The Little Things In Life: Project WWWT Day 26 of 72- Provence, France

13th June 2017

Booked a car today and going to pick it up from Gare de Nice. The car was booked from EasyCar and it shows that I will be getting a Mini Cooper manual transmission or something similar. Was about to give the missus a surprise as she would like to try a Mini for the longest time since the new model hits the market. Once I am done with the paperworks and procedures, the lady attendant told me that she has given me an upgrade and passed me a key for a Volkswagon Polo. I was surprised as I knew that a VW Polo is not in the same class as a Mini Cooper, which I promptly told her and she replied on the affirmative that it is not in the same class and that my booking was for a compact car CDRW. So I called the helpdesk of EasyCar and told them the problem. To cut the story short, I did not get the Mini and decided to report this instead of wasting time at the Car Rental station to argue with the attendant.

So we are off to Provence! Our itinerary was to stop by at Castellane, Moustiers Sainte Marie, Valensole and Forcalquier. We took the mountain roads and the view is truly breath-taking! The toll from Nice to the mountain road is only a mere €0.70. The journey to Castellane took a little more than 2 hours but if you stopped in between for photos, it will take longer than that. It is hard to resist. Did I mention the road is winding? The mountain road is very winding! My eldest threw up at a a local town that we passed by... Andon? Can't really remember and not many photos as we are all kinda dizzy from the winding road. Travellers with young children, please rent a more comfortable car and drive slowly.

Castellane is beautiful! It is a quaint little town right beside the Verdon River. On the top of the hill, you will see the Chapelle Notre Dame du Roc. We didn't went up there. Just some quick shots and a short restroom break

We then make our way to Moustiers Sainte Marie. In between, the youngest boy threw up! By this time, the car was smelling like a vomit box. The missus is also feeling very giddy and vomitted twice! At this stage, it is a no-brainer to choose between heading to the next POI and heading straight to our hotel for the evening. In order to reach our hotel, we still need to drive a further 1.5 ¬ 2 hours! We managed to pass by the lavender field in Provence but the party was in no condition to take any photos already. My MIL was the sole survivor of the arduos trip. Hats off to her!

ADVICE: If you plan to go to Provence for the lavender, take the Express highway towards Provence instead of the scenic mountain road. Spare yourself the agony. We did this route on our way back to Nice.

When we reach our accomodation, it looked quite shaddy. I know it is a budget hotel as I was intending for this accommodation to pass the evening, but this place looked more like a motel than a hotel. The swimming pool is not working, the rooms looked like those in Malaysia in the 70s. The missus also saw a used condom while checking out the hotel compound! In short, I would not recommend this place to any of my friends and readers. Period. However, I would recommend the restaurant beside this hotel which is the bomb! It is called La Criee and they served wild caught fishes on their menu (except the salmon)! They are also known for their mussels. Despite the awful journey we had, we are glad that we found this restaurant to comfort us at the end of it. What a redemption!! The missus ordered a seabass, my MIL ordered the skates, I ordered the mussels ala creme and the kids, chicken schnitzel and fried calamari. The meal was so good, the missus still misses the seabass!

That's so much for this long and arduos day. The day after, Cannes!

Some photos of the day are shown below.