On to Provence (Mary & Margaret)

We caught the train to Nice with connection to Marseille at 9am.

We were planning to get to Arles by 3Pm to meet the others but our plans for the day were complicated upon receipt of a text from the main gang advising us that they had missed their train connection and would not be arriving until late. There was much exchanging of texts throughout our train trip.

We arrived in Marseille at lunch time and had about an hour to wait. We broke down and ate at McDonalds as it was easy and they had chairs. Our train to Arles was sitting at the platform so we got aboard, we ended up having to sit for almost half an hour as there was some mechanical issue with the train. There were three train staff taking a coffee break in our car, none of whom bothered to check our passes.

When we arrived in Arles, we had hoped we could get assistance at the information booth to call our host but it was not open on Saturday.

Mary discovered she did not know how to make a phone call in France with her phone so Margaret was forced to use the last of her minutes to contact our host for directions and to call the taxi. The location of our villa was so obscure that we had to have the taxi call her directly for driving instructions.

After an interesting taxi ride through the countryside (punctuated by swearing by our taxi driver, several more phone calls (answering machine then finally an answer), we finally located our villa - what a lovely site.  We were very relieved (and somewhat concerned being stranded somewhere in the middle of the random countryside - until our host pointed our three bicycles in the shed and advised us it was only a 3 km bike ride to the nearest village).

After a brief orientation (and after handing over most of the money in our wallets for the security deposit) we clambered onto the bicycles with our backpacks on our back to head off to the village to buy some groceries. We had our fingers crossed that we would also find a bank machine as we had only jingly cash left.  It turned our that the grocery took credit so all was well.  We bought as many provisions as we could stuff into our bags and headed back to settle in.  (Just as we were pulling into town, Mary's phone rang once again and we were able to give Leanne the update (we had arranged for a taxi to meet her at the train and bring her to the villa)).

After relaxing for a while, we set about to make a large Quinoa Greek salad for our dinner and to offer the weary travelers on there arrival.

Leanne arrived shortly after 8:30 right on time, Mary had just gone out to watch for her taxi and was able to guide her taxi into our laneway.

After some internet research, Mary had finally figured out how to make a phone call in France with her phone but was now finding that she didn/t have any reception.  At some point the light bulb went off in her head and she thought to recharge the phone.  Around 10:30 pm, she tried sending a last text message to the lost travellers, telling them to let us know when they were close so we could wait by the gate to signal them in, almost immediately she received a reply "NOW" so she ran out to wave in a cavalcade of taxi and the car load of weary travelers (how very Amazing Race!)