It rains most of the way to Servian. We stop at a couple of “rest stops” where there is gas, food and a grassy area for the dogs. At our first stop, I cannot figure out how to get the car in reverse! Of course the manual is in French and is little help especially in a desperate situation. I have no idea how I thought about this but the secret is to pull up a plastic ring on the top of the covering on the stick shift and put it in gear as noted on the stick shift knob. Hooray, I did it. We are not stuck forever at the rest stop!
The Michelin directions to Servian have us taking a one-lane, rural, dirt road into the little town. Not sure why or how that happened but it’s disconcerting. We are driving back and forth in the town trying to find our address. (It does not help that Howard mistakes the town code [like a zip code] for the address). He finally suggests that we park along the road we have passed many times and look for the address on foot. He takes off to look more closely while I leash-up the dogs and walk towards him. As he asks a lady on the street for directions, I look up ahead and see the image of the house clear as day. At the same time the lady is pointing out the address. We are home!
Boy, there are a lot of stairs! My arthritic knees are going to get a workout. It will probably be good for me to work and strengthen those muscles. The first floor of the house is the garage. Then you take a flight of stairs to the second story terrace and our front door. On the second story is an open concept kitchen, living room and dining room. There are also 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. The third story has 2 bedrooms and a bath along with a huge family room with an attached bathroom.
You exit to the back garden
on the second story terrace. There is another flight of stairs down to a first floor terrace with a nice BBQ and the garden. There are small fruit trees in the garden and the 2 terraces–not sure we’ll get much fruit because they are pretty small. But the little fig tree in the garden has fruit so maybe we’ll enjoy fig tarts before we leave. I watered everything thoroughly.
I need to get to the grocery store! All the cupboards are bare. I ask for directions from a man on the street. He says “tout droit” which means “straight ahead.” But I confuse the word “tout” with the word “trop” meaning “too much.” So I think he was saying the market is too far. The 3rd time he said “tout droit” I got it!!!! Maybe there is hope for me. Courage, Christine!
I bought easy rotisserie chicken, pasta with arugula pesto and zucchini. Cookies for dessert. And of course wine. We sleep a wonderful sleep in a small double bed with the 3 dogs. Don’t these French people know about king-size beds??!!