I wanted some change in my life, so I started to consider of having a some kind of job. That´s why last week I flew to Lapland, to Levi, to see if I could find there something. I could, but not before summer. Then I got an invitation from France to come to an old farmhouse to help in gardening, repair and swimming pool maintenance.
I decided to accept that offer, it is not every day you get an invitation like that! The only problem was that the house was in the middle of countryside, no bus or train nearby. That´s why I had to drive there by car. AND SO I DID. I forgot to put the meter on in my car, but I guess I drove between two or three thousand kilometers in five days.
First of March I changed summer tires to my car and Friday the 3rd of March I drove to Turku and while waiting to get into Viking Grace I had the first problem, My cars drivers side window was suddenly stuck, so that it had stopped half way and did not move up or down. How could I drive to France with window open? I asked two young guys, who were waiting in the same line in front of their car to come and try to pull the window up. They tried, but the window did not move. I started to be a little worried, but I kept on pushing the window switcher, and suddenly it moved and went up. Since then have I not touched it, because I`m afraid it would get stuck again. Happy about the window I drove my old Audi to the ship and sailed to Sweden.
In Stockholm next morning at 6.30 I started driving to the south. There were still some snow in the Stockholm area, so I was a little worried, but fortunately there was not snow or ice on the roads, only water, roads were black, but not dry. When I passed the big lake of Vettern and Jönköping there were not anymore any snow to be seen. I arrived in Helsingborg after about 6 hours drive at about one o`clock local time. I had reserved a room in Nyckelbo vandrarhemmet, because it was only 44€.
The next morning I tried to catch the 6.00AM ferry to Denmark, but I got lost and had to use the gps in my phone to find out the right way to the ferry. So I had to wait for the next ferry at 6.30. It took only about half an hour for the ferry to sail over to Helsingör. When I bought the ferry ticket, I bought same time a ticket for Stora Belten, a long bridge on the way to Germany, they were together about 800 Swedish crowns. It was beautiful to drive in Denmark, the roads were in excellent condition and it was really a joy to drive there and listen to good music from the radio. I took the fuel tank full before the German border and the price was about the same as in Finland. After about 6 hours I arrived in Germany and found in the internet a Hotel Engel in the northern outskirts of Hamburg for 81€ with the breakfast, the best breakfast on this trip.
The next morning was Monday morning, and near the hotel was Audi Hamburg, and I tried to get a reserve part to my old car, but they did not had it, maybe next day, so I just continued my journey.
One of my Facebook friends live in Luxembourg, so I decided to drive that way. There were lots of road works in the autobana and it kept on raining almost the whole day. I started from Hamburg quite late, about 9.30 and I arrived in Luxembourg at just the rush hour of about four. I realized soon that it was a mistake to come to the city center at this hour. I tried to find my friends telephone number from the Facebook, but she did not have it there. So when it started to be dark at six, I thought that I have to find a hotel, and preferable out of town, near the highway to Lyon. I found one with the help of my phone, so I started driving there, but before I got there I was lost a couple of times. But finally I arrived to Ibis Luxembourg. It was not a good choice, expensive and the quality was not good.
The next morning I started early a long journey to the South of France. I passed Nancy and Dijon and all the time after short intervals there were works on the road A31 and the other line was closed. And it was also raining almost all the time, the water was like a fog and you did dot see very far when you were passing the trucks at 140 km/h and there were big trucks all the time, just when you had passed one rhere were many new ones in front of you. I had to go to a some restaurant toilet for a pee after about 3-4 hour intervals, because I have a chronic prostate inflammation. There are many toll roads in France and I think it was in Dijon I started to drive the first one. You just push a button and take a ticket from the machine and you get the access to the road. You have to keep the ticket on hand, for at the end of the toll road you need it to be able to pay and get out of the restricted area. It was about 30€ I had to pay for Dijon-Lyon. In Lyon I was lost again, I tried to avoid going to Lyon and tried to go directly to A89 that goes to Bordeaux, but soon I noticed that I was in Lyon, and only with the help of my phone`s gps I found the right way to the Bordeaux road, which was also a toll road. If you see a sign that starts with "Aire" in French, it means that you can drive there to rest or tank your car or tank yourself in a restaurant ( and use the toilet). The use of the toilet was usually free, but I remember that somewhere in Germany they charged 50 or 70 cents, in one place even one euro. So it is good to have some coins in your pocket. In Brive-la-Gaillarde I turned to the south towards Toulouse and left the A89 after paying about 15€. The new road was again a toll road. Then I noticed that it will be dark soon and I realized that I cannot drive to my destination before that, and as I hate driving at night and as I had been driving today already almost 12 hours, I let the google in my phone to find a hotel. So I ended in B&B Hotel Montauban, in a town that had the same name. Very nice hotel with lots of parking places. And they had number locks in all the rooms and with your number you could also open the hotel`s main door in the night. The room was only 57,80€ with a good breakfast. And I have to say that I am amazed by the performance of my 25 year old Audi, it was going like an angel, so smooth at 130-140 km/h like a new. I think that for a many man a good car is as important as a good horse used to be a century ago for a cowboy or a cavallero!
The next morning I decided to rest a little and I started first at noon to drive the small country roads to my destination (not destiny, but who knows). Because it happened to be an International Women`s Day I bought an orchid to my hostess, Rosemary.
Rosemary, who has an American, British and Swiss passport, had a Finnish maid, Heidi, whom she liked very much, but Heidi moved to London just one day before I arrived, I think I have to thank her for the reason Rosemary chose me to her gardener.
She owns this old French farmhouse property from 1750 called CANTAU. The area of the property is 2 hectares and consists of main building, one separate old building and 3 new holiday villas, in French called "gites". She rents the separate house and the gites on weekly, monthly and yearly base. The gites are different, the first has 3 bedrooms, 2 toilets, the second has 2 bedrooms, 2 toilets, and the third just one of each. The region is Occitanie, departement Gers, arrondissement Condom and canton Grand-Bas-Armagnac. The nearest big city is Bordeaux, nearest town Nogaro (population about 3000) and nearest village Estang (pop. about 600), which is only a few kilometers away. There are lots of wine and armagnac houses and chateaus in this region! And it was once a part of the historical province of Gascogne and the home of D`Artagnan, the hero of Alexander Dumas Three Musketeers.
If you are interested to rent a "gite" here, please, contact me by Messenger, e-mail or phone!
PS. Rosemary is going to sell this property during next year. Her children live in Houston, Texas and New York, and her brother in Miami, where she wants to move. So if you are interested, come and have a look!
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