Heading South Again

In an effort to get to warmer fair weather, I left Barcelonnette, France and headed South - and back to my 'old' camping site at Aix-en-Provence. While I was able to get my old campsite, the experience was not the same as last time as I had more neighbors - a full family group with lots of noisy children. Another group joined them and they partied until 11PM or so, but the worst noise came from a disco club a few miles away. The music blasted out of that club all night. I put in my motorcycle ear plugs, and wore my stereo speaker-headset, but it was not peaceful. And, there was no Lilith from the Netherlands to share tea with.

Regarding the damaged GPS, I decided to get a new one, as using the iPhone is working, but it is very exposed out there on the handlebars and if it rains or bounces out of the mount I am screwed. I went online to the AdvRider Community for advice, and got some responses, very helpful, regarding finding a motorcycle GPS while in Europe.

I went shopping in Aix at Carrefour and FNAC - wasted the morning as the retail stores do not have this specialized gear, and FNAC was closed anyway because it was a French national holiday!

I decided to wait until I get near Spain, and head into the shopping country/city that is Andorra, a tax free haven to see if I could find a Zumo 660 GPS.

Later, I stopped into Aix Centro and had a cafe Au Lait at a sidewalk place in town (Euro 10!) and then got on the road headed towards the Spanish border. It was a grueling ride to Perpignon, France, past some not so scenic areas. In one area between Narbonne and Perpignon there were prostitutes sitting in lawn chairs along the road, waiting patiently for customers to ride in. Such is the state of the economy in this part of the country. I fear unemployment and outright poverty is much worse than I feared.

On this part of the trip I am using motels in a chain called Formula 1, an Accor subsidiary (they own Motel 6 in the US). The rooms are basic, and the shower and toilet are shared in the hall. The rooms are air conditioned, bullet proof, and very functional. Nice an quiet, and free internet. In order to keep prices down, the motels are located in industrial areas. Sometimes this is scary, as the neighborhoods are dodgy, and the only food is kebab and pizza, but it all worked out for me, and I slept well.

After camping in a tent and sleeping bag it is good to have a bed, but the campsites have been quite spectacular for the most part. The higher end hotels are luxurious, but expensive and at $80+ Euros per night the budget will not tolerate too many of these. The campsites are averaging $13 Euros. Food is expensive (Average Euro 5 Breakfast, Euro 10 Lunch and Euro 20 Dinner) Fuel for the bike is very expensive, but I am only using one tank per day, spending maybe $50US, as I am getting 45 mpg, and only driving 200-300 miles per day.

After Perpignon, I decided to go for Andorra and get a new GPS, and after a long ride, I crossed the "border" and entered this shopping zone. Luck held, and I soon saw a motorcycle accessory store. I was able to buy both a new face shield for my Shoei helmet, which was scratched in my cow shit slip incident in France, and a new Garmin Zumo 660 GPS for about Euro 529, or USD$ 689. This blows my budget, but living without a real GPS seems like trouble for such a big trip. I will get the Zumo 550 repaired by Garmin, maybe post it too them so I don't have to carry it all over Europe (another USD $150 for out of warranty repair).

After the motorcycle store, Andorra developed into a huge city of stores, restaurants and traffic. I stopped at a McD's for lunch and planned to head into the Pyrenees, but the weather started to close in and I was tired, so I took a room at an IBIS hotel just out of town, in a complex that included a luxury car dealership, but no restaurant! The hotel was clean and efficient, but expensive. I was able to get a Paella in the bar, but it was chicken wings over rice and not so great. My low end restaurant experiences have not been encouraging so far.