As my spanish is completely none existent I will spare you any worse than that. Especially since people here (Barcelona) do not really speak Spanish. Yes I am by now in Barcelona, but I have so many things to tell, that more on this city will have to wait for a better later day.
Simon, remember how you said I should go to the Lavender fields. Well, I tried, but somehow my route took my away from where you said I should go.
I did hit Lake Monteynard, although I came at it from the east. You cant really go to the lake from there, as you drive up at the cliff. At the end of it you can hit it. But the view from there is amazing!! So when you go back to Provence take D529.So when I came out from there I headed roughly south in the direction of the Gorge de Verdon. Which took me across this Plateau de Valensole towards Riez. And suddenly I see Lavendel Fields as far as the eye can see.
And I must tell you, they were in full bloom. By accident I stumbled across exactly what you told me I should see. Funny, how that works. In any case, if you ever need travel tips in the South of France, I recommend to chat to Simon the Source.You already know all about my joy at the Gorge de Verdon, unfortunately I did not do any hikes there. Somehow I was pulled to go on. to Aix enn Provence, specifically. Must have been pretty Caroline and her pretty mother and sister. Oh, yes, I, Peter Illetschko, stayed in a lovely cottage in the Provence, with three lovely ladies. What can I say, happens to me all the time. When I arrived in Aix i fell in total love with the city, and dicided that I was finally and completely learn French. To my own surprise I enjoyed trying out French phrases. Other than my family you dont know that I hated French in school, bad timing, all I am going to say. But on my second day, I walked the city for the afternoon, and was disapointed. Its not the fault of the place. I am too much of a city kid to be comfortable with seeing several people in a town several times over the course of an afternoon.
But I did enjoy my stay at the Thomas place that I stayed 4 nights. I went to Marseille, and even though I had heard that it was dirty and not very nice, I liked it a lot. In typical Illetschkok fashion - that is, if we dont go on a hike its not a vacation -
I hiked up to the Basiliisque Notre Dame de la Garda, then across town to the Longchamp Fountain thingy, and back to the Gare de Route to take the Bus back to Pertuis, where I was staying with Caroline.
So after four days of luxuriating in provencial but never provincial cuisine, I tore myself from the Provence, I felt like a middle aged divorcee already, and drove on to the Pont du Gard. Which of couse was another tip, from Kata this time. Sometimes it seems to me if I would not have friendly spirits telling cool stuff to see I would run around like Pan in a labyrinth. Now the Pont du Gard was pretty cool. But you cant go on it, unless it is a guided tour. But it is amazing to see this huge edifice built way back when.After that I drove down the freeway towards Spain. I was warned that Saturday is the travel day for french holidayers. You ask me if I was scared of a bunch of smelly loud freedom fries eating french people on the freeway? Heck yeah I was, I figured they would make me eat froglegs or snails. Just to entertain themselves with an unsuspecting Austrian. You can imagine my relief and joy to see that the traffic jam was going north that day, instead of south. I can even imagine how it is stand in traffic from the border to Nimes. Hot I imagine. I turned towards Carcassone because the castle there is supposed to put the various Burgs in Austria to shame.
On the way I hit Brezier, which is this very pretty very old town, populated with very old people, who all sit around the local rambla and chill. Or wait for something important, I dont know. I took a picture of the castle above the city, just to have at least one picture of one of these french towns with a castle above them.
Its lovely, of course then I drove on and saw this huge construction site to the side of the road. I went down some side streets because I wanted to see if I was right. And it was indeed a jail, that was being built right outside of Breziers. Are those southern french going to use those inmates as bulls in their arena? I know european jails are supposed to be a sort of 
Med Club, but this one still looked scary. I think the better rooms would be the ones with the view of the castle above Brezier in the distance. At least one could be glad not to be rotting in a medieval dungeon.Click on these two images and I promise you can see salvation just like the future inmates.
The Canal the Midi connects Toulouse from the west with Brezier and the Mediteranian. It winds its way east across this lovely landscape of vinyards. The canal is shaded with these huge Plantains. Big leavey trees that shade the canal. I decide that I will come back here and canu this baby one day.
As I drive I see this mirage of a long low viaduct a little bit of the road. Its only one level, not hugely impressive like the Pont du Gard, however it sits right there. I think I might be able to get up on it, and walk across it. I go back to it, and have to drive on a road between two vinyards to the viaduct. I make may way over to one side of it, and see that it is easy to get up.
I am also rewarded by a huge bush of Raspberrys. I feel rewarded for my entriped spirit of discovery. I climb up on the viaduct and you will not believe this, but it is stll working. I know that in Europe it is completely normal to use somethings thats at least a few hundred years old, like, you know, 1500, but my unfortunately americanized soul it seems awesome. And how american is that?!?!?So I run around on top of it for a long time, taking all these amazing pictures that I will force on you here. Before I take off I make sure I get the juiciest berries and a nice bunch of dark grapes for dinner. The earth provides and as we all know we create our own environment. I could not have this created better if I read in a book somewhere.
On to Carcassone and medieval castles of silly proportions. Which will, alas, have to wait for the next Report. Oh, and Cassis, I forgot Cassis... Ahhh, Cassis...
your faithfull friend on the road,
Peter
As usual please forward to interested parties that slipped thru the cyber cracks.
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