heard them coming through the fields and then he carefully maneuvered into position (not an easy task) and pulled us out of the ditch. Unbelievable there was no damage to the rental car, except for a bald tire from spinning madly while we were trying to get out of the ditch.

We thanked them all profusely and rewarded all three men a bottle of the wine we were carrying in our trunk…We have decided to store it for amy’s honeymoon, some day…it should age well…

When we returned to the garage, Mrs. Blanco discounted the whole fee to 60 euro…which we felt was very reasonable after such a service, and at closing time as well.

Jeff and I returned to Le Grenier with the sounds of Amy’s music streaming out the front door. She wasn’t even worried! I guess we have been gone on geocacheing adventures many times before and she is used to it!

We made our dinner of omelette with caprese salad, olives, and salade vinaigrette. Of course, and baguettes. A few games of Sudoku and we were ready for bed. (I am the slowest at the Sudoku race and I usually finish it in bed about midnight ;-)

The travels to Munich…
It is a beautiful drive today as we travel from the south of France through the most spectacular valleys and mountains…Grand canyon du Vendon, through Sisteron, Chelles, Grenoble, Chambery, Annecy, Geneva, Lausaane, bern…and then we will spend thenight near zurich. It is hard to believe that we still have 9 days of vacation yet…and so many more memories to come! La vie est bon! Or as Jeff says tres bien!

Later that day, 4:30 pm, just 2 hours from Zurich and a night’s rest…
We were traveling near Lausanne when we were suddenly stopped in a traffic jam. Just one quarter of a mile ahead of us was a terrible accident…we were stopped for two hours and everyone got out of the cars to wait…Everyone was on the highway watching as many ambulances and many other vehicles passed by us…all the cars moved to the far left or right to let the emergency vehicles by…

Now, an hour later, we see them exiting the way they came in, slower and less stressed as they move the people to the hospitals….

We feel blessed that we were not involved but are worried about the many people involved in this terrible accident. One French man told us that on the radio he heard that ten vehicles were involved…

We still sit here… as all the emergency vehicles with sirens race by us, one way or another….it seems that this is the only access to and from the accident site since the train is just to the east of us…

Again, I pray for involved….and for all those who helped them….

We stopped after we made our way to use a restroom. We spoke with a woman from India who was in a very large tour bus just behind the scene of the accident. Apparantly a man swerved in his van and set the accident in motion…the emergency workers had to take the top off of one of the cars to extricate a young couple and their baby. We will have to check the Lausanne news web page, it happened near Morges, just south of Lausanne…

It is now a quarter to eight and we are just coming in to Zurich and we will look for a place to stay just outside of Zurich…the hard drive is now done! Jeff is the best and Amy is an incredible traveler…she loves her IPOD and looking out the window and she finished a book along the way today…